Suffer-o-rama

I raced the Everest Challenge last weekend. This year I wanted to see what it was like to race with the leaders, and I was hoping for a better placing, so I raced in the 4s instead of the 45s.

On the first day I hung with the lead group of 8 til a bit past halfway up the first 6000′ climb. Then I had to back off a bit to save something. They were pretty close for the next 3000′ climb, but on the flat section before the last 6000′ climb my stomach was feeling really bad. I ate, drank, took more electrolytes, but nothing worked. By the first feed zone up the last climb I was in really bad shape. I stopped and got a feed from Laura, then tried to go on, but I just felt too bad. I didn’t think I could make it to the next feed, let alone to the top. So I turned around and pulled out of the race. I got a ride back to the motel, puked and took a nap, then started eating.

The way the EC works you can race the second day even if you DNFd the first… you just aren’t competing for the overall so you’re not really in the race. I felt better in the morning and rode well on the second day. I think I finished 9th and was closing in on some of the lead eight. My time was about 17 minutes faster than last year. I’m pleased with that but bummed about not finishing the race.

If I’d finished both days, I would probably have placed better in the 45s than in the 4s. I didn’t like being a group all that much, so I will probably go back to the 45s next year… then they’ll go back to being faster than the 4s again.

Gory Race Details-

The group was really mellow on the first day’s neutral rollout. We even stopped to pee. I used it as an opportunity to get near the front. After the neutral rollout we still went slow. When the climb started there was a stiff headwind coming down the slope, so no one wanted to be on the front. I pulled for a while when we were in the lee of a cliff but for the rest I sat second to fourth wheel. Every once in a while someone would go to the front and go fast, everyone would get on his wheel, then he’d realize that he was doing more work then he needed to and would stop pedaling. Then we’d all have to swerve to the side to avoid hitting the rider in front. The speed up, slow down was kind of annoying and let the weaker riders keep up, so we were still a large group by the time we hit the top of the small descent about half way up. I’ve never been with the lead group by this point so I really wanted to hang in. I was fifth wheel at the top. As we started down there was a car a ways in front of us. It braked hard for a turn so I thought that the turn was sharper than it really was, so I braked harder than I needed to and left a small gap. Once we got back on the climb it looked like the riders in front would take off, so I worked hard to close the gap. I got back on just in time for them to turn it off and slow again, which let everyone else back on too. That was a waste of effort.

Near the top of the first half of the climb, where you ride on highway 395 for a mile, one guy (Matthew Younkins- Racing Greyhounds) rolled off the front. I was second and didn’t feel like chasing, and no one else did either as no one came around. The guy next to me said “he’ll be doing that all day. It’s what he did at Challenge last weekend.” “Can he hold it?” I asked. “Nope” was the reply. Reading his race report after the race, it sounds like he was caught later on the first descent. On the descent I worked with a couple guys from another field but they both got away from me on the short flat part before the second. The second climb I did at my own pace, passing riders from other races.

On the 10 mile flat part before the last climb I was feeling bad. I got caught by another 4- Alex Lugosch, Bike Nut (a shop in SF)- but I was too busy fishing electrolytes out of my jersey pocket to get on his wheel to work with him. I was feeling bloated and my mouth was dry like I was dehydrated.

We had a small mix up on the feeding- I’d expected Laura to be at the start, and was out of water when I got there, but she wasn’t there. I had to stop and beg for a fill from someone else’s support. The wind was about 20 mph so the next five miles up a very gradual grade before the real climbing begins was a miserable slog.

Once on the real climb I was in trouble. I was getting caught by riders instead of catching them. A couple from my field passed me and I felt too bad to race so I just let them go by. A couple public or tourist class riders I caught wanted to talk, but I felt too bad to be able to say anything.

Laura was at the next feed zone, which was up the climb a ways. I stopped and asked for different food than she had, so she had to run over to the van for it. I didn’t care about lost time at this point. I shoved down a rice cake and ate some other food but it didn’t do any good. I tried to keep going but I was riding at about 4 mph and feeling really bad. After a half mile or so I turned around and went back to the feed zone. Michael had already abandoned and was sitting there looking dejected. We loaded my bike up in his car, and he took me and another cat 4 who was abandoning back to the start and into town. I don’t normally get car sickness but I was really concerned about puking in the back of the car.

When I got to the motel room I did puke but there wasn’t anything coming up. I took a nap, then ate something. Then I ate some more. Some of us went out for pizza, which went down well, and then I ate some more when I got back to the motel room.

On the second day I was feeling back to normal. The race started slow again and started pretty slow up the first climb. I was bored. Lugosch (Bike Nut) did a slow-mo attack and the guys on the front (all from the previous day’s group of eight) loudly said “dont’ worry about him, he’s not going anywhere”. And he didn’t, dangling out there for a while before coming back in line. Then Younkins put in an actual attack and was ignored. Maybe 10 minutes later someone else made a move, and then Chance Whittacker (Swamis), who’d been one of the main drivers the day before, went to bridge and a lead group of 11 or so went off. I let them go as I was on the “riding my own pace” plan.

On the descent I managed to catch Lugosch and another guy near the bottom. We worked together on the flat part before the second climb. They told me they were 10th and 11th on the road, and I told them that I hadn’t finished the first day and was thus not a factor in the race. They stuck with me for a while on the next climb but dropped off the pace. Farther up I caught a Platinum rider who said we were 9th and 10th. I told him that I hadn’t finished the day before but he still wanted to race me. He wound up a ways ahead of me at the turn around, and I had to stop to refill my bottle of HEED (most of the turnarounds were not handing out bottles like last year). But I went fast down the descent and caught and then dropped the Platimum rider. I was pretty happy with that as I have had a problem with descending in this race before- in the past its been me that’s been dropped on the descent.

On the last climb I was trying to catch some of the leading 8 riders. A couple times I thought I saw them, only to find out it was someone else when I caught up. But Kevin finished just a bit in front of me and said he’d passed a couple fours right before the finish, so I was close to some of them.

As far as why I got sick-

I heard there were a number of people puking on the side of the road and/or pulling out near the end. One of my teammates had really bad food poisoning. I don’t know for sure if it was the cause but I will avoid the pre-race pasta feed next year.

The pasta feed was supposed to be vegetarian (I have been vegetarian for the last 20 years). The organizer told me they would have veg pasta and sauce. So when I went up to get some and saw they had pasta and sauce in one tray, and meat in another, I assumed they did the usual thing of making veg food and having meat to add to it. Perhaps I am too used to the Bay Area…. I got some pasta and started chowing down, only to find a piece of meat. I thought it had fallen in, so I gave it to Laura and kept eating. Found another one and only then started asking other people at the table if theirs had meat in it.

It turns out that the vegetarians were supposed to ask in the kitchen for the veg version (plain sauce on pasta). I don’t think that eating a little meat would have made a 20 year vegetarian sick- I am sure I have gotten occasional meat molecules during that time- but it can’t have helped. Laura’s theory was that it was the salad, but she’s not sure of that either.

Unfortunately for me, low electrolytes, low blood sugar and being dehydrated all make me feel ill in the same way, so they’re all also a possibility. But it looks like I consumed most of my electrolyte pills, I think I ate enough, and I had plenty of water. Nothing’s sticking out as the obvious cause.

I did use HEED with added Sustained Energy for some of my calories. I’ve used that in training for the first bottle of the day but I was using it for all my bottles this time. I was getting sick of the taste of SE, so I won’t do that again. And I was depending more on Hammer Gel than I normally do. So I kind of broke the rule of never doing something new in a race. I have used both of those in training many times without a problem, just not to the same extent as I did in the race. I was trying to avoid using Clif bars since the last couple years I have gotten really sick of them by the end.

On the second day I went back to plain HEED and Clif bars plus home-made rice cakes, and that worked fine.

I wound up with a sore throat/cold starting Sunday night that’s still going now, so there were plenty of germs to go around.

I added up what I remember eating, and it looks like I ate quite a bit on day 1, especially the second climb… like 550 calories/hr. Supposedly more than 300 cal/hr makes you ill, although I have never had problems from eating too much, only too little. So maybe that was it.

ericm Everest Challenge, races

Race reports and pictures from the internets:

Greg Remaly
Cara Gillis
Franz Kelsch
Steve Weixel’s day 1 and day 2
Scott Thor’s day 1 and day 2
Kyle Bannerjee
Brandy DeLuca
Michael Grundmann (teammate in the Cat 3 race)

Kim Weixel’s pics: day 1 and day 2
Nathan Parks’ photos
Laura’s pics

ericm Everest Challenge

2008 Everest Challenge, also known as the “Eatathon 175″

Stats:

• 2 days
• 175 miles
• 29,035 feet of climbing
• 9 Clif bars
• 10 bottles of HEED
• 8 gels
• 3 Recoverites
• 3 finish line burritos
• 2 stacks of pancakes
• 4 eggs
• 1 large spinach lasagna
• most of a large pizza
• 2 salads

My challenge on these long races is getting enough food. Even with the intake listed above (and assorted snacks), and followed by the largest veggie burrito I have ever seen, I still lost about 2 lbs. I am making it up this week however, with actual beer! on a weeknight!

Anyhow, on to the story.

The plan this year was to ride with the master 45s, the big boys. (If you are not up on bike racing categorization, there are some age categories but also experience/ability categories. Those start with Cat 5, for beginner racers, and at the top are Cat 1s and Pros. Open Master 45s means that I, a lowly Cat 4, am riding with Cat 1,2,3 guys- much better racers).

Webcor/AltoVelo had four guys in the M45s- Kevin K, Bryan, Jamie and myself. During the neutral roll-out I found myself stuck near the back and had to put out a little effort to move up to the front where my smarter teammates were. On the way I found myself next to Chris from the KOM series- he’s a 35+ but was late to the start so he left with the 45s.

When we got to the end of the neutral zone it seemed like no one really wanted to work (unlike the 4/5s which usually get here and explode in an ugly mess of pent-up energy). Kevin went to the front and set a good tempo across the remaining flat and up the first climb for quite a ways. The known top guys were sitting right on his wheel. I even thought about attacking then but I knew it would be stupid. Kevin finally peeled off and last years winner, Mark Schaefer (PaulTracy.com) took over. The pace went a little higher but I was still hanging in. Kevin dropped back and not long after I decided I’d better back off too. A group of about 10 including Bryan gradually got away. Kevin and I worked together for the first climb (about 2 hours) shedding a few who tried to ride with us.

I had been concerned about being able to stick with Kevin on the descents but I had no problem. I have had problems getting dropped on descents in this race before. Maybe it was the aero wheels (deep Reynolds carbon clincher rims) or just being more aggressive about accelerating to get onto wheels. We worked with another guy who seemed to know the turns well but we could still catch up to him when needed.

On the second climb Kevin was still setting a good pace. About halfway up I started having problems sticking with him. I really wanted to hang with him on the descent and then work with him on the 10 miles of flat before the last climb, but it was not to be. I let a gap form and just couldn’t close it.

Near the top the leaders were coming down after turning around. I watched my computer after the first two went by together so I could give Bryan the time gap on them (about a minute). We were up among the M35s and public racers so it was hard to tell exactly how many from my race were ahead, but since I hadn’t caught anyone from my race and had been caught and dropped by one guy I knew there was about 8 or 9 up there.

I rode the flat 10 miles on my own but at a decent pace, catching more public racers.

The last climb is a beast with a long section of 8 or 9% and a series of 15%+ ramps at the end. I caught a pro near the bottom, probably the only time I will be passing a pro racer who is half my age. Farther on I caught one from my race who sat on my wheel, and another guy caught both of us. When we got to the long 8% part Laura was on the side of the road waiting to feed me, so I told the guys that I wanted to move to the right to take a feed. I’d thought about attacking them there but wanted to wait until I’d gotten my feed, but when I looked back I had a good gap so I grabbed a bottle from Laura and kept going. A couple miles up I looked back and one Team Fremont guy was still in sight. Right about then I started getting that crampy feeling in my legs. Then my left quad cramped up hard. Ow! That’s never happened before. I kept pedaling but with a lot less force, and the cramp gradually worked out. But now my legs felt really bad. I knew how steep the finishing climbs were and I had a vision of standing up for them, then cramping, falling over, and laying there flopping around like a bug that’s been turned on its back.

Thinking about that had me going slower. To be honest, I felt pretty bad. Getting to the less steep false flat section before the finishing ramps made me feel worse- the change in tempo was hard for my legs, and the false flat looked like something I should be going faster on than I was.

I kept checking back and on the longer straights I could still see Fremont back there. I ate some more Endurolytes and hoped that going a little slower would let me rest up enough so I could make it up the ramps.

Getting close to the ramps I spotted a Webcor. It was Bryan, looking slow and visibly unhappy. I almost caught him when I got the first ramp. Fremont was back. I had nothing- I was worried about simply making it up. I had nothing left to race with. I congratulated him on coming back. He passed me and then Bryan, who went faster on the steep ramps. I managed to finish 10th, about 2 minutes back of Fremont (8th) and 1:30 back of Bryan (9th). My time was 7:14, which was a little faster than I’d predicted (7:20). Kevin finished best Webcor (6th, 6 minutes up on me).

It took a while to get back to the van and gather everyone up. I could have been better about refueling both myself and my teammates- I forgot about the big box of Recoverite I’d brought for everyone.

At the motel I tried to nap, couldn’t. Walking down the stairs to go to dinner hurt, a lot. That’s not a good sign. I had more than usual of the “pursuiters’ cough” too. At least the lasagna was good.

Second day:

Went to breakfast way early. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant but a few fishermen and some bike racers. One guy, obviously a racer from the thinness of his face, came in and sat in the booth behind us, facing me. When I got up I must have groaned, because he laughed. I laughed too. It’s a laugh of shared stupidity… why are we doing this again?

I didn’t get much of a warm-up. While riding around aimlessly one of the guys that Kevin and I shed on the first climb yesterday came up and complained about Kevin “attacking” him. I told the guy that’s how Kevin rides, he was just going fast, but the guy insisted that he was willing to work with us but Kevin attacked him. Whatever. I also talked to Bill Brier, the Team Fremont guy who caught and dropped me the day before. He said that he rode in the Public class the year before(!). Looking at his results he’s done pretty well this year.

The group was pretty casual about the start, I had no problem staying up at the front as no one wanted to pull even at 18 mph. As soon as we get out of town the fast guys assembled at the front. My legs were NOT WORKING. Crap. I let them go, figuring that I’ll warm and loosen up eventually and something will happen. Brier came by on his way up to the group. He caught them and then I could see Jamie hanging in, then dropping off.

Eventually I felt a little better and caught up to another straggler in Sho-Air kit. My legs seemed to work ok when I stood but when I sat I was not making much power, so I would go slower. I caught Sho-Air during one of my standing surges. He and I did the whole climb together, mostly in silence. Stand up, speed up; sit down, slow down. He didn’t seem to mind my erratic speed. Near the top I started thinking that I recognized him from the 4/5 field a couple years ago so I asked if he raced it. He told me that he normally rides 4/5 but did M45s this year even though there’s a lot of fast guys in it. As soon as he said that one of those fast guys came by- an Eastside Velo rider who also passed me on the second climb on day 1. Sho-Air sprinted to get his wheel and they took off. I swear I saw them shake hands but I don’t know what sort of deal they just struck.

Not long after we reached the turnaround. I had been trying to catch up so I could draft them on the descent but I was about 20 feet back. Eastside cruises around the cone while I slowed to take on water and HEED. (the feeders this year were WAY better than last year- no one yanked back a bottle as I was grabbing for it, they had water and HEED separate and they fed on both sides of the cone so if you missed on the way up you had a second chance).

Sho-Air said “hey guys, I need water, wait up” and went to stop for water. I wasn’t going to wait, I started jamming for the steep part. I expected Sho-Air to catch me but he never did.

On the three miles of flat between the first and second climbs a couple Cat 4s caught and passed me. Then a small group of them. I can see them catch the two escapees, and the group slows down to just about my pace.

As we started the second climb a couple M45s caught me. I hadn’t seen these guys before, they are new. They didn’t want to pull though. I slowed down a bit wanting to conserve for the vicious final climb. I mostly conserved by not standing as often; I still lacked power when seated. The guys on my wheel didn’t seem to mind the slow erratic pace. It’s not long before I realized that we have a slight tailwind so there is no penalty to pulling up the climb. I think maybe if I pull we’ll stick together and I can draft with them on the descent.

After a while some more Cat 4s came up. I could still see the group of them up the road, they were not pulling away. The guy pulling this chase group gets next to me and says “Are you Eric?” When I own up to it, he says “I read your blog. Great stuff!” which is just about the last thing I expect to hear in the middle of a race. Ok, I started this blog partly with an eye for accumulating a bunch of Everest Challenge info so obsessed people like me who are searching for it on the internet can find it, but it’s mostly to give me an excuse to write and to keep my friends up to date on my racing (the few who are interested in it that is). I don’t really expect anyone to be reading it.

I tried to give mr blog reader (I forgot which team he was from, sorry) some intel on the group of 4s up the road, which was probably superfluous since he could see them on the longer straights too. He was pulling at a nice clip which I didn’t think I could match if I wanted to sit down or finish the race, so I let them go too. My new M45 friends were still on my wheel though.

We passed Laura, I declined a feed knowing that she was short on bottles and with the race feeders doing well at the tops of climbs it was a better strategy to get bottles from them anyhow. As I passed I asked how far up Jamie is, Laura said a “little bit”. I asked how long that is (we’re going about 8 mph, plenty of time to talk) and she said a couple minutes. One of the guys behind me said that he prefers to not know how far it is. Now that the ice was broken, they thanked me for pulling and I told them that it’s only because we have a tailwind.

However it still must have counted for something in their eyes because we worked together well on the descent. Each of us in turn would get the draft of the leader, slingshot past in a tuck, then as we slowed in the wind the next guy would take over. Doing this is faster than going solo. Even better, it let me sit up and rest my back for a moment in the leader’s draft before taking over. That’s much easier on the back than trying to stay in a tuck for the whole 20 minutes.

Back at the bottom we passed the cars again. The other guys stopped at their cars. I had full bottles and Laura up the road to give me food so I started up the final 6000′ climb. I put on some speed now, both to get rid of the chasers I knew were behind and to try to catch someone from my race.

The last climb has some really horrific parts. The bottom half is about 9% with little rollers that are even steeper. I felt pretty good on this part- I was standing for much of it, and going at a decent pace. I could see Jamie up the road a couple minutes. I caught some other guys but no one in my race. After what seemed like a long time (probably because it was a long time; this climb takes over 2 hours) a guy caught me. He just sat in though, so I finally turned around and asked which race he was in. “Public” was the reply. “Good”, I said, “that means I don’t have to race you”. Mr Public sat on my wheel for the remainder of the first part of the climb. There’s a couple mile flat section between the two halves, and when I got on it the change in pace completely shattered my legs. Seated, I could do a heart rate of only 120 or so. Mr Public went around and took a pull but I couldn’t even stay on his wheel. I could see him looking back in his mirror and waiting for me, so I waved him on.

At this point I really wanted to stop. Many people in this race want to quit at least once, but last year I didn’t. I was dismayed that I would consider throwing in the towel this time. But passing Laura on the road, even though I didn’t need anything from her, cheered me up just enough. The caffeiniated gel helped too.

We started up the final section. Mr Public stopped to pee. I passed the 10k to go sign. Normally in a race having only 6.2 miles left means that you will be done very soon, but these are special extra hard miles. There is about 3000′ of climbing but a good two miles are flat. That means that the rest is very steep.

I was using lower gears this time than I did on the same climb in last years race. My legs were really fried. I got to that turn that means I am going to finish but instead of last years elation, I just felt disappointed. I’d caught a few riders but none in my race. In fact I had hardly caught any M45s the whole race, unlike the last two years where there was almost always someone in my race to catch. Near the top with 1k to go I finally spotted a M45. With 400m to go I sprinted by to make sure he wouldn’t get my wheel, and then tried to hold it to the line.

At the finish line feed they had a bunch of food. I ate three burritos. Maybe I wasn’t eating enough during the race? In any case by the end I was sick of sports drink and bars and wanted real food.

My overall time was 12:49, which was a little under the 13 hours I had predicted. But it was only good for 12th place so I am a bit disappointed there. Kevin wound up with 5th and third in the California Climbers championship (the top two guys being from Utah). Bryan felt much better, did a great job helping Kevin out, and then went on his own at the end and almost made up all the time he’d lost on Kevin the day before. He wound up 6th. Jamie rode smart- conservative on day 1, finishing behind me, and faster on day 2, for an overall time 12 seconds faster than mine and 11th place.

ericm Everest Challenge, Food, races

Latest Cycling News for September 27, 2007
Epic Everest Challenge

The Everest Challenge is an annual, grueling event in Southern California, and features 8,850 metres of climbing–the unofficial height of Mount Everest, as the Nepalese government is still holding on to the 8,848-metre measurement obtained in the 1950’s. This past weekend almost 200 brave riders in all categories, including tandems, went to Bishop in California and prayed they would survive the two-day event.

If the climbing wasn’t enough then the weather did its best to finish off the competitors. Rain, snow, hail and highs that were barely above freezing on the climbs softened even the toughest guys. Interestingly enough, the completion rate was higher than usual. The low snow level meant a slight rearrangement of the usual course, but unfortunately for the riders it didn’t really get any easier.

Former winners Lindsay Blount and Chris Walker of Santa Barbara, California, were in attendance again and lit up the mountains with their aggressive racing. Walker has completed every single one of the seven Everest Challenges offered so far and still holds the course record with 10h17′59″

But anybody who finished this tough event can consider themselves winners, especially in adverse conditions like this year. It’s one of those rare adventures left in our modern world.

ericm Everest Challenge, races

Jonathan Eropkin’s pics Day 1 and Day 2
Steve Weixel race reports: Day 1 and Day 2.
His wife Kimberly’s photos: Day 1 and Day 2
Gary Douville race report
Marco Fanelli race report
Everestchallenge29k’s photos:Day 1 and Day 2
Doug Jansen (who came all the way from New Hampshire):race report
(added 10/31/07):
Matt Freeman race report
Trevor Walton race report
Kyle Banerjee ride report
(added 12/7/07):

Giana Roberge (women’s P1/2 winner) Day 1 and Day 2
J.P. Partland’s race report

Race reports from teamates:
Rupert Brauch
George Smith

ericm Everest Challenge, races

Near the finish of day 1. It’s not snowing yet but it’s going to soon.

I’m almost done on day 1. “Where’s the $@*& finish?”

Sunrise on day 2. Pretty, and cold.

Getting ready to start on day 2:

ericm Everest Challenge, races

2007 Everest Challenge

The Everest Challenge is a two day race with 29,035 feet of climbing. It is billed as the hardest two-day USCF race. The climbs are epic and brutal- six climbs including three 5000-6000 foot trips to over 10,000 feet and significant amounts of 15%+ grades. The weather is usually both hot and cold- cold in the mornings, hot in the valleys at mid day, and cold on the mountain tops.
This year a freak cold front and early storm made the race even harder. They had to reroute some of it because there was too much snow on the roads. That made the first day easier but they made up for it by adding more climbing on the second day.

I talked some teamates into doing the race (I didn’t try to, it was just my enthusiasm for it that got them interested). So the regular Webcor/AV guys from the Chain Reaction ride- George, Karl, and Kevin- were all racing master 45. Plus a couple other guys from my team were doing it. Rupert’s done well in the 3s before. Larry in the 55s and Jason in the 4/5s were doing it for the first time.

Best of all, Josh had signed up but decided he wasn’t fit enough only after making plans to stay with friends in Bishop. He volunteered to drive support, which, since he knows the roads well, was really huge.

At the start no one was interested in going hard. We rode the neutral 8 miles at a nice relaxed pace. I sat at the back and chatted with people. Guys pulled off to pee. As we got to the turn that marks the end of the neutral zone I moved up to be ready for the massive surge that was to come, but it wasn’t that bad. The cold and wet kept everyone mellow.

That ended when we started up the climb. The pace ratcheted up over a few minutes. I jetted up from the back to about halfway and caught Jason. There were two groups forming up the road and I wanted us to get into the second one at least, so I motioned for him to get on my wheel. He sat in and I sped up gradually so I wouldn’t drop him. That worked for a while and we got through some stragglers, but then he couldn’t stay with me, so I kept going. I didn’t quite reach the second group but I managed to latch on to a small group as we crested the top of the ’spike’ in the middle of the climb (it’s on the elevation profile- a peak and short descent in the middle of the climb. It looks small on the profile but it’s about a mile descent). We screamed down the hill, being careful on the wet pavement, then started up the rest of the climb.

The first climb was shortened so we turned around at about the halfway point after about 3000 feet of climbing. They had three different scorers getting riders to call out their numbers because everyone had jackets on over their race numbers.

On the descent I got passed by a few riders. I could go fast enough in the turns but they’d just go by on the straight, where I couldn’t do anything. Pedalling didn’t add any speed because I’d have to come out of my tuck to pedal and added drag about equaled my power. This happened for most of the race, and it was annoying.

The next climb was a new one that they added because the road to Mosquito Flat was snowed over. It was kind of nice scenery, very desert. Laura was ready at the bottom and I stopped to get rid of some clothes and grab some bottles. About six riders passed me as I stopped, so I had to work to catch them again on the climb. Near the top George Kevin and Karl came by in a group. Since the race turns around at the top of every climb you can see who is ahead and by how much, although you can’t read race numbers to see who is in your field. But each time the passed me, Karl would yell something as he went by. All the AVers waved or yelled.

On the descent a guy on a Cervelo R3SL passing me said “get on” and I made it. He towed me down about half way. In the draft I could rest instead of pedalling. When we got to a small climb I went to the front and pulled up the hill and into the wind to do my share. We traded pulls on the flat part heading over to the next climb.

At the base of the Pine Creek climb Laura was waiting and I needed to get more fuel and to water the scenery, so I told my riding partner that I’d catch up to him on the climb. I never did.

I’ve done Pine Creek a couple times now and I never can remember what it’s like afterwards. It’s pretty enough, just not memorable. It says something about the difficulty of this event when a steep 3000′ climb is nothing special. I do remember hearing ticking noises that I finally figured out were rocks falling down the giant scree slopes on the left side of the canyon. The snow and rain must have loosened them. As I approached the top I was trying to get with some other riders so I could draft them down the hill and on the 10 mile flat part to the next climb, but that didn’t work out so I ended up solo.

As I started the flat part I spotted a couple guys ahead of me who were sitting up and getting food. I rode hard to catch up, and we worked together. The road was soaked, it must have just rained there, so the spray from the wheels made drafting unpleasant. But then we suddenly crossed onto dry pavement. One of the guys was pretty fried, he kept sticking his tongue out.

After stopping for more food and Heed from Laura, the road tipped up to start the last climb and I re-caught tired guy who I’d worked with on the flat. I told him to get on my wheel but he just mumbled something.

Once on the real climb it started raining again. The bottom part of this climb is a real test of your mental toughness. There’s about 4 miles of straight road at almost the same grade. About halfway through you see an elevation sign marking 5000′, so you know that you have more than 4000′ to go. I could see some riders up ahead with a support car shadowing them. I gradually made my way up to the car, whose driver actually spotted me and moved over a bit. His rider was looking bad, and his illegal shadowing gave me something to be pissed off about for a while. That’s always a good distraction.

Then it started hailing. For a while I pondered how well a bike helmet stands up to hail, but the hail never got very big so it wasn’t a worry, just another distraction.

My plan had been to go hard on the first climb, moderate on the middle climbs, and then do the whole last climb at a good pace and see how many riders I could dispatch. It seemed to work well as I caught a bunch and none could stay with me. I even caught R3SL guy. Having ridden this climb last year made it seem much shorter this time. It sounds stupid to say about a 5000′ climb, but now it doesn’t seem all that bad.

Near the top the elevation started to get to me, and I was getting cold, so I slowed down. The organizers changed the top part to go to a different lake since the original was a little too far into the snow. They also encouraged the support cars to drive up almost all the way to the finish where there was space to park, so they could drive riders back down. When I got near the top I could see Laura and some other people cheering me on. Right beyond them the road forked and there were no arrows marking the way. I tried to yell “which way is the finish?” but my face was so cold it came out all garbled and no one could understand me.
Fortunately I chose the correct fork. The finish was just up the road with a few short steep ramps in the way. There was no finish line, just a woman in a pickup truck and a guy standing outside yelling rider numbers at her. I gave them my number, put on my vest, and rolled back down to the cars.

The M45 Webcor guys were about to leave in Josh’s truck so I had our Eurovan to myself. I laid down in the back and slugged down a protein drink and a recovery drink. My next goal was to recover my energy stores for the next day, which meant eating as much food as I could. I drank another recovery drink during the drive down. It was pretty tough to swallow.

After a shower and nap we went out to dinner with Larry and his wife, and I ate a big plate of pasta. Leaving the motel on the way to dinner another rider was returning from the race. He had that hacking cough that you get from riding really hard (I’d been doing it for a couple hours), so I joked with him about it.

For breakfast the next day, I had an egg and a stack of pancakes. Tired guy from the day before was in the booth next to us, and another racer was behind us. We all talked about the day’s race and I made sure to emphasize the difficulty. A little psychological warfare never hurts.

At the start I signed in and checked out my results from day 1. Sixteenth! My goal of a top-20 finish was in reach. All I had to do was finish and not lose any time…. the four or five riders behind me were only back by 2-5 minutes. If I cracked they’d catch me. But the four ahead were ahead by a similar amount. So maybe I could move up if I did well.

No warmup, it was too cold. I stood around and talked to Jason and some riders I’d ridden with the day before. I was already eating. I felt pretty good considering how hard I’d ridden the day before and how much I’d been coughing after the finish.

The neutral start was mellow even though one idiot went off the front. Everyone else ignored him. My plan was again to sit at the back, go hard on the bottom of the first climb to get a decent position, then ride at tempo. That’s pretty much what happened, although “hard” wasn’t as hard as it was on day 1.

The Glacier Lodge climb is not as long as the big climbs, but it’s a beast. It’s very steep (8% avg, 12% max) with no breaks. I let the fast riders go and rode at my own pace, catching a few people. At the top they had an aid station and people holding out bottles of water and Heed. I wanted to get bottles at the top so I’d have the extra weight to help on the descent and so I wouldn’t have to stop to get bottles from Laura. I got a bottle of water, threw out my Heed bottle, then the women handing out the Heed pulled her hand back just as I got there! I was miffed. I’d worked to get to the top with some other riders, and instead I had to stop and ask for some Heed. Dammit.

I didn’t get to draft those riders on the descent but I managed to catch some other riders. Glacier Lodge has a really scary looking descent. There’s no guard rail and if you go over the edge, even the vultures won’t find you. It freaked me out last year but I ignored it this year and tucked in. I passed a couple other guys who were in the middle of the road. Just when I thought I was doing well someone came by me going about 10 mph faster.

The second climb was extended to make up for not doing enough climbing the first day. About halfway up I caught a guy that’d been just in front of me for miles. He turned out to be in 13th place (he asked first). I wasn’t going well, my HR was down in the 140s and that was all I felt like doing. The other guy also complained that he couldn’t get his HR up. I thought that my problem was low salt and lack of food, so I ate a salt tablet, and when Josh went by I got a bar from him. The other rider was happy to let me pull up the climb, so I made him an offer: I’d pull for the rest of the climb if he pulled on the descent. He mulled it over and then declined. I went back and ate my bar. After a bit I felt better so I went to the front. Then I decided that I wasn’t going to tow this guy up the hill, I was loafing, and I ought to go harder. So I did, and dropped the other guy.

Once I was off I realized that it would be extremely embarassing to get caught so I kept my pace up for the rest of the climb. That guy never did catch me, and I found some guys to work with on the descent anyhow.

I dumped some clothes with Laura at the bottom, and started up the last climb. Since I’d never ridden it, only driven, I didn’t know what it’d be like. Right at the bottom you pass a 4000′ elevation sign. I told the rider I was passing at the time “only 6000 more feet to go!” I love doing that.

The first part was pretty hard… 9% average with dozens of 12% rollers. It’s tough to drive in a car. The weather was finally warm and I was feeling good, but I wasn’t catching anyone. Eventually I spotted some riders way up the road. It took a long time to catch up, and then they wern’t in my race. Laura drove up and asked if I needed anything and after a couple times of passing me and stopping, she spotted some 4/5s in front of me.

Halfway up the climb eases off a couple times. On one of those I caught Larry, the 55+ AV rider. I towed him on the flat part and when we started going up hill again, took off.

The last part of this climb is really brutal. It gets steep, it’s at altitude, and it was cold again. I used the 30t cog for a lot of this. I knew from driving it last year that the steepest parts ended at a particular turn that I’d memorized. I got there and realized that I was going to finish. For the rest of the climb I’d break out a big smile every once in a while. Inside I was going “woohoo! I’m going to finish!”

The actual finish was anti-climatic. Just around a bend so you can’t see it coming, there was a piece of tape across the road, and a card table with a couple very cold officials at it recording numbers and times. My time was the same as the day before- 6:38. Food was down the road a bit at a wide spot in the road.

Both days there was an ultra-marathon club who staffed the finish and had hot soup, burritos, blankets and even a tent set up. They were so nice and having them there was so helpful. I’d sent a jacket up to the finish so I put it in and descended. I should have included some warm gloves too, my fingers froze.

I wound up with 15th place, which made me extremely happy.

ericm Everest Challenge, races

Cat V

30th of 75 day 1
DNF day 2

Everest Challenge is a two day climb-fest.

It’s a 208 mile two day race/ride with 29,035 feet of climbing. Only a few people do it as a ride; most of the 200 or so entrants are racers. It’s run out of Bishop CA, on the eastern side of the sierras. Each day features three climbs.

Day 1: Mosquito Flat (10,250′) – 22 miles, ave grade 5%, max grade 12%; Pine Creek – 8 miles, 7% average grade, 11% max grade; South Lake – 20.4 miles, ave grade 6%, max grade 17.5%. Total elevation gain – 15,465′ over 100 miles (plus 22 mile descent).

Day 2: Glacier Lodge – 9 miles, ave grade 8%, max grade 12%; 2/3 of Waucoba Canyon – 8.5 miles, ave grade 5%, max grade 7%; Bristlecone Forest – 21 miles, ave grade 6%, max grade 15%, total gain 6,573′. Total elevation gain – 13,563′ over 65 miles (plus 21 mile descent).

Long climbs are what I like the most and what I’m least bad at. I’ve been thinking about the EC for two years. It’s the one race that’s been tempting enough to get me back into racing. I planned my year around it.

It was very cold for the start both days with temps around freezing. Only having shorts and tights, no knickers, I chose to go with shorts. On both days the pace was easy on the neutralized start.

On the first day the pack accelerated to 26 mph for the three flat miles between the neutral start and the bottom of the first climb. Didn’t these guys know what was coming? I’d found myself at the back of the pack on the flat part and I started moving up as the road tipped up. The leaders didn’t slow down on the climb. I could see a group of ten or so splitting off the front. I’d say that I let them go but it wasn’t like I had a choice- that pace wasn’t something I could do for long and have a hope of finishing the first climb, let alone the race. I tried to content myself with riding a good tempo and seeing how many riders I could catch.
By the top I’d caught a bunch but I wasn’t keeping count as I knew the leaders were long gone. There was ice on the side of the road at the top of the first climb, and it was very cold on the descent. My jacket was flapping a lot and I felt it was slowing me down, so when the road leveled off I sat up to take it off, which made me faster but colder. I was descending pretty well and caught a couple guys who I worked with on the flatter part on 395 and the small uphill in the middle. When we hit that my legs didn’t want to go but I’d been looking forward to warming up on it during the descent when I was shivering from the cold.

On the rest of the descent we caught a few more riders, I got dropped but then rode less conservatively to come back to the small group by the bottom. We worked together on the flat to the next climb. Most of them were from my race, I think there was a masters 45 guy in there too. I wasn’t really paying attention; I just wanted to work with these guys on the flat and then ride my own ride on the climbs.

I don’t rememeber much of the Pine Creek climb other than feeling bad near the top and having a couple riders that I’d passed on the steeper parts pass me back when it leveled out.

I tried to keep up with a couple other riders on the descent but it wasn’t technical enough for that so I wound up being all alone for the 10 flat miles to the next climb. I’d been worried about that before the race but there turned out to be a good tailwind and I was feeling strong so it was ok. There was a rider about a half mile ahead and a small group coalesced a quarter mile behind but didn’t catch me till the start/finish feed zone where I stopped for a quick bottle change.

After the feed I caught up to a small group containing some of the same guys I’d been with on the descent of the first climb and we worked together for the rest of the flat and the beginning of the last climb to south lake.

I’d never seen any of these roads before, so the magnitude of the south lake climb was truly awesome. At the bottom you can look up and see maybe two miles of straight uphill road with no break in the grade. After what seems like a eternity of near-motionless grinding up a featureless hill something comes into focus. It’s a green sign with numbers on it. As you slowly get closer, you can make out “Elevation: 5000″.

When we passed it I cheerfully called out to the small group I was leading “hey! only 4500 more feet of climbing!” which got only groans. I was feeling pretty good by this point and when I’m in the right mood misery just makes me more cheerful. So I was really enjoying myself. By this time my pace had dropped to what I thought would be pudent for allowing me to get through day two but I was still catching people- usually from races that had started earlier, but some from my field as well. I talked with the guys in my little group (goatee dude, powertap guy, and a couple others). At one point powertap guy was on my wheel and suddenly exclaimed “hey! you’re not on your lowest gear!”. I heard that a couple times during the ride.

I eventually dropped them on the 2 miles @ 8% pitch before the turnoff. The last was powertap guy. He had pointed out that steep part when we were a few miles away and said “that’s where you’re going to drop me” so I felt obligated to do so.

After the turnoff there was a short steep part and then the road leveled off. By that time I had a saddle sore on one side (not normal) my knees hurt and I was hoping the ride would end soon. After the climb leveled off I started thinking that there wasn’t much hard climbing left, and maybe the steep part I was expecting was already done. I could just cruise in to the finish and be done! Wrong! There was a good half mile of 15+% grade. The steep parts at the end were hard but not that bad since I had saved the 34×30 gear for just this occaision. I went hard enough to make sure that no one caught me from behind and finished in 7:51.

It was cold at the top but the finsh line crew had blankets and hot food. I got some soup and rested for a while. Powertap guy came up and congratulated me on beating him up the hill which I thought was a really nice thing to do. Then I begged a plastic bag from the aid station crew, stuffed it up my jersey, and descended the 20 miles to the start/finish.

Considering that I’d just finished the hardest ride I’ve ever done, I felt pretty good at the finish, even with a silver dollar sized and completely raw saddle sore on one cheek. Laura and I went back to town and went out for dinner, where I stuffed down as much pizza as I could. We amused ourselves trying to figure out who else in the resturant was a racer. Two thin guys wolfing down a large pizza? Racers. Lone guy who put his head in his hands after ordering? Racer, even before spotting the “Training with a Power Meter” book he’d brought as reading material.

The second day seemed colder than the first. I made a mistake and started with two bottles of water instead of a bottle of water and one of Heed. I’d drunk Heed all day on day one and ate five or six Clif bars and that worked really well for me, but I was about to blow it. Not only did I miss the Heed, but as we rolled along on the neutral start I was fussing with my jacket and managed to dislodge a Clif bar from my back pocket. I should have stopped and picked it up but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I continued poor thinking and didn’t eat all of the one Clif bar I did have during the first climb.

This time the pack was a little more subdued at the start but I still had to “let” the front go. My legs were cold and I wasn’t ready to go hard. A mile or so into the climb I felt better and lifted up the pace to my usual endurance climbing speed. As I got near the top I was starting to feel bad. The saddle sore wasn’t hurting so much any more but my knees ached and I just felt blah. I kept feeling worse and worse on the descent. For the short flat part to the start/finish I was rolling at maybe 15 mph. Goatee dude came by in a small group and invited me to get on but I couldn’t.

As I started the second climb up Waucoba canyon I could barely keep my heart rate over 120. I’d picked up a bunch of Clif bars at the start/finish and some Heed at the top of the first climb so I started trying to get as much in me as I could. My watch said 10:00am and I told myself that I’d keep climbing until 10:20. If I didn’t feel any better then, I’d turn around. At 10:05 and 10:10 I was so ready to turn around but kept my promise to myself. By 10:20 I was feeling a little better and was able to lift my pace a little. Not anywhere close to what I’d been doing the day before or what’s normal for me on a long ride, but I felt just good enough to keep going. The only good thing about my slow pace was that it was easy to eat at that speed so I stuffed down a couple Clif bars.

When I got to the turnaround I stopped. I knew I felt too bad to do the last climb and was going to quit, so I sampled the century food. I must have scarfed down half a bowl of goldfish crackers.

When we got back to the motel Laura pointed out that the tendons on the back of my knees were swollen to 4x their normal size. We drove up to south lake to play tourist and I hobbled around a bit since I couldn’t walk very well.

I’m very disappointed that I couldn’t finish this. The worst thing about not finishing is that now I have to go back and do it again.

ericm Everest Challenge, races