112 miles later

A new PR in a number of ways ☺

Goals
1. Do my first century alone – mission accomplished
2. Have successful nutrition that will work for IM – mission accomplished
3. Run after ride - failure

Let me paint a picture for you –
RACC Century – 100 miles with 4800 ft elevation gain. Weatherman predicts rain all day. All of my friends are out racing the HIM I had to withdraw from (stupid fracture!) or the Eugene half or full marathon the next day, which I couldn’t do either (stupid fracture!) Instead of wallowing in my own self pity which I have a habit of doing on the occasion I decided to do the century ride, alone, by myself.

I woke up at 3 am to the wind howling and rain hitting my bedroom window; this was not a good sign.

5 am I got up the good. Went out side, yup still raining. I made a massive yummy breakfast, I knew it would be the last solid food I would have for a very long time. Loaded up the car and I was off. I was scared, nervous, confident and excited all at the same time.

Mile 1-40
This was a good time for me. I started out easy, well you know what? I never really went hard but back to going easy. I chit-chatted with some local triathletes and 2 dudes that were riding single speeds. The single speed dudes ended up doing the century; lord knows how they managed to get up those last two hills. It rained a lot in the beginning. I dressed well and that kept me warm, but I still got wet.

The first aid station was at mile 40, I roll in and I hear a “Woohoo! We have out first girl”. Go me! The early bird gets the worm. Lol, really all I got was a banana and some water for my malto/salt tabs. One of the bike mechanics came over and pumped up my tire, turns out it had flattened out to 20 psi. Oops. Throughout the rest of the ride I never really noticed it going flat, but when I finished you could visibly see it was pretty low.

Mile 40-50
This was another good bout. I’m keeping on my nutrition and intensity and every thing is happy go lucky – as it can be in the rain.

Mile 50-62
Everything goes to SHIT! I miss a right hand turn on Yukaton Rd? I end up climbing up some nasty, insane hills. They never %#^^@#ing ended. 5-6 miles in I knew I had gotten lost. I hadn’t seen a marker (we had street markers painted) in a long time. I knew there was a problem when I’d come to a split in the road and there was no direction. I couldn’t find myself on the map either. %^#$%#^@!!!!!! The next oh say hour 15 was a mental mind F%#&. Not only was I dazed and confused on location but I was all alone. No other riders, not many drivers and was worried about nutrition. Upon departing the 40 mile aid station I had 800 kcal in my bottles and 40 oz of pure water. As time went on things were running low. Finally I came across a car and waved it down. The guy gave me directions to get back into town and I was on my way again.

Mile 62-89
On the road again – so happy to be on the right road again. Getting back on the route was such a relief. My worry now went from being lost to nutrition. I had about 25 miles to go to the next aid station, 240 kcal and a GU to hold me over. I think I still had 20 or so oz of water. If I spaced it out right and took it easy as I had been I’d be ok. For like 15 miles I really had to pee. This was a good piece of mind, it showed that I was hydrated….yet at the same time it was really annoying. I couldn’t wait until the next aid station. I was out in the middle of the country, in no-mans land so I just found some tree to hide in and squat. Note to self, look before you squat. I brushed my leg by stinging nettle. My quad burned for the next few hours. Between these miles I contemplated asking the SAG wagon to drive me back when I got to the aid station. I would have been at 90 miles, I still wanted to run and I had no intentions of doing 112 – not to mention the 1000 or more ft of climbing I did in those 12 miles I got lost. Again, can I just say NIGHTMARE? I contemplated this back and forth for miles on end.

Mile 89-112 (that’s right)
I reached the aid station, at last! Filled up my bottles with more water for the malto, grabbed a few chocolate covered espresso beans (heavenly) and a banana and I was on my way again. Only 23 more miles…that’s all. I caught up to a few riders and chatted for a bit. It was nice to have some company; I realized I only like myself for so long. It started to rain again and it rained hard. The winds picked up too. At one point I was sure the wind was going to knock me right off my bike. I did not need this right now. The RACC has these 2 hills at the end of the ride, it’s really not right that they add them at the end. One is long and steep, climb up out of your saddle steep and the other is short and steep, but it’s around the corner and it never fails to surprise me. I don’t know how the hell I climbed up both of those hills but I did. In fact my energy for the whole ride was pretty decent. My nutrition was on point, no problems besides needing to pee (and getting stung by the nettle, WTF?). 5 miles left and the rain let up, I started to feel good again. Ok, I can still run after all is said and done. 2 miles to go and I miss a turn. I turn around to check the marker and my bike drifts out from under me and I fall on my knee (fractured leg), elbow and hip. F%^#!!!!! AND I was stuck clipped in my bike. I couldn’t twist my leg to unclip. Thankfully some guys saw me fall and ran over to help. He was able to twist my ankle and get me unclipped. I tore open my knee and my elbow. It hurt but at that point not much could faze me. I decided I probably shouldn’t run, as I had landed on the leg with the healing fracture. Hopefully I didn’t do any further damage, it doesn’t hurt right now. I rolled back to the start and reached my car. Thankfully it was over. That $%^# was hard, how in the hell am I going to do an IM? As I I’m putting my bike away it starts pouring. Seriously down pouring, harder then anything I rode in all day. I got in my car, drank my recovery drink and slumped into my heated seat as I watched the downpour and the wind howl. I drove down the street to recover with a Burgerville cheeseburger – kid sized – my favorite. I ran into another triathlete at the Burgerville drive in that I had briefly ridden with earlier in the day, we just looked at each other and sky and could tell we were both like “glad it’s over”. I sat in my car eating my cheeseburger as the radio announced a severe weather warning for the area. Wind gusts 50-60 mph, thunder and lighting, speak of the devil, down came the lighting and thunder. THANK GOD IT’S OVER.

As I got back into town the sky opened up and the sun gleamed down upon me. I did it. I did 112 miles 6000+ ft of climbing. My body doesn’t hurt; my nutrition was on point. For every low I had a high, isn’t that what IM is about?

Max wattage 406/ avg wattage 136
7 hours and 40 minutes - way too %^$%^#ing long