Yep yep. I beat my goal by a good margin. But boy was it a shit show.
I botched my kit, my clothing. The race started at 730AM and it was 37F. I layered - speed suit, long sleeve jersey made for Fall, vest, and leg warmers. My warm-up failed because it was so cold. And I stayed cold for the first 5miles because it was a 30-40mph descent on road. Once we hit the dirt climbs, I got warm immediately. I tried to wait to find a good time to take clothes off. But I ended up stopping for 9min to take off everything in 3 diff stops. And I definitely sacrificed some performance by being warm and taking off layers too late. Ugh. My data shows a high of 90F
I botched my fueling. I ate breakfast way too late, which means you start the race with a too-full stomach. I likely also started the race dehydrated from rushing to altitude to day before. This pushed the snowball down the hill and made it hard to eat the entire race. In the end, I only ate for the first half of the race and managed only 70g of carbs per hour - well short of my 100g/hr target. I also wasted time stopping for water instead of just drinking my sugar-mix bottles. I would have puked if I had tried to drink them.
I botched my prep too. The drive on Fri took 7hrs. Sitting in the car that long fried my lower back. We also rented a teardrop trailer to camp, because of reasons. This novel sleeping arrangement was not good for the night before a race as I struggled to find a good temperature. The mattress was good enough, but everything about it didn't help my back either. My low back was done riding at mile 45, at the bottom of the major climb and 1/3rd into the race time-wise. This was the biggest mistake by far.
I botched my equipment a little bit. I set my tire pressure pretty low because the start was so cold. But it wasn't low enough. By the finish my tires were up 4psi and every bump and rock was jarring and uncomfortable.
Don't get me wrong, this race was "fun" - type-2 fun where you only enjoy it upon reflection. This was the roughest gravel race I have ever done, maybe as rough as the Leadville MTB race I did last year. The major climb from mile 45 to mile 65 was a mix of rock, sand, and washed-out double-track. I ended up walking 3x from fatigue and back pain. The descent after that was 3-4miles of 2-6" deep sand. It was both scary and fun to not ride straight for that long. But in the end, the course was an exciting mix of everything and quite good. If only I hadn't screwed up all of those other things.
The pro winners went 30min faster than I expected, finishing in 4:27. My 6:07 finish was 37% behind the winner and is my worst finish of the year. It definitely felt like that
. I finished 49th overall and 8th in age-group, missing Gravel Worlds qualification by ~45min. My goal of 6:30 was maybe 30min too slow.
I can't leave my finish like this. I will go back
Before & after suffering
