I am exhausted even after a good night's sleep. Yesterday was the Park City Perfect 10 and I have to say it about lived up to its name. It was a tough race, but a really good time. Staged at Silver Lake Village in Deer Valley, the weather was ideal as was the pitting areas.
We went up on Friday for packet pick-up and do a pre-ride. I was surprised at how much climbing there was. It just went up and up and up. Then we came down. The descent was sketchy. It seemed loose. I was a bit apprehensive about how it would progress through the day. My nervousness was unneeded.
Brad (who competed solo and finished 12 lap!) graciously allowed up to stay at his house—along with Dave and Lynda. Jane fed us...thanks guys. We got up at 3:45 am, ate a quick breakfast, and left by 4:45 to arrive by 5:30 to set up our pit area. Chris realized that his back brake had faded and so he had to steal the rear brake off my single speed which we had brought for parts.
Going into the race, I figured we would be chasing Dave and Lynda around the course. They are pure fast and endurance specialist. They had decided to ride single speed and may have originally been in another classification. The race director a couple of days before the race had decided to drop the single speed classes across the board due to low numbers. We had opted to ride gears because we were unfamiliar with the course. It was a good choice for us because it was a long hard climb that would have broken me by mid-day.
Chris did the short Le Mans start and was one of the first to the bike. I went back to start getting my stuff together. I figured I should be ready for him in about 30 minutes. About half an hour later Chris was the second one in from the first lap. He is so quick. I was excited because I figured this meant he felt well. The down side of being the second person on the first lap was the fast teams were towards the front and I was going to get passed. And I did get passed by a few individuals—like Josh, Chucky, and Mark. In fact I saw these guys or their team mates on several laps. I would play little games with myself and try to make it so Chucky and Mark would pass me later and later in the lap. It worked with Mark, but Chucky sucks (which means he is incredibly fast) and would catch me earlier and earlier until he started before me. I met a little more success with Mark who would catch me on the descent and I would not try to hold him off going down hill. The descent was so much fun. I looked forward to it not just because I could recover but it was blast. It seemed short, but that is standard for coming down hill.
I had issues eating starting after my second lap. Solid food did not agree with me. I could only eat a couple of bites. Thank goodness for Brad's CarboRocket. That was the primary fuel for eight hours of my race. A couple crackers, gel, and CarboRocket was the standard. I tried to eat a Luna Bar, but I could only eat half between laps. And the second half was hard to put down. Food sounded good and I wanted to eat, but once I tried my stomach started laughing at me and said I don't think so. The saddest part of this is I had Hostess Cup Cakes. I love Hostess Cup Cakes and could justify eating them during the race. I even planned on eating one after my next lap at one time, but by the time I came back I could not do it. It was not until a couple hours after the race that I could truly eat.
Pitting with Dave and Lynda made it easy to see where we were in the standings. We started off pretty even with them. Chris came in before Dave on the first lap, so Lynda would leave just a bit after I would. I think it was after the fourth or fifth lap when I came in, Dave was still sitting in the tent. This meant we had a little more time on them. I was surprised. They felt good, but I think the climb was getting to them on their single speeds. They did some gear switching to bigger cogs to make the climb a bit easier. By the end of the day, we had about a 15 minute lead.
I kept my cumulative ride time on my Garmin as I rode. I tried to keep an consistent pace and did alright. On my 8th lap I thought I would hit 5 hours of riding time and then I jokingly could tell Chris I had ridden my half of the race and I was done. Unfortunately,I came in at 4 hours 57 minutes. It was a bit after4 pm when I came in. Before Chris went out he stopped me and said we was going to ride conservative. He would get in just before 5 so I would have one more lap. I was just to finish—no crashing. (Apparently, he was worried I was going to go down all day.) It did not matter how fast my last lap was just finish. Chances were really slim that Dave and Lynda would squeeze in another, so if I finished we were good. I pretty much knew all that, but it was good to hear it. He came in around 4:50 and I went out. Nice and easy on a victory lap being sure not crash. We were able to finish incident free.
On a side note: Happy Birthday and congratulations to Brad Keyes who won the male solo class on a single speed after breaking a pedal! Not bad for an old man.