TurboNurse

Tucson went off without a hitch.  I feel good saying that now that everyone is safe at home.

As I had written earlier, the ride down was uneventful for the most part.  I spent the first 2-ish hours of that one trying not to be sick but when we stopped in Socorro and ate, I felt better after that so I must have been hungry.  I hope.

We woke up race day at about 0615 to get all of our stuff ready and to eat some breakfast at the hotel at 7.  It was so nice to go to a race and be able to eat a nice good breakfast before.  All the running races I've done have been so early that I haven't been able to do that on the road.

We got all of us loaded up and headed to the 80 mile start for the guys.  It was actally nice and easy to find a spot to park to drop them off.  They were so calm about the whole thing.  I got a picture of them and I have to laugh when I see it.  Not one of them are smiling.  They are all just glaring and so solemn.

Got the guys dropped off and then I headed over to my start.  I started at 1030 (I think).  Either way I had about an hour and a half between the time that I dropped them off until I started to roll. 

I got to the parking lot and just took my time getting ready.  I  noticed that my phone battery was about halfway gone already so I plugged my phone into my car and was listening to channel 24 on my Sirius radio to get myself going.  There was a nice couple next to me getting ready at the same time so we struck up some conversation about Albuquerque.  The lady next to me had run Duke City a few years back (I don't know if she did the full or the half) so we talked about that for a while.

After I got tired of just putzing around the car, I hopped on the bike and made my way down to the start line and lined up.  I debated using the bathroom there but luckily there was a bathroom with a flushing toilet that apparently not many people in the parking lot knew about.  I'm so glad I used that one before I headed down.  I made sure to stuff some extra toilet paper in my pocket just in case the porta pots on the route ran out of it like I've experienced in running races.

I lined up in the front half or third, it was hard to tell how many people were behind me, at the advice of the guys.  It worked out well.  The bad part is that I had an hour before the race started so I just sat on my bike, not on the seat but on the top tube, and hung out.  There was a girl going around in the crowd taking pre race pictures of people and she came up and asked me if she could take my picture and I told her sure.  Then she looked at me and told me that I'm so calm.  All I could think is what other way is there to be?  I'm not about to be jumping around and moving all about wasting energy I knew I was going to need out on the course.

Also as I was lining up I had a freakout moment.  I was looking around at everyone as they were lining up and talking to their friends and I suddenly felt totally out of my league.  The feeling hit me so hard that I almost bagged it.  I didn't feel like I belonged there at all.

Then another lady lined up next to me and we struck up some conversation.  That was nice.  She had done the race before and we were talking about it.  I couldn't help but think she looked JUST like my sister.  I never caught her name but I did know she was from Phoenix.  I also remember she had on a really cool looking jersey with matching shorts.

Finally it's time to roll.  Yay!  It only took me a minute to cross the chip mat and I was off.  The wind was already starting to pick up before we started and by the time we got going, it was going as well.  We started off on what felt like a slight downhill and I was going at about 20-25mph.  It felt so good!

The wash/river crossing was about 4 miles in so just as I'm getting warmed up and ready to go, it's time to get off the bike and hike it for 1/3 mile.  It sure felt longer than that!  The portapots didn't have much of a line so I decided that would be a good spot to use them.  I was in and out.  It was nice.  Toward the end of the wash was an aid station so I hit up a huge glass of water and grabbed a pretzel on my way out.

I had so much crap in my shoes that as soon as I hit pavement, I pulled off to the side and dumped the river out of them.  There was so much sand and rocks in there that I never thought I would get it all out.

What I wasn't prepared for was the hill going out of this neighborhood.  It was a fairly short hill but it went up in three chunks.  The first two chunks were alright but the last part of the hill, I found out later, was at an 18% grade!  It was rediculous!  I saw so many people walking their bikes up and stubborn me was determined to NOT do that so I stood up and just pounded out that last little bit.  There was no way I would have made it if I wouldn't have stood on it.  I was so proud of myself for not getting off the bike and walking it.

The ride for the next 20 miles was uneventful for the most part.  I stopped at the firestation aid station expecting something more than the fruit and water becasue I heard that last year it was really good.  Nope.  Fruit and water.  But that's OK.  I ate some bananna and took more water that I needed anyway.

As I was entering that station, an ambulance was going by and we all thought it was for a biker.  Of course we didn't want that to be the case but it crossed all our minds.  Luckily we never saw an amulance on the course but apparently there was a wreck somewhere farther up that had traffic all backed up so a big group of us got stopped at a stoplight for what felt like an eternity because of it.

My one priority goal was to make it past the 40 mile start before they got going so I wouldn't get stopped.  I missed that by like 30 seconds!  I was one of the first ones in line that were stopped.  I was so pissed!!!!!!  That ment that I would be spending the next 10-15 miles playing dodge-bike against the slower 40 milers.  Grrrrrrrrr......  I was not a happy friendly rider at this point.

There were quite a few of us trying to pass the 40 milers on the left and couldn't get by.  There would be noone to their right and we would say left and they would just stay there.  Some of them even moved left.  Idiots!  I'm surprised I got out of that cluster _ _ _ _ without shoulder checking someone.  It sucked.

After that cleared out it was alright.  That part of the race went by so fast for me that I don't remember much from it.  I do know that I skipped several aid stations through here because they were super croweded and I wasn't in the mood to play dodge bike again with the slower 40 milers, most of whom were stopping at this first station anyway.

I stopped at an aid station that was at the bottom of a most awesome hill that I made sweet time down.  As soon as I left this aid station a train was coming across so I got stuck by the train.  If I had not stopped at that aid station, I would have missed the train but it was one that I had to stop at because I needed another bottle of the Hammer stuff that I was using for the majority of my calories during the race.  Then of course it was back to dodge bike.

What I remember next is being on what felt like a frontage road for a short time and then turning west to go around some hills.  This part was so nice and peaceful.  It was a nice two lane road that I saw zero cars on and the scenery was beautiful! 

Then we turn a corner and start up a pretty good hill.  The hill itself wouldn't have been so bad but this road was from hell!!  It was so bumpy and inefficient that I was cussing it the whole way up.  It felt like it was never going to end.  To those that have ridden the road behind Riverpoint, it felt like that but worse.  Then we topped the hill and thought that it was over but for most of the downhill it was the same.  I was never so happy to see smooth road than after that.  And boy was it smooth road!  It was like riding on butter!  It was nice and wide with a huge bike lane plus two lanes of traffic only one of which was really being used because those of us who were passing others were out in the first traffic lane.

Soon after that we turned on to the frontage road, aka the road from hell.  I was expecting to make good time down this road becasue I thought it was flat.  WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  For me, this was the absolute WORST part of the whole race.  It was nice because we had the whole road to ourselves but I was hurting so bad at this point that it didn't matter.  It just plain sucked and I don't care if I ever see this road again.

Keep in mind that during the whole race we were fighting 15-20mph sustained winds either in our faces or, as was the case most of the time, coming from the side.

I didn't think this frontage road was ever going to end.  It was about 10-15 miles we were on this road and we had a cross wind coming from the right.  At mile 51, I look down at my computer and suddenly smell sewage.  I looked to my right and what do you know, there is a lovely sewage plant of which the wind is blowing perfectly across and into us.  I just about puked it stunk so bad.

I remember being so mad on this road because it was climbing the whole way and I was only doing about 13-14mph.  I don't know why but I was so mad that I was climbing a hill and only going that fast.  I wanted to go faster and just get this done and over with at this point.  I don't think it would have mattered if it were flat and I were going 20mph, I think I still would have been upset just because I wasn't finished.

I equate this part of the course as being equal to the last 10k of a marathon.  My legs felt fine but other parts of me hurt so badly and I wanted nothing more than to be done.  I put on my determination cap and just did it.  I knew that if I stopped, I wasn't getting back on the bike so I just put the nose to the grindstone and pounded out that last bit.

My feet really hurt me bad at this point, when I finished and took of my shoes, I had so many hot spots on my feet it was no wonder.  New shoes are definately in the works for me.  No doubt about it.

My hands were pretty much numb at this point and there was not one comfortable spot I could find to put them.  Worst of all was my neck.  It hurt so bad I wanted to cry but I couldn't because I just wanted this done so badly.  I wasn't giving up at this point.

I had never felt pain like that in my life anywhere in my back.

Finally we turned off the frontage road and the crowds started to pick up.  I had asked at the last stoplight that I got caught at how much longer we had on this road and one guy told me 2 miles and the other said 1.5.  That helped get my spirits up knowing that this torture was almost over.

I had never felt so much relief as when we turned off that frontage road.  It was so nice to have crowds again cheering for us and then I hear the announcer and just lost it.  We made one left turn off the road and I saw that finish line and started to cry.  I didn't let myelf get too teary eyed because I still needed to see where I was going but the sense of relief that came across me was just overwhelming.  It reminded me of crossing the finish line of my first half marathon.  It was really awesome.

I remember rolling across the chip mats, seeing some military guy there marking my bib and then someone taking the chip off my ankle and going through the rest of the finish chute.

I was diappointed with the end.  I'm used to marathon finishes with the finishers corral and TONS of food and water available.  I had to walk for what felt like an eternity to find any water and even then I saw a jug of water sitting on a table and just helped myself.  The medals were all the way at the other end of the plaza as well.  There really could be a lot of room for improvement there.  The food I was finally able to get, I had to pay for from a vendor.  Very disappointing.  It was not recovery friendly at all.

The good part of the end was the massages though.  There were a ton of massage talbes out there and available so the wait was quite minimal given the circumstances.  That was super nice so I got a good massage.  The guy worked on me for a good 20-25 minutes.  It was amazing!

That night we went to a brewery place called Nimbus.  It was alright.  It would have been better probably if I wasn't so exhausted but they had the right postrace food so it worked.

Sleeping that night was terrible because of my back.  It was basically nonexistent. 

Luckily I'm heading to the chiro here soon to get myself straightened back out.  Two days later my upper back still hurts like mad no matter what I do.

All in all it WAS a good race.  I probably would have been in a better mood if it weren't for the wind I was fighting the whole way.

My actual ride time was 4:45:06 with an average of 14mph, much much faster than I thought I would do.  I was expecting about 12.5mph average on my computer.

My chip time was 5:11:xx.  For an average of 12.1 I believe.

I got a message on my facebook a little later that night from Randy telling me that my chip pace was faster than the guys. 

I still haven't let them live that down.