Post a Comment On: Transplant Athlete

My Dad and I drove down to Sebring (Thursday into Friday) using his Prius, which took about half the gas that my Escape would have used to make the same trip. We got two bikes, my tools, two coolers, and clothes in there and still averaged 44.7 mpg down and 44.4 mpg back. We met up with David Caples and Jakson Badenhoop, two of my crew members for RAAM 2007, talked about RAAM, went out to dinner, then checked in with BikeSebring. I froze when they handed me number 13, but they told me it was "lucky number 13." I don't think I was convinced. Everything leading up to the race went well. The four of us had breakfast, and got everything together, but it was cold out. I started out reasonably hard, but I just couldn't get into a rhythm. I ended up riding alongside Ray Hannah for awhile, he was doing the 12 hour event. At the turn around point, I had covered the first 48.8 miles at 16.3 mph. That's on target for a 6 hour century, so I dropped off some clothing with Dave and Jakson and picked up the pace. I made it to the next rest stop doing 18.6 mph, then back to the raceway averaging 18.4 mph. That means I covered the 100.2 miles in 5 hours and 47 minutes. That's 10 minutes slower than 2006 and 20 minutes slower than 2005. I wasn't used to the Softride. I'm not sure if it was the tights on my legs or the softride, but my knees were really bothering me. I switched to the Litespeed for the 12 mile loops. My lap times averaged 49 minutes per lap. Accounting for the extra mile this year versus 2005, my lap times were almost identical, but were about a minute slower than last year on the same course. I switched back to the softride for the race track and my lap times were around 15 minutes per lap, but my legs were getting worse and the temperatures were really dropping. Surprisingly, there were still people riding without any knee coverings. There were even people riding without headlights. Crazy people. My resolve wavered and I abandoned after just 14 hours and 45 minutes of riding and a measly 222.5 miles. My dad and I went back to the hotel and got some shut eye before heading back to VA. Needless to say, I am really disappointed.