MBAA McDowell Meltdown
January 18, 2014
Scott Thomas
Unlike last week this race was very simple and not a lot of prep work to load gear and planning for fueling. Got up Saturday morning unlike last week kind of slept in till about 7am then grabbed my bike and headed to Fountain Hills, AZ, which is where McDowell Mtn Park is. I was surprised by the amount of people there with campers. This was a short sprint race.
I knew my start time was 10:32am, so getting there at 8:30ish gave me lots of time. I checked in and grabbed my bib. Ran into a few guys I knew that came down from Prescott to race. Then made it back to the car (1/2 mile away) to slowly start getting ready. Time slowly pasted and finally I just got bored and headed over to the start line.
10:32am (well 10:25am) racers started staging in our age categories and getting ready. Whistle blows and we are off. I am extremely familiar with this course as it is the course for the 24 Hours of Fury that I have done a few times. Things were tight heading out and everyone finding their position.
I felt really good and thought I could make up some ground on people as the course went on. There is a part of this course I hate and I think I hate it more now that I don't have a full suspension, but the South Ridge is a nasty rocky area. Well I lost even more ground on that stretch.
Finishing my big loop I pushed on and a little faster and harder into the last 3 miles. The last bit was the fun part of the course. Some short rollers with a little switch backs. Finished and really didn't see my time. I was a bit discouraged. I felt the first half of the race to wasn't pushing hard enough to get good positioning and knew I had people pass me.
Hung out for a bit at the race and watch a friend's daughter finish her first mountain bike race. Then packed up and heading in. Stopped in Fountain Hills for some food to refuel a little and thought I would just check and see how bad I really did do.
15th. Wow. I figured I would be a lot further down in the pack than that. I looked at my lap splits and saw that my first big loop was around 52-53 minutes. That's faster than I have ever done it before. Went and looked at the times a little more yesterday (Sunday) and the times and rankings updated and I took 14th.
Big thanks to: Poc (helmet, gloves), Crank Brothers (pedals, wheels), GU Energy (Roctane brew, Roctane GU, Chomps), Serfas (Shoes, eyewear, shorts, saddle, saddle bag, mini tool), Stan's NoTubes (sealant), Polar Bottle (water bottles), Geigerrig (hydration pack).
Monday, January 20, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
12 Hours at Papago - Race Report
12 Hours at Papago
January 11, 2014
Scott Thomas
So a typical solo race for me. Pack up all my gear on Friday. Saturday morning 5am hits and my alarm goes off. Couldn’t have been soon enough. I was up several time throughout the night, so I think I had a little bit of race butterflies, which is usual for me, but oh well. Go up and got semi ready, loaded my bike and packed up my last few water bottles. Head down to Tempe from far east Mesa (15-20 minute drive). Remembered I needed to stop and get bananas on the way, so a quick detour for that and then on to the race.
I was a bit surprised when I showed up at 5:45am as to how many people there were there and already set up. Luckily they have an area set up for us solo racers to set up. I quickly unloaded my gear out of my car and then went to find a parking spot. Got all of my gear arranged and ready for the day.
6:50am hits and it’s time to head for the start line. A few additional quick comments from the race director and then the Nation Anthem. It’s a LeMan’s start, so nothing like 200 runners in bike shoes for 100 yards on asphalt. At the start it was still dark, so we started with lights.
Having never ridden this course before I tried to watch the riders in front of me as much as possible. So the goods and the bads for not pre-riding a course before the race. Goods you keep your eyes open and go as fast as you can and hope for the best. Bads you don’t know all the drops and spots you should gear down before you hit them. A few drops and one or two spots I wish I had geared down better.
This course is 7.2 miles roughly. The first 1-3/4 or so is the more rocky rollers with some drops and a few climbs. Then you hit the recovery part of the course that is flat canals for about 3 miles before dropping back into the rollers to the finish.
So my first lap went well, but when I came thru I didn’t see the time clock to see what my time was. I figured that I needed to average 51 minutes a lap to make my 14 lap goal. At the end of my second lap I saw the clock and I was at 1:25. So I kept pushing. I felt good. I had 4 laps done in the first 3 hours. At this pace I figured I would have 18 laps or so.
Well for all the endurance racers out there not all of us keep that starting pace. I finished my 7th lap right at the 5 hour mark. This was half way and I was an hour ahead of scheduled pace. So I stopped for about 10-15 minutes to fuel and really take a break. Headed back out for 8.
When I came in from 8 I looked at my splits on Chronotrack and noticed that it was only showing me having 7 laps. So upon finishing 9 I stopped and they had it correct on-site, but wrong on-line. I briefly stopped after 9 and then hit 10 and 11. During my 11th lap I had a few gear shifting issues. The course seemed dusty with more of a light fine dust. I had already lubed my chain a few times throughout the day with ProGold.
Coming in from 11th lap I stopped and cleaned my chain a little and lubed it again. Resting just a few before heading out for 12. While out on 12 I ended up dropping my chain twice. Between the wear of the 80+ miles at this point and the frustration of the mechanical issues I was done. I finished 12 and came in and stopped.
At the end I finished 12 laps (86.4 miles) and 24th out of 76 in my category. Naturally I beat myself up the yesterday the day after the race for not making a quick fix and going out for lap 13 & 14. First race of the year not to bad. Next one will be better.
Thanks to Serfas (shoes, eyewear, saddle, lights, saddle bag, tires, shorts), POC Sports (gloves & helmet), GU (Roctane brew, Roctane GU, Chomps), ProGold (Lube), Geigerrig (Hydration pack), Polar Bottle (water bottles), Stan’s Notubes (Stan’s Sealant), Crank Brothers (wheels & pedals).
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES.
January 11, 2014
Scott Thomas
So a typical solo race for me. Pack up all my gear on Friday. Saturday morning 5am hits and my alarm goes off. Couldn’t have been soon enough. I was up several time throughout the night, so I think I had a little bit of race butterflies, which is usual for me, but oh well. Go up and got semi ready, loaded my bike and packed up my last few water bottles. Head down to Tempe from far east Mesa (15-20 minute drive). Remembered I needed to stop and get bananas on the way, so a quick detour for that and then on to the race.
I was a bit surprised when I showed up at 5:45am as to how many people there were there and already set up. Luckily they have an area set up for us solo racers to set up. I quickly unloaded my gear out of my car and then went to find a parking spot. Got all of my gear arranged and ready for the day.
6:50am hits and it’s time to head for the start line. A few additional quick comments from the race director and then the Nation Anthem. It’s a LeMan’s start, so nothing like 200 runners in bike shoes for 100 yards on asphalt. At the start it was still dark, so we started with lights.
Having never ridden this course before I tried to watch the riders in front of me as much as possible. So the goods and the bads for not pre-riding a course before the race. Goods you keep your eyes open and go as fast as you can and hope for the best. Bads you don’t know all the drops and spots you should gear down before you hit them. A few drops and one or two spots I wish I had geared down better.
This course is 7.2 miles roughly. The first 1-3/4 or so is the more rocky rollers with some drops and a few climbs. Then you hit the recovery part of the course that is flat canals for about 3 miles before dropping back into the rollers to the finish.
So my first lap went well, but when I came thru I didn’t see the time clock to see what my time was. I figured that I needed to average 51 minutes a lap to make my 14 lap goal. At the end of my second lap I saw the clock and I was at 1:25. So I kept pushing. I felt good. I had 4 laps done in the first 3 hours. At this pace I figured I would have 18 laps or so.
Well for all the endurance racers out there not all of us keep that starting pace. I finished my 7th lap right at the 5 hour mark. This was half way and I was an hour ahead of scheduled pace. So I stopped for about 10-15 minutes to fuel and really take a break. Headed back out for 8.
When I came in from 8 I looked at my splits on Chronotrack and noticed that it was only showing me having 7 laps. So upon finishing 9 I stopped and they had it correct on-site, but wrong on-line. I briefly stopped after 9 and then hit 10 and 11. During my 11th lap I had a few gear shifting issues. The course seemed dusty with more of a light fine dust. I had already lubed my chain a few times throughout the day with ProGold.
Coming in from 11th lap I stopped and cleaned my chain a little and lubed it again. Resting just a few before heading out for 12. While out on 12 I ended up dropping my chain twice. Between the wear of the 80+ miles at this point and the frustration of the mechanical issues I was done. I finished 12 and came in and stopped.
At the end I finished 12 laps (86.4 miles) and 24th out of 76 in my category. Naturally I beat myself up the yesterday the day after the race for not making a quick fix and going out for lap 13 & 14. First race of the year not to bad. Next one will be better.
Thanks to Serfas (shoes, eyewear, saddle, lights, saddle bag, tires, shorts), POC Sports (gloves & helmet), GU (Roctane brew, Roctane GU, Chomps), ProGold (Lube), Geigerrig (Hydration pack), Polar Bottle (water bottles), Stan’s Notubes (Stan’s Sealant), Crank Brothers (wheels & pedals).
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES.
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