I have raced my bicycle for more than 12 hours more than one time but I wasn't quite prepared for the agony that was to come at Rapture In Misery this year. I have had a great season and my fitness is at a very good level and my weight couldn't be much better. I did have a little concern because I feel that I have already peaked, but my fitness is still high and I am still riding strong. It was hard to get extra calories and get super hydrated while doing trail work leading up to the race but I wouldn't trade it for anything, I really enjoy doing the trail work....especially when I get to enjoy the rewards of the labor!!! Friday night I drank a lot of water and I felt really good about my hydration, however the heat the next day would really test me physically. Saturday morning brought cooler temps than what we had experienced earlier in the week but it was still going to be a hot day.
I knew I needed to go out a little slower than the year before so during the running start I just did a light jog and got to my bike and got in with a group of riders and took off steady but not really fast. I passed a couple riders in the field and passed one more rider in the first rocky section of single track, I had a much better line picked out than the guy in front of me and was able to swing wide and carry momentum through the turn and get ahead of him. The line I took looked like a longer way but it set me up for the turn perfectly, that was an advantage of racing on your home course!!! I did brake a little extra before going into the boneyard because I didn't want to be 6 inches from the rider in front of me if they had a mishap, there were bikes everywhere on the boneyard in that first lap. I was able to make it down the boneyard clean although it was very slippery on the rocks. The next rocky section was a bear to climb up with extra moisture from a multitude of tires going over them. By the time I hit "Rock N Roll" the field had split quite a bit and I was able to carry a lot of speed through that section all the way to the dam. The rest of the first lap was pretty greasy and seemed to slow my momentum. That being said I believe I finished the lap just under an hour.
The start of the second lap I could tell right away that the large group of riders was already drying out the trail, it was still damp in areas but the trail was getting faster. I didn't push super hard on this lap either but still came in with a pretty good lap time. Third lap I got my first taste of a cramp in my left hamstring while climbing the service road across the dam, I immediately got off my bike and started walking since I had all day to keep the cramps away. I was biting open 2 Endurolytes every hour to help keep the cramps at bay. On the way out of River Forks I stopped at the aid station to get some water, I was already going through a lot of water by this point. I was drinking so much water that I was getting water logged but I had to keep the liquid coming. The extra fluid intake was throwing off my caloric intake as nothing was tasting good, this would prove to put the hurt on me later in the day.
I put my lights on for the start of my 7th lap, I would end up not using them for the lap but I wasn't sure how long that lap would take. Toward the end of the 7th lap I started feeling nauseous and when I got to my pit I was starting to really hurt. The more I stood there the sicker I felt and then like a ton of bricks it hit me. I got a massive head rush, my vision went to almost nothing and I started to stagger. I quickly got myself to the ground and laid there for several minutes, I heard someone say "Hey, check that out over there". Molly told me later that several people were staring at me as I was lying in the riding path. I finally got up and headed out for another lap, Molly was a bit concerned at this point and wasn't sure I should go back out. The 8th lap was not fast at all but I felt pretty good considering my fatigued body and mental status. I really didn't want to go out on a 9th lap but I had to, it was too early to quit.
I remember thinking as I rolled out that I just had to get through this lap and then you can call it a night. The first 100 yards was great and then reality started to set in, I was in a world of hurt and still had over 9 miles of an incredibly hard course to conquer. I had never been in this position before, I have been hurting on my bike but never this bad. If I walked a certain hill I would keep walking on some of the flat section before I got back on my bike, I stopped to pee 5 times and I really didn't have to go....it was just an excuse to get off the bike. The whole time I was telling myself the more I rode the faster I would get done but it was work to get myself back on the bike. I walked both water crossings because I was getting so tired that I almost endoed the lap prior and the water was making my rotors make an awful sound. As I rode the Short Thompson I was breaking the rest of the lap down into sections. I told myself once I got to the downhill at Steep Creek I just had to get to where we started climbing out, then I would just have to get to the meadow, then I would just have to get through the finish leg of single track. The funny thing is after I would complete a section I would say it out loud "Task 1 Complete" and so on.....sound crazy? You do what you have to do. I finally popped out toward the finish and Molly and Mitch Johnson were waiting for me, they told me I had a decision to make......I just wanted to roll over and die. Mitch was done with 9 laps and if I went back out I would take 3rd place, I wanted it so bad but I just could not do it. One thing that I have learned since I started riding my bike is that I need to listen to my body. There is a difference between a person not wanting to hurt and a person hurting themselves severely, I feel that I made the right call by not going out on another lap. The only regret I have from the race is that I didn't weigh myself right after the race, I had to drop some serious water weight that day.
By this point I was 90% sure that I did not want to do the 24 Solo that I had been planning for nearly a year, I didn't know how I was going to be able to endure another 12 hours of this torture. After a day of getting my mental status closer to where it needs to be I did some serious thinking about 24 hr of DINO. I realized that those 2 things in my shorts that were banging against my saddle while going through those rock gardens were my Amish love nuggets and they aren't there to let me back down.....in other words, 24 hr of DINO here I come. Life is too short to say "Well, maybe next year", I have done that too many times with other things and guess what....I didn't do it the next year either. The race is in September and I am hoping for a little bit cooler temps, which will help with my caloric intake as well. I am working on a strategy for pace, breaks, changes of clothes, and nutrition that will hopefully give me a better physical feel. Mitch Johnson has done 24 hr of DINO before and said last year he rode nearly 200 miles during the race and didn't feel as bad as after 85 miles of RIM this year. RIM was a super hard course this year and it took it's toll on a lot of riders. I am not going to underestimate the 24 hr race though, I plan on being in a lot of pain for this race as well. I also plan on just racing against myself, I can't get worried about how close another solo rider is ahead or behind me.....I just want to survive.
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