Ok, truth be told, I have no idea where I would wear this
buckle, should I earn it…besides the rodeo of course. But even then, I think the bull riders would
sniff me out, toss me in a barrel with cut off overalls and suspenders and gym
socks pulled up to my knees and see if I could make my way back to the
grandstands alive.
So…beyond the buckle, lay the real reason I am drawn back
each year. It is the LT100 family
reunion. And with this reunion each year
comes new goals, new achievements and the satisfaction, and sometimes regret,
of goals obtained and goals unattained.
Our crew before the start. Steve had his THOR wings on!
I am often asked, “Who are you racing against this year?”
inquiring of the big name riders who might be at the start line. I honestly didn’t even know this year until I
was at the start. Turns out current
World Marathon MTB Champ Christoph Sauser was on the line along with Hall of
Famer Tinker Jaurez.
Start line photos. You can see Tinker just over my right
shoulder
If you have read my previous posts, this race for me is a
race against myself. To better myself,
to push through the pain cave and see where I end up on the other side of the
finish line. This year was neither my
best nor my worst finish time. It was
somewhere in the middle.
With 3,000 registered athletes and I believe around 1800
starters, there were all 50 states represented along with 38 countries at the start line. The field has more than doubled since I
started doing this event as well as diversified. A comical example of this was a rider from
the Dominican Republic with a facemask on at the start. Why? Because 40 degrees is the dead of winter
where he comes from. :-)
Overall, the race was fairly standard for me. I had been nursing a low back injury going
into the event that I was hoping would stay dormant. As it turns out, it decided to flare up on
the Columbine climb and I had to shut it down and lightly spin the pedals to
the top. I knew I had lost about 20
minutes on that climb so I decided the best way to make some of it up was to
hang it out on the descents. Outside of
passing a four wheeler on a two way traffic descent at high speed threading the
needle between it and the line of racers climbing up…I managed to escape coming
close to any serious accidents and was able to pass quite a few folks coming
down.
As I headed back from Twin Lakes to the Power line climb,
the winds and really picked up gusting 30-40mph. I could tell I was well off pace of a PR and
my back was still seized. I looked over
my shoulder and saw a female rider form Topeak “Sonya” who was hung out without
any other riders to pull into the wind with.
Knowing my PR was lost, I decided to let up until she bridged up to me
and then pulled her in the wind across to the climb of Sugar Loaf. She was grateful and it reminded me how
different MTB racing is compared to road.
We are all out there cheering and pulling for one another. I enjoyed seeing her finish so well at the
end of the day.
Knowing PR was lost; I decided to re-adjust my goals. My IT band was on fire and the thought of
pushing my bike up a portion of Powerline did not amuse me. So…I decided one victory I could have for the
day, in addition to setting my PR’s on the descents and not crashing…was to
climb and clear Powerline. For those of
you not familiar with this climb…very few riders including the winners clear it
in the race. 3/4th of the way
up, my back was telling me in no uncertain terms it wished my IT band would
take one for the team. I’m fairly used
to catch 22’s, so cleared the climb I did.
The downside to this is that I had not noticed due to the
25%+ grade that my nutritionals had slid out of my feed pouch attached to my
top tube. Kevin Bratetic was at the base
of Powerline and gave me a life saving bottle of water. As I
headed down the descent I knew I was in trouble without fuel and only
water. As things go in Leadville, the
bottle found a way to eject from my back jersey pocket without me ever taking a
drink and I was descending way to fast to consider trying to stop and hunt for
it. There was quite a bit of race left,
and despite my fantastic support crew lead by my main hand off man, Dmac, I was
out of fuel and water.
Pictured here are Dmac in fine
form and my nephew Brian having just executed a great hand up.
Let me take this opportunity to say how much our sag crews
have meant to us over the years. While
it goes without saying we couldn’t finish with out them, there is nothing more
exciting when in the middle of this suffer fest, than to come in and see a
familiar face, excited and cheering you on.
This year I as fortunate enough to have my sister and her kids along for
the first time, accompanying my oldest two children who were the seasoned
veterans of this years crew. DMac does
the musette bag hand ups and E does the tweeting and texting to keep all
informed of our progress. Over the years
we have had several people sag for us, those that come back more than once are
inducted into Sainthood. Our Sag Queen Kerri
Peterson was unable to join us this year, but coached from the sidelines to make
sure our logistics were solid. Combine
that with my Sis’ efforts, and help from sag crewmembers Jason and Don, solid
they were.
As I started up the final climb of the day, there in the
distance were the Strava “Angels”. Was
it true, could it be a mirage? Were they
really there handing out cans of Coca-Cola?
Sure enough they were. I was so
happy to see them I almost proposed marriage right there on the spot. Off I went with a can of coke knowing I might
just make it to the top of St. Kevins without cramping or bonking.
Well, at least the cramping was avoided. When I arrived there, neutral support filled
my bottle with water and gave me a Gu packet.
I was bonked at this point, so I took the Gu and washed it down with
what turned out to be some form of Herba Life drink mix. Do not try this at home. My system was so confused. Happy for the calories and fluids, but felt
like I took a cement mixer shot at the local bar. I figured I could gut it out to the finish
though and took off to set my PR on the final descent.
As I made my way into town, I realized this year was one of
success and regret. I had failed to
break my PR, but had some small victories along the way. I suppose that within 10,000 miles you can’t
set a PR every time….or can you?
The highlight of this trip for me was seeing my longtime
friend Lowell Petersen set what was once again a PR for himself in this
race. What was particularly exciting was
watching him break the coveted sub 9hr mark to win the BIG Buckle with only a
couple minutes to spare. As I sat with
Ellie and Dillon at the start line (rather laid in the grass fighting cramps),
I heard them announce his name just under the wire. I jumped up and told Dmac to go grab his bike
and we all “high fived” in
celebration.
To top off the day, Jim Maaske who had missed his buckle
last year by a mere couple of minutes, finished this year with 20+ minutes to
spare. And not to be out done racing the
shotgun, Kevin Galinsky came in with a couple of minutes to spare to claim his
sub 12hr buckle. The rest of our crew
all came in somewhere in between, all with stories of overcoming and
persevering through mechanicals, cramps, vomiting and the like. What else could one ask for?
This year’s finishers and buckle winners with our Flatlander
crew (from L to R) were: Ken Peterson, Jim Maaske, Lowell Petersen, myself, Kevin
Galinsky, Chris Peterson, and Steve Jarrett, along with Kevin Limpach and Jason
Schuster- (not pictured)
Our crew after the race. Smiles all around!
Kent,
ReplyDeleteIt's always great to read these re-caps--informative and inspiring!
Blessings and Thanks,
GaryN