Third place overall at 252 miles
Before the race I had been hoping my new M5 Carbon High racer would arrive in time to race Calvin's on it but that didn't happen so I resigned myself to one more good, hard race on the old "Rib Splitter" and it performed very well yet once again.
When my wife and I arrived in Springfield, Ohio on Friday to register and Larry Graham race director, was talking about the great looking recumbent awards he had ready this year. One of the categories - Recumbent Female 100 Mile Time Trial - had no entries. To my amazement, my wife decided she wanted to enter. I have been trying to get her for the last year to do a century ride on her CA2.0 650 (my old race bike) almost since I set it up for her. She was trying to work up to it and doing well but it had never crossed my mind that she would do something like this. Go Judy!!! Both of us really were looking forward to winning one of those new recumbent trophies.
The wind forecast called for 10-12-mph winds but it was already clear that the forecast was very low. We started out into the headwind which was somewhat blocked by the terrain and trees and I felt pretty good and pulled out ahead of the race. The first half of the 50.5 mile loops has a fair amount of rollers which normally are not a big challenge but when we turned into the wide open headwind, speeds were so low the rollers were just climbs. Around mile 12, the front group of five riders led by Collin Johnson and Jay Yost caught me on one of the climbs. They were pulling about 16 mph on the flats and I'd pull them back up to about 18 when at the front, so not much of any recumbent advantage. When we circled back around to the tailwind stretches, the DF riders took off like kites. I was sitting at the back doing 30-32 mph pushing well over 300 watts to stay up with them and it was pretty clear they were not stressing much with the tailwind.
I pulled through the pits for the second lap and again it took the group about 12 miles to catch up with me. The 100 mile time trials were set to start an hour after the 12 hour race and as we passed the 25-mile SAG stop I saw my wife's CA2 650 sitting there. With the horrible wind conditions it really didn't surprise me that she had stopped and I was hoping she would get back on the bike and not be too discouraged. We dropped one of the five riders towards the end of the second lap and I made my first pit stop as we rolled in. Since I was self-crewing, I had to make my way to my ice chest and swap out a couple of bottles in my tailbox so didn't have nearly the lead pulling out for the third lap. I also was a little stressed trying to stay up with the group in the tailwind stretch so took it a little easier on the 3rd lap. We dropped rider four towards the end of the third lap.
On the forth lap I had to pit again and took even longer so rolled out with the four riders. When we got to the longer climbs, Collin was looking great and climbing really well and the group dropped me. We rode about a half mile before I passed Nicholas Perhala whom Collin and Jay had just dropped. Collin and Jay continued to slowly gain on me through the rollers and gentle climbs until I lost sight of them around the 23 mile point in the loop.
I hadn't seen my wife past her first 25 mile mark and was wondering how she was doing. I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she had decided to drop out of the race but was still hoping she had continued. As I was rolling up on the last 10 miles of the 50 mile loop, I saw her up ahead, looking pretty good! I yelled and screamed in joy but with the wind, she couldn't hear me until I rode up beside her. She was grinning from ear to ear and obviously having fun. I congratulated her and rode beside her for a bit, discussing how things had gone for her. After a bit, it was clear she was doing fine and had the race well in hand so I rolled back on out, finished the forth 50 mile lap and rolled through the first 7 mile lap.
During the last two 50 mile laps I was having trouble reaching for a bottle due to the gusty crosswinds so had been running a little behind on my fuel schedule and had started feeling the onset of cramps the last half of the fourth lap. The 7 mile laps were a little more protected from the winds and I started catching up a bit on my fuel. As I rolled back out of the pits on my second seven-mile lap, I rolled up to Nicholas, who has just come off of his fourth 50-mile lap. We rode together for a little more than a lap when Collin came blowing past us, now one lap ahead of me, like a true champ. Nicholas and I jumped on his wheel with the renewed interest in the race. Nicholas stayed with us until the pit area when he dropped off and I didn't see him again until after the race. I rode mostly on Collin's wheel for the next three laps, slowing regaining power with the better fueling. Towards the end of my sixth lap Collin and I were wondering where Jay was and I congratulated Collin for his great performance. About that time it appeared that Collin was faltering and as we turned into the headwind he really started slowing so I pulled ahead and pulled us into the pits. I had told him I was planning on doing some longer pulls to try to help him out on the last lap but as I rolled back out of the pits I couldn't find him.
At the start of my seventh lap I realized I had more than enough time to finish the lap if I really cranked it and was feeling better than I had for several hours so just really opened it up, trying to get as far past the pits area as I could. I rolled through the pits with just under 3 minutes to spare and rolled to the one mile mark just as time ran out. Larry Graham was manning that station and come over to congratulate me. I never saw Collin or Jay again, even after the race to congratulate them.
The awards ceremony was delayed quite a bit this year and was outside. As the sun went down it started getting cold and neither me or my wife had adequate clothing for just sitting around on the grass. They posted the preliminary times and they had me down a lap, at 245 miles instead of the 252 miles and with the DF bikes. I discussed it with the officials and thought the mistakes had been corrected but when we finally got to the recumbent section of the awards they only did the 12-hour and I wasn't included anywhere. We were sitting with Scott Freeman when they called him out as the winner of our category. I didn't say anything as I just didn't think it was worth stopping the ceremony to correct things again. When Scott came back he asked if I was in his age category and I said yes. He started to jump back up and go tell Larry but I told him to not worry about it, that he was the one who climbed up on the podium to receive the award and since I was pretty sure I couldn't do that, he gets to keep the award. :^) Scott did really great this year and I was really glad to see him out there on the the road and looking so well so I really did want him to keep the medal. This time... At the end of the 100 mile TT, my wife had been awarded a medal so after they moved on to the rest of the DF awards, we figured they were done with us. We were already very late for a late dinner appointment with Bill and Beverly Hannon and decided it was time for us to hobble off. We found out later that Larry Graham had intended to present the trophies we both had won instead of mailing them out as we were thinking. Sorry, Larry!
Ever since I started ultra racing I have been fighting hotfoot problems. A few weeks before this race I had made some new types of changes to my shoes which really seems to have helped. I still had my feet really light up three or four times during the race but it didn't last as long as in the past and I was putting a lot more continuous pressure on my feet than ever before. I pretty much left everything out on the road this race (what's new :^) and couldn't even walk after the race. I had trashed both of my achilles tendons, both of my quads, had almost trashed my hamstrings and the bones in my feet were extremely sore for over a week, which I had never before experienced. I had to ice my achilles for two days afterwards to get the swelling down.
This was a good, hard race, made especially difficult with the high, gusty winds. I really appreciated the time and effort that Larry and crew exercised in getting the turns and potholes painted so well. I think Calvin's is the best marked race I've ever seen, especially this year. This race was also the first time I had raced with Collin and I was very impressed with him. He was very careful and considerate on the road, taking clean, safe lines at all times and just cranked out the power. A great racer as far as I'm concerned and I don't mind losing to him. He just outraced me. I wish I could have done better comparatively but especially without the normal recumbent advantage due to the high winds, I felt that I had done one of my best 12 hour race performances ever. I could have raced a smarter race, letting the DF guys pull more in the headwinds but I was trying to keep the pace up. Maybe next year.
May 19, 2013