It was a beautiful day in Hurricane, UT on Saturday. Gropromotions put on a great race on a classic trail. As the name 6 Hours in Frog Hollow implies, it's a 6 hour race. But at the race meeting, they gave us a chance to vote on when to finish. It was voted that you had to leave for your last lap before 2:00, so it ended up being just over 5 hours of rolling time for me. I got tostand on top of the solo women's podium and I won some great gear. I was the only female to get in 5 laps, so I won't complain that I didn't get 6 as I had hoped.
Since this was my first time racing this format I wasn't sure what to expect or how to strategize my pit stops. My first mistake was that I placed my table with food and water on it before the finish line. That means that my 1st lap could have been faster because I wouldn't have stopped before the timer. Not a big deal, just a good learning lesson. Also, it was cool enough that I shouldn't have even stopped the first lap. I should have started with 2 bottles and stopped after 2 laps. Lesson learned.
I also learned that I am only in shape for riding, not running or hiking downhill. The Lemans start made for a fun atmosphere, but after 2 steps I realized I shouldn't have been in front for the run, the guys were passing me like crazy. I'm just glad it was on a small race that I figured this out. The 24 hrs. of Moab Lemans start looks WILD! As for the hiking downhill part...ouch. There was a mandatory dismount on the beginning of the JEM trail. Well, on lap 4 I twisted my knee to the point I thought I was out of the race. As soon as I got back on my bike I knew something bad had happened. Every revolution hurt and after about 2 minutes I was just trying to figure out how I was going to make it back to the car. I was devastated that I was going to drop out of a race, that's just not my style. Fight for a finish no matter what. (Also, I was having issues with my tire, but more about that in a second). So, I figured out if I could stand I could avoid some pain. So I rolled up to my support table ready to put away my bike, but my hands reached out and got a cold bottle of CarboRocket and my legs started to pedal again. I had no say in this. My body HAD to finish the race, regardless of the pain. I stood up for the ENTIRE 5th lap. If I tried to sit and pedal I would have pain shooting into my knee so sharply that I would yelp. That's right, like a wounded dog. Yelp. So I stood, even on the technical cobblestone sections on Hurricane Rim, now that's a trick I don't want to repeat! I just kept telling myself, it hurts if you pedal slow or fast, so just pedal fast. And I also knew that walking hurts worse than pedaling and takes way longer, so if I could just pedal through the technical stuff I'd be done sooner.
One more issue; on my 3rd and 4th laps, my tire kept loosing air. After my 4th time stopping to refill it, I thought, "jee wiz, I am a rookie, I should have just thrown a tube in the first time". Well, the 4th time was the charm. See, I finally laid my bike on it's side and the Stan's had a chance to work. All the other times I stopped, someone was there with a pump and holding my bike up for me and the sealant couldn't seal.
Between the tire issues, twisted knee and table set up location I learned a lot. I am more prepared for my next endurance race. This was a well put on race. The weather was absolutely perfect and I made a few new friends. I plan to race it again next year.
Fastest Lap podium with Duff Johnson (I didn't end up with the fastest lap, but we didn't know that at the time of this photo. I was proud to share a podium with Duff!)
