natural disaster @ SALSA 24

I dubbed this race report as such for the phenomena that each and every one of us has obsessed over.....THE WEATHER.....& how it may crush the human spirit of an ultra endurance mountain bike racer(your author)! Because of this element, details are limits, making this synopsis very anticlimactic. Everything was looking good on Friday as my wonderful teammates set up an incredibly comfy pit w/three EZ up tents(one screened in), portable shower, generator, and even area rugs on the ground!!!! My parents live in the TC so I would stay @ their home in order to simplify things that much more. Plus, they have air conditioning to assure nice sleeping. All my ducks were in a row.....and then.....the gun sounded.....

Afton Alps is probably the most brutal venue in Minnesota for such an event and trail runners would likely agree too. It's a ski hill nestled into the Saint Croix River Valley. Usually, it is stagnant but on this day the winds found a way in. Powdery dry and kitty litter were the surfaces riders had to deal w/hooking tires up to. No tread seems to work on moon dust and often it felt sketchier than ice. Lastly, that relentless sun baked everyone on the slopes as we'd switchback, ascend, descend, ascend more & more & more.

To sum it all up, I felt I played a good hand for what I was dealt. By turning only a couple laps I knew my strategy had to be reevaluated already. I was riding way too aggressively for a singlespeeder on this course and should have been giving the hills more respect. For what I decided to be the pinnacle event of the summer was quickly ruining my composure! Without my lovely fiancee's endless support during the afternoon, I'd have been done by 2 o'clock. Jen had the Minneapolis Duathlon on Sunday morning which forced her to leave at nightfall. She set me up for what would be the most grueling struggle as an athlete to date. She noticed I couldn't eat anything I brought to the site which looking back now was mainly sweet on the palate. So, Jen hurried out to the local deli and got me pasta, sandwiches, & jo-jos(potato wedges). It is amazing how the scorching heat can alter my nutrition plan entirely. I brought exactly what I ate in Wausau because it worked like a charm but it was also cooler and flatter too. Finding out a way to bring in calories reduced my anxiety as I knew it'd be over soon w/o 'em. I can always see my distress reflect off Jen's face during these races which is good & bad. Knowing that something needs to be addressed is important but I usually would rather not know. Getting my lights on is always a welcome turning point in these wars of attrition. Near sunset I finished a lap w/Dean from Ely, MN and sure was glad of that because I had no water on me. He spared enough to get us atop the Manhandler(appropriately named) climb which is where the only aid station was found on the whole loop and this came before the final downhill. We got back w/plenty of time to prepare for darkness. While in my pit, fellow Duluthian and riding buddy Tim Ek stopped over to check on my well being. He'd raced the eight-hour event and said, "my attitude went south long ago." Hearing this from him gave some perspective on what has occurred. We spoke to each other in a melancholy tone like a couple of broken men. For us, we're very organized going into these enduros and listening to Eki accept defeat put me in a new state of mind. Quite often I think my standard of suffering is inferior to that of my peers. Tim's encouragement lasted for a while because he's one guy I trust swapping advice. From there, I'd be on my own except for the Peace Coffee Relay of four riders that were willing & ready to assist in any need. My lap times doubled but seeing on the computers in the chalet that I was improving position helped. Throughout what I considered to be the most awful continuum, my experiences were sharply irregular. Usually, it is the soreness that pulls me out of contention but on this rare occasion nothing more than simple fatigue was needed to bash my soul from the inside out. Lying in the tall grass for 20 minutes became common during latter stages of my day. Throwing my chip in the bin came shortly after 6 AM since I had more than a person's share in humility. My pa came immediately to rescue me before the temperature got high again. I could have gone out for one more lap but it would have only gotten me 11th instead of 12th place...NOT WORTH IT!!!!!! Two more laps probably would have killed me!?. Since Jen won great swag during a silly little contest it was easy to forfeit my raffle ticket.