G and I had
driven up the day prior to the big race and spent the night in the cute little town
of Peterborough, NH. It was only minutes
from the Hampshire 100 start/finish and we had a bed to sleep in instead of
camping. It did not seem to matter much
since I did not get a good night sleep anyway.
I was probably overly anxious about the long day ahead and the fact that
my alarm was going to go off at 5 am. I
do not wake up that early on purpose- ever!
I had no idea
what to expect that morning.
It was less
than 50 degrees at the start and the sun was shining. It was an amazingly beautiful morning for a
bike ride and was a huge relief from the insanely hot and humid weather we have
had this summer on New York.
6:45 am came
quickly and we were off! There were 400+
racers in total but not everyone was racing the 100 mile option. The past 5 years of this event has “only”
been a 100 K and this was the first year they were added to the NUE race series
with the extra mileage option. Of course
I signed up for the 100 mile category.
The race
started off pretty quickly and I tried to just settle into my own race. It was hard to do. I look back now and I am
sure that the ‘bike buzz’ got the best of me for the first 20 or so miles. I started out with a couple other
women. One of them was a single speeder-
Hannah. And the other was a woman that I knew from New York, Chrissy. It was nice to have a familiar face to start
off with and she has done a 100 miler before.
I figured if I just stick with her for a bit, I could maybe find a good
steady pace. It was working for a while.
G had decided
to wait for me at the first aide station and we quickly headed off
together.
We pedaled with
our friend Shoogs for a while. We
pedaled the course with no idea what was ahead of us. I had read the course description but when
you are out there in the mix, nothing really is what you thought it would
be.
We had a pretty
good pace and my spirits were high. The course started to pick up some steam. Railroad tie bridges; ‘the beach’; jeep trails
with techy descents and loose steep climbs; the power line climb- which
apparently had a great view if you turned around. I didn’t look behind me all day. Freshly cut single track that sapped my legs
on ever pedal. Mud, roots, rocks. It was never ending.
Rolling up on
a man playing the fiddle in a field was probably one the highlights for
me. We were having a great time but
suffering all the same.
We pedaled
through people’s back yards as we looped through 7 different towns. They cheered us on and waived from their
porches. We waived back and thanked them
as we heading into the woods. The smell
of pine trees kept me sane. I said out
loud to G, “2 years ago, almost to the date- our lives were so different” I was
feeling so lucky to be out there suffering on my own terms and soaking in the
day.
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| At "the beach" |
Somewhere
around mile 40-45, my stomach started to bubble up. The pressure started to build and the
cramping got worse. I kept pedaling and
hoping it would just subside a bit. I
had a Dixie cup of coke at one of the aide stations hoping it would settle my
stomach. I had stopped eating. I was heading for trouble.
I was still
with G and he was calling out to me to make sure I ate something. I just couldn’t do it. I felt too sick. It was either the Heed or the Perpetuem chews. I have used both before without any problems
but I could not figure out what else it could be.
We pressed
on. More mud, more climbs and a water
bog that was thigh high deep. There was
no way through it without lifting your bike and slogging your way through
hoping not to twist you ankle on the invisible rocks below. Needless to say, this was not a highlight of
the race for me. Although my bike is light, my ability to lift anything over my
shoulders since my mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries has been a challenge. The cold water felt nice on my legs except it
really triggered my neuropathy in my right foot. It was already bother me the
same as usual but it was now hurting badly, especially when I would have to
walk a section.
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| Me- Attempting to get back on the bike. G had his GoPro on photo instead of video. |
I tried to remember some of the many suggestions this awesome lady gave me. “No matter how good or bad you feel it will not last, just keep moving forward no matter what the pace”. It did get a bit better but at that point, my nutrition was malfunctioning and my pace dropped off so much that I was not even sure we would make the 4:00 pm cut off to head out for the second part of the course. For the safety of all racers, they had time cut offs that would make sure you were off the course by 7:30 PM- for obvious reasons.
The modified second lap for the 100 milers
began at the start/finish. This is
brutal on the psyche. I should also
mention we only rolled in with 3 minutes under the cut off time and it looked
like a fun party happening on the start/finish site with all those that had already finished the 100 K and a few top racers that had finished the 100 miles. We decided to head back out on the course,
but this was not an easy decision.
I started to do the math as I looked at the
cut off times that I had taped to my handle bars. Could I keep up over a 10 mile an hour pace
for the next 35 miles? I was not keeping
that pace as it was, so it was not likely I could then. A couple miles into that second lap, G and I
agreed that we were done.
I will not lie, I shed a few tears as we
pedaled back to the score tent to let them know that we were quitting. My disappointment ran high. In all reality, we would never have made the
cut off time at the next feed station and I would rather pedal myself back than
have to take the support car back to camp.
Had I signed up for the 100 K, I would have
had a finish. But as G said to me as we
headed back to the start/finish area to tell the officials we were out- “You have to dare to be great. We will come back another day and finish our
100 mile race”.
We ended up with 70 miles, over 7000 feet of
climbing and over 9.5 hours of riding.
Not bad for a day on the bike and I am proud of that. Had I not had a GI issue, my race could have
been much different. My arm cording never hurt and my hand did not swell in my
glove. Probably because I did not use a camel back and the humidity was
low. Amazing my back never hurt
either. I was even climbing well. I had a fun day and I learned a lot about
endurance racing. I need more practice
and need to dial in my nutrition better.
At the very least, find something to eat that does not make my stomach
sick while riding. I also think I will
try a different 100 miler next year. The
New Hampshire 100 was supposedly one of the hardest in all of the NUE series- and
it just so happens to be the one I chose for my first attempt.
This quote has always been a favorite of my guys and his
“dare to be great” comment is inspired by this quote:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man
who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could
have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without
error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows
the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the
worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor
defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
Many others did not finish the 100 mile race
on that Sunday, but we were all out there- Daring to be great!
