Bummed

DNF at the Pierre’s Hole 100 this weekend.  Turns out that battling a recurring diarrhea-producing illness of mysterious origin for the week prior to the race doesn’t lend itself to pedaling a bicycle at high speed for 9 or 10 hours.  That sucked.

I felt okay for the first lap (Pierre’s Hole is a 4-lap course originating from Grand Targhee,) and was able to push a decent pace.  My body definitely felt a bit fatigued pedaling up the stiffer climbs—I just didn’t have much pop—but I figured that everything would wake up after a couple of hours of riding.  I rode much of the lap with singlespeeder Trevor Rockwell, trading the lead back and forth, a couple of minutes ahead of Gerry Pflug.   As we rode through the arch to start Lap 2 my goal of finishing under the 9:45 belt buckle cut-off looked like it was going to be within reach.

Rolling through Aid 1 just behind Trevor.
Photo: Sarah Hamilton

I opened up a bit of lead on Trevor through the middle of Lap 2, but once I got out to Rick’s Basin for the final few miles of the lap both Trevor and Gerry blew by me on the climb up Quakie Ridge.  They were riding really strong, and I just had nothing.  I kept grinding to the top, thinking that I might recover on the descent, but climbing back out of Rick’s Basin after riding down from Quakie was no better.  Lead-filled legs, and an overly-fatigued back and shoulders.

Trevor and Gerry had opened up a 6-minute lead on me by the time I got through the arch at the end of Lap 2, and I felt awful.  I got off my bike at the Aid Station and sat down in the dirt, trying to figure out how to pull my shit together.  Erica was volunteering at the Aid with the Fitzgerald’s crew, so I had a full team offering me every variety of food/drink that I could want, and an ice pack on the back of my neck.  Potato chips and water were the only thing that sounded good—interesting what seems palatable in that situation.  I ate a bit and rested in the shade for a couple of minutes while Jay P cleaned my chain and Erica packed a bag of chips for me to carry into Lap 3.

It was clear at this point that I would be no competition for Trevor or Gerry—I just wanted to finish the race.  Rolling into Lap 3 felt a little more lively, but things fell apart before long.  I had pretty much lost steam by the time I got out to Lightning Loop (maybe 2 miles into the lap,) and was fully cooked by the time I started the Colter’s Escape-Mill Creek descent.

This was the first time I’ve ever been too fatigued to race downhill.  Everything from my neck to my ankles just ached, and though I usually love this descent, bouncing down the rocky singletrack crushed me.  I gritted my teeth and slowly finished to Teton Canyon, and figured that if I couldn’t recover a bit on the spin to Aid 2 halfway up the road climb then I would call it.

No go.  It was all I could do to stay on the bike and keep pedaling slowly up the road climb. (It’s normally an easy spin—good opportunity to re-fuel and relax.)  Troy and Mitch handed me a Coke when I collapsed into a chair at the Aid, and that was it.  Big thanks to Mitch for driving me back up to Targhee, where I handed in my timing chip and ended my race.

It was really hard to bail out of my local race, especially when my season has been going so well.  An even bigger bummer is that this DNF takes me out of the running for the NUE Series title; had I done well at Pierre’s I would have had a fighting chance to win it.

After a nap, a small dinner, and a 12-hour night’s sleep I’m trying to focus forward on getting myself back into form for the Park CityPoint 2 Point on September 1st.  Lots of rest, some quality riding, and trying to gain back the 5 pounds I lost to last week’s diarrhea…