Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sea Otter: Reaching Into That Suitcase Of Courage
Another Sea Otter has come and gone. All in all a fun weekend, but I wonder if that was my last hurrah for that ordeal.
As I registered and got my numbers for the road and circuit race, I felt guilty knowing I had already mentally bagged the circuit race the next day. With amazing accuracy, I predicted that my legs would be things of wood in a few hours, barely usable for walking.
Registration went smoothly, we got in a great warm up and then the shellacking began. I made a few laps with the group before being dropped from the leaders. Within a few miles, I had picked up Nick and Mac, who also had dropped off the pace. We assembled a little team trial action with one other straggler. Our flow was interrupted when some other guys caught up. They were riding as though we were in a lead break, not as shelled remnants trying to hold on for 30th place. We sat on their wheels for a bit and then let them go have their fun.
The real story was of course Mac and his epic display of guts. Having put in some hard efforts to stay with the leaders, he was a little more blown than the rest of us when we cobbled together our chase group. When we swept him up, he had made some remark along the lines of "When I saw the blue and orange behind me, I couldn't decide if I was excited about that or not." As we continued to pound out the laps, Mac announced that he was suffering on a deep, deep level. On the final climb, he surely set a new personal best on that front. As Nick and I tried to pace him up the climb, he was literally dry heaving the last 3/4 of a mile, ticking out the slow, tortured cadence of the truly damned. He crossed the finish line and rolled to a stop about one foot past it, ghostly white with a fearsome story of pain etched across his face.
Anyway, all is well that ends well. Or, ends. Steve (Ransom) appeared a few minutes. after we finished, having been chasing behind us all that time. Within an hour, we were at Chilis, where I had two margaritas and the chicken fried steak. I heard that's what Lance used to have after big days in the mountains.
In other Dolce news, I heard that Rich and Chad got 15th and 13th in the Elite 5s; Olivia scored two top 10s after upgrading to the 3s.
Next up: Wente. Forecast is showers and pain. Lots o pain.
As I registered and got my numbers for the road and circuit race, I felt guilty knowing I had already mentally bagged the circuit race the next day. With amazing accuracy, I predicted that my legs would be things of wood in a few hours, barely usable for walking.
Registration went smoothly, we got in a great warm up and then the shellacking began. I made a few laps with the group before being dropped from the leaders. Within a few miles, I had picked up Nick and Mac, who also had dropped off the pace. We assembled a little team trial action with one other straggler. Our flow was interrupted when some other guys caught up. They were riding as though we were in a lead break, not as shelled remnants trying to hold on for 30th place. We sat on their wheels for a bit and then let them go have their fun.
The real story was of course Mac and his epic display of guts. Having put in some hard efforts to stay with the leaders, he was a little more blown than the rest of us when we cobbled together our chase group. When we swept him up, he had made some remark along the lines of "When I saw the blue and orange behind me, I couldn't decide if I was excited about that or not." As we continued to pound out the laps, Mac announced that he was suffering on a deep, deep level. On the final climb, he surely set a new personal best on that front. As Nick and I tried to pace him up the climb, he was literally dry heaving the last 3/4 of a mile, ticking out the slow, tortured cadence of the truly damned. He crossed the finish line and rolled to a stop about one foot past it, ghostly white with a fearsome story of pain etched across his face.
Anyway, all is well that ends well. Or, ends. Steve (Ransom) appeared a few minutes. after we finished, having been chasing behind us all that time. Within an hour, we were at Chilis, where I had two margaritas and the chicken fried steak. I heard that's what Lance used to have after big days in the mountains.
In other Dolce news, I heard that Rich and Chad got 15th and 13th in the Elite 5s; Olivia scored two top 10s after upgrading to the 3s.
Next up: Wente. Forecast is showers and pain. Lots o pain.
Labels: dolce vita cycling, sea otter results
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]