Saturday, August 04, 2007

Cal State #6 - Rim Nordic

Amazingly enough, I got up to the venue on time, over 2 hours before the race! I got registered, saw Mandy (who's always got a smile on her face), the Volpinator, Vanessa, Rog and Brant hanging around, and watched James and Randy start. I headed back to the truck and found a great spot to set up my trainer under the shade of the Snow Valley resort building. Unfortunately my wonderful SigmaSport BC 1200 wireless comp had it's first battery failure at the wheel sensor (I've had it for 3 years now) so I didn't get any readings, but I had a great 40 min warm up and felt great and was very optimistic. Drank lots. Had my MP3 player cranking the tunes and drowning out the buzz of the trainer. Got to the start line and chatted everyone up and was ready to go. 10 minutes into the race, however, I was light-headed and seeing stars. I slowed down to recover and just tried to poke along, but I still felt like shit. The fire road at the top was less painful, but the climbs were hideous. I made a complete pit stop at the end of lap 2, trading in both water bottles for more H20 and Coke (for the caffeine). I hopped back on the pedals and was off for lap 3. I was demolished, though. I was barely able to turn the pedals up the first set of climbs. I got off the bike at the flat spot before the first descent and rested under a tree for about 10 min. I got back up and cautiously made my way through the descent. Once at the bottom, since I was staring up at another climb and only within rock-throwing distance of the start/finish line, I decided I had had enough.

As I stumbled by the announcing tent, I notified them of my demise. They thanked me, as they had put me down as the WINNER of my class! I was so far behind that they thought I was in front.

Apparently the elevation and heat were combining to try to kill me. Also someone said that the anti-inflams and muscle relaxers I was taking for my back spasms are dehydrators, so that was probably another factor. Plus the air conditioning had been out at work for 3 weeks prior, leaving us at 86 degrees 8 hrs a day, which I’m told can cause mild heat stroke by itself.

I was 7 pounds lighter than normal on Monday morning.

I don’t have any cathartic closing for this one, it just plain sucked. Thanks to Rog, the rest of the team, and everyone else for supporting me.