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Message started by goatstick on Mar 15^th, 2010, 11:39am

Title: HC600
Post by goatstick on Mar 15^th, 2010, 11:39am

Saw FlyingLaZBoy's pic posting of Greg and me. :^) We'll probably have a lot more to say, but we had a blast doing HC600 with all the great people involved. Greg and I held off the *four* 'BNuts' until the big hill just before Rocksprings when JS caught me. Then we swapped back and forth until I think just past Junction but I might be remembering that incorrectly. More comments regarding JS's 'encouragement' needs to be said... ("Hey! Your coach said you weren't supposed to be using the big ring!"). Ask Greg about all the girls who 'chicked' us. :^) We have the prizes to show... Though since Peggy doesn't remember doing it to me, I'm not so sure it counts. I think they have to remember doing it to count.

Greg was still a bit under the weather when he agreed to race with me instead f crew, after Gary got sick late Fri night. He was fabulous. I wasn't prepared (especially mentally) to go solo and couldn't have made the start in time after finding out about Gary anyway so Greg saved the day. And though he struggled in the night a bit, he recovered and pulled the last few steep hills that I was really worried about because I was a bit toasted. I tried to give him extra recovery time at night so he didn't get worse but when I needed him, he was there. What more can you say?

I was pretty happy with our effort. We pulled the steep grades at the beginning really well and held a steady pace the rest of the race.

Was really great to see everyone out on the road again. So many stories to tell about the amazing feats we saw by so many. Except for JS and Steve.... Making those two girls do all that amazing hard work for you two... Now I just don't know about that.

Title: Re: HC600
Post by aikigreg on Mar 16^th, 2010, 12:19am

FUN! Is all I can say. I said I'd fill in for Gary, even though i actually thought I'd have to dnf because I was still coughing badly and had only about 3 hours of sleep when I got the call. But the race was already paid for, so.....

I nearly threw up the first mile - retching while climbing a small incline at a measly 14mph does not inspire confidence. going up the first next long hill I saw the df riders pulling away from Peggy - I was already behind her. I had ridden the hill last year with kent and knew the other side was a bombing descent, so I poured it on and crested it just ahead of peggy and then I went into "catch the DF" mode and flew by the second place rider at the bottom. he tried to stand up and get to me at the next climb and I held him off. By the time we got to the first swap point 15 miles in, I was second and Peggy was close on my heels. Kent quickly passed the first place rider and then WE were first place.

The road to leakey is TOUGH. The "death ride" that the fwba puts on is no joke. It's like having 4 Cherry pie hills, steeper, one right after the other. We made several quick changes there and were still ahead. We stayed ahead of John schlitter, sara Kay, and our own Steve and peggy for as long as we could. when they caught us, we traded for first back and forth for a LONG time, with Schlitter's "helpful" comments on the the loudspeaker behind us "Hey Greg, Kent says to stay out of the big ring and save your energy!" Yeah thanks, John!

Anyway, they passed us for good right as dark settled in and we went to follow mode. we lost some time only having 1 crewperson (kent's wife judy, who was amazing for doing this at all and a quick learner) and a couple longer than probably necessary stops, but we didn't really care - we had no chance to hold off a 4 person team of THAt kind of caliber and I'm amazed we got ahead to begin with.

While I'm on the subject, John and SK were their usual selves, but Steve and peggy were AMAZING. She passed both Kent and Myself, and truth be told I tried to step up and run her into the ground the last time we rode together and she passed me, but she never let me get any closer than 30 feet. That lady has arrived. Apparently Sebring stuck ker into the big ring. And Steve flew up the hills.

My lungs gave out after dark and Kent took long pulls to let me rest. The slowdown let our nearest competitor go by us at about 4am. I had recovered a lot and could push again and quickly caught her and passed her, but the narrow, dangeroud road was too scary for the back and forth thing we did, so I physically stopped and let them go for 5 minutes. It was just too dangerous to try to have 2 vans and riders doing at it. I figured we'd catch back up to them in the daylight, but we ended up losing the race by 10-15 minutes, near as I can tell.

Still, given how last minute everything was - I didn't have the right clothes or nutrition for example, and my lungs, I'm calling it a win. Kent is raam ready and I feel really recovered so I feel happy in spite of not being able to race it solo. There were plenty of DNFs and such - but we weren't one of them.

Neither was any DfW rider. Mark, Shaon, and Vickie all rode fast and strong. Great times were had, if pushing yourself beyond your limits and, let's face it, ability can be called fun!