The Warrior Inside

     After a few weeks of crit. racing, it was time to return to the dirt following Speed Week. My plan was to spend the weekend in the Chattanooga area and catch the SERC race at the Ocoee Whitewater Center near Ducktown, TN. It's one of my favorite courses. And with the exception of one year, I have always done well there.

    I have been eyeing different types of events over the past few months. Just things to mix up training and racing. I enjoy running, so I added the half marathon and 5Ks to my regimen toward the end of last season. One series I was interested in was the Warrior Dash races. They are 5K races, mostly off-road. The course is normally very challenging and features 10-12 obstacles. The obstacles can be anything from climbing walls, to swimming, to mud crawling under barbed wire. It just so happened that there was a Warrior Dash event going on in Mountain City, GA the same weekend as the Ducktown SERC. So I signed up for the Saturday races at the Dash and planned for a double weekend of racing.

     The Dash features a ton of people so they start waves of 500 every 30 minutes. They combine all the times to calculate results. There was racing both Saturday and Sunday, with seperate awards for each day. I had hoped to pre-ride the SERC course on the drive over to Mountain City, but there was quite a bit of rainfall at the end of the week and Saturday morning, so I chose to go for a road ride instead since I had my road bike with me just in case this sort of thing came up. I rode some cool roads with nice climbs around the Cleveland, TN area before we made the drive to Mountain City.

     Dina was signed up for Warrior Dash as well. We got to the tiny town of Mountain City with plenty of time to hop on the bus to be shuttled to the race location. I'm pretty sure that was the most people this town has ever seen at one time. The bus ride was short, but scenic. They had the seats covered with plastic in preparation to bring back a bunch of muddy warriors.

Chick-fil-A welcomed the racers

    I did a 20 minute warm-up and then lined up 25 minutes before my start to ensure that I got a front row starting position. You could only see half the course and obstacles. It looked flat from our point of view, but I had heard there was a difficult climb along the back of the course. The obstacles we could see in the spectator area were a run through water, a junkyard, a wall climb, cargo net, mud crawl, and leap over fire. I knew there were a lot more obstacles. They listed a tentative course map online so I had a good idea of what obstacles awaited, but had no idea where they were located. It was packed with people around the registration area. Many raced in costumes.

Tons of people gathered around the registration tent and stage. You can see the climbing wall in the background.

One of many costumes 

Avatar!

One of the waves set to start

A start of one of the waves

   I secured my front row start spot and was pumped to get it going. They sent us off with a burst of flames from the banner overhead. I stayed in the top 10 early on as we ran the first mile on the road before the obstacles began. I paced myself well and never really lost much time. One guy had a 20 sec lead when we got to the first obstacle, which was supposed to be waist deep water that we were to run through. With all the rain this week, the water was up to my neck, so it turned into a swim. I hit the water in 4th place and immediately passed one guy. The swim took about 4 minutes and my traithlon training from last year was still paying off (even though I haven't swam since September). I moved into 2nd before we reached land. The next section was muddy from all the water dripping off the runners. I fell and lost a spot to 3rd as we entered the junkyard. The junkyard was a bunch of cars we had to go through or over. In between the cars were tires so you had to high step all the way through. I held my third spot through the junkyard and through the next obstacle, which was an over and under. You went over 5 ft high wooden barricades, then under barbed wire that was about 2 ft off the ground. The barricades and barbed wire alternated.

Me on the start

Runners attack the tires as they enter the junkyard

Me falling at the tires

Junkyard madness

     Then there was a short run to the climbing wall. I was hurting so bad after the first three obstacles! The run gave me a chance to recover. Suprisingly, I didn't lose any ground to the two ahead of me and hit the wall in the lead group of 4. I went up and over the 15 ft. wall fairly easily.

The wall

Backside of the wall

Me (in the grey) going up the wall

Leaders of my wave hitting the wall. I was 3rd at this point.

    Next up was an uphill run through tires. I moved to 2nd by the top of the hill and settled into the part of the course that couldn't be seen from the spectator area. I heard there was an uphill so I was really trying to pace myself. A climb over a cargo net was next, then the course went to singletrack trail and went sharply uphill. The terrain was brutal. It was steep, off-camber, and covered with fallen trees for you to hop over. My running legs kicked in and I settled into a good pace, catching and passing the leader. Once I passed him, I lit it up the rest of the climb, trying to open a gap in case the next few obstacles were difficult for me. There was a nasty descent that had horizontal cargo net along the way. I just dove into that and barrel rolled across it.

I moved up to 2nd here in the tires

     The next obstacle was a crawl on hands and knees through a dark tunnel. Midway through the tunnel there was a nice support brace hanging down that I'm sure caused a lot of bumps on heads before the day was out. After that was a long uphill run through mud. There was water flowing down the trail. I kept the hammer down and by the top of the climb, there was nobody in sight. Another descent awaited before a huge slip-n-slide down the hill. It was by far the most fun obstacle. Straight after the slide was crawling under barbed wire through mud and water. I was way too slow here. It was followed immediately by another jaunt into the water to cross logs.

Me in the mud

Mud crawl

Mud video clip

     A leap over burning logs was the final obstacle before the finish. My time was 22:20, which is one of my best 5K times ever. I won my wave by almost 2 minutes. When the results were tabulated, I walked away 18th in the 25-29 class and 62nd overall out of more than 8000 participants.

The winner of Dina's wave, who had one of the best times of the day

The leap over the flames

    Dina was next to go. We started in different waves so we could watch each other. She was not quite as aggressive as me, but she did very well and attacked the obstacles. She ended up 90th in the 20-24 women and 580th overall. This event was so fun and I can't wait to do another one! I am already signed up for the Warrior Dash event in Manchester, TN in September. We got some cool schwag. You got a T-shirt and a warrior hat at packet pick-up, then every finisher got a medal.

Dina runs into the junkyard

Dina chose to go through the first car

Dina runs through the tires and junkyard

Me in my warrior helmet after the race

     We got some more rain overnight and the next day I decided to skip the SERC. I only had my new bike and really didn't want to destroy it. The last time I raced Ducktown in the rain I had to buy new wheels and brakes. Can't afford that now. Since I had the road bike with me, I decided to stop by McMinnville, TN on the way home and race the Highland Rim Classic Crit. It was cold and windy with ominous looking clouds overhead. The course for this crit. changes every few years. This year it was around the local high school. The course is almost pancake flat, but open and susceptible to the howling wind. Our race was later in the day, so Shannon had time to drive down from Clarksville and watch me race. She brought her sister, Amber, who is in town from Utah while she is on summer break at BYU. Shannon also brought along one of the kids that she lives with. Little Emily ran around before the race wearing my warrior helmet.

     The Pro/1/2 race had a decent number of riders and it was a good race. The wind split things to pieces from the beginning. I had good legs and brigded to a break early on. We didn't stay away for even a full lap, but it was cool to be there. I was comfortable with the pace, but got shuffled back as counterattacks went over and over. Then the race blew to pieces and I found myself in the third group. I tried to bridge to the group ahead but the wind tore me apart and I never made it. Next thing I know, I'm in no man's land just 15 minutes into the race and then lapped at 30 minutes. I was so mad to have let the race slip away when I felt so good. My time trialing ability is so pitiful and it keeps me from being able to bridge those gaps. It's probably a good thing that I never get into breaks because I probably couldn't hang in them for more than a few laps.

The course went around Warren County High School

     I got into the main group once I was lapped and had no difficulty staying with them. The finish was not very fast as everyone was tired. I was so disappointed that I couldn't participate in the sprint. I ended up finishing a lap down in 26th. It was disappointing, but at least I got to race and got in a great workout.

    I was scheduled to race a pair of crits in Huntsville the following weekend, but I was sick and had to skip out in order to recover. More coming on my season thus far...

Speed Week: Sandy Springs

     The final race of the 2011 Speed Week Series took place on Sunday in Sandy Springs, GA, just north of Atlanta. We again spent the night in Spartanburg and then managed to catch church sacrament services in Anderson, SC on our way down to Georgia. The Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge featured a tough course. There was a large climb to the finish line and the rest of the course was basically downhill. The descent was twisty with 6 turns along the way. I had driven the course a few weeks before when we had come down to tour the Atlanta LDS temple and knew it was definitely going to be a tough day.

My Garmin 305's view of the course in Sandy Springs

     I made some changes to my equipment today, going with the lighter Reynolds Attack Carbon wheels to save weight. The last few days were disappointing, but I was fired up today. I wanted to make a good 30 minutes before getting dropped. Though I knew that was a tall order on a course as hard and fast as this one with United Healthcare riding like they were. It was really complete domination by United Healthcare all week long. The hill looked super painful during the early races. Made for some good spectating!

Pro Women

Pro Women on the hill

Robin Farina on the attack. She took the Most Aggressive Rider award for Speed Week.

Two riders off the front with one lap to go

Jen Wheeler wins for Team TIBCO

Pro Women's finish

     It was a 50 lap race for us on a 1 km course. It was another large field, sporting around 150 starters. Again, I got placed at the back. Actually, on the very back row today. I had a decent start though and at least picked up 10 spots the first lap. It was stupid fast up the hill. Basically you had to stand and sprint all-out all the way up the hill and a few meters past the crest just to hang onto the wheel ahead of you. The twisty decent was very fast and kept things single-file around the entire course. I was fairly comfortable with the pace, but found it impossible to move up. Gaps started opening on lap 2 as guys were popping from the pace up the climb. There were gaps everywhere and it seemed way to early for me to be covering gap after gap.

Pro/1/2 riders in turn 1

Sprint up the hill!

It was the same scene every lap on the climb...single-file sprinting.

    I lasted only 8 laps before becoming unhitched on the climb. That was just 11 minutes of racing. They pulled me off the course on the backstretch so I didn't even get to complete lap 9. Our average was 26.4 mph. That's moving along on a course like this one. United Healthcare laid the smack down once again and swept the top 2 spots and overall series title after a break lapped the field.Their speed obliterated over half the field, leaving a small pack to sprint at the end.

United Healthcare swarming the front

Riders flow through turn 6 which was just before the start of the climb

United Healthcare controlling the group with a few laps to go

Karl Menzies wins in a sprint finish after lapping the field in a break

     It was another disappointing day, but again, I am not at all regretting moving into the Pro/1. It was a great experience and lets me know just what I need to do in training to be able to finish these big races. I just need a little more speed to be able to move farther up and stay ahead of the gaps. I'm very grateful for the chance I got to race with some of the best crit. riders in the world and I hope I get to do it again next year.

Speed Week: Charlotte

     Saturday we brought the crit. invasion to the Charlotte, NC community of Dilworth for the Dilworth Criterium. This course was tougher, featuring a very long climb to the start/finish line. The back of the course was nearly all downhill. To add to the difficulty, there were two hairpin left turns. One came at the bottom of the hill, making for a tricky end to the descent and a very hard start to the climb. The other hairpin was at the top of the climb. So essentially, you started and ended the climb with a 180-degree turn, which translates into sprint as hard as you can over and over.

Dilworth Criterium course

Cat. 2/3 Men topping the hill

Cat. 2/3 Men

Pro Women at the top of the climb

Pro Women in the hairpin turn at the bottom of the climb

Pro Women on course

Cat. 2/3 Men finish

     I knew my chances were slim on this course. The repeated accelerations from the hairpins would hurt me at the pace this group would be setting. I was not as fortunate with my start spot today and was on the next to last row. Again, well over 100 riders on the start line. The start was not too furious since there was a descent almost immediately. The first few runs up the hill were manageable. Then came the primes. I hate primes! The pace got ugly and I was immediately struggling. Guys were getting dropped on lap 4 and the gaps were everywhere. I got gapped after 6 laps, but managed to get back on in time to see one of the Kenda riders take a pee while going down the descent. That takes talent that I don't have.

3 riders jumping off the front early in the Pro Men's race

United Healthcare split the field early on. It eventually came back together, but not before many riders were popped off.

Pro Men race up the climb

     My race was short as I got dropped on the climb on lap 11. I nearly got put in the curb coming off the turn before the climb and that was all it took to get me dropped. Once I lost my momentum, it was all over as I was hurting way too bad to stand up and sprint the climb. I got pulled after 12 laps and just 16 minutes. I was disappointed to get pulled so early. I'm just not strong enough to hold 24.4 mph average speed on a course like that. It sucked, but there was still a day to go and another chance to hang on longer.

Me after getting popped off the back

The break of 4 that got away near the end of the race and stole the show

The pack goes into the hairpin turn at the top of the climb

Pro Men come off the hairpin turn before the climb