Back to the weekend in Bend... It was a good one! Bend is a very cyclist friendly town with a laid back attitude, 25mph speed limits, good food, and great trails. After my ride at Marathon Nationals there last year I knew I could go top 10 again this year, and if I had an amazing day the podium may have even been possible. I did have a really good day, but not perfect.
The first few minutes of the race were aggressive because of a fast, super dusty, fire road decent a less than a mile into the race. Everyone got down it safely though and the pace mellowed out for about 20min as we rolled out on a fire road. When the climbing got a little more serious is when the top guys picked up the pace and gaps started to open. I was surprised to see my heart rate in the 180s while still feeling good at the 6,000ft elevation. But I knew well enough to settle into my own pace and not try to hang with the leaders - we had 45-50 miles to go...
My own pace at that point put me in about 15th place and working with a few other riders. From there we did about an hour of super fun single track with some gradual climbing out to the highest point of the course. I was feeling good and riding really smooth on the trails and moved around a handful of guys by the top of the climb. Once I made it down the descent on the other side I took my second feed and kept the hammer down. Then there were some wide open, slight downhill jeep roads. I looked back and there was no one in sight to work with. Then there were more of the jeep roads. Maybe 5 miles worth in total that I had to cruise alone with no one to work with.
Once the trail got into some more single track I was at least able to ride my own pace. I was looking for dust though to see if I was close to any of the guys in front of me and there was none. Knowing the caliber of the riders ahead of me, and knowing they most likely worked together on the jeep roads, I knew I was in no mans land for the long haul. This was close to the 3 hour mark of the race with about 1 hour to go. I was confident that I was in around 10th place but didn't know for sure. From there the trails got super fun with a solid 20min downhill section complete with jumps, berms, drops offs, and endless sweeping turns. From the bottom the final 30 minutes of climbing up to the finish was pretty brutal. I no longer felt fast, had a few pretty serious cramps at the bottom, but in the end kept it together and held my position to the line. After riding the last 2.5 hours solos I was 8th place!!
Tactically it was far from perfect but I still came away with the best result I had in me for the day anyway. It was a really cool moment for me coming across the finish line. Life has been amazing since Cameron entered my world 7 weeks earlier, but the balance of work, training, resting, and helping take care of her has been really challenging. I would still do it all again without even knowing what kind of race result all the work may lead to, but it was pretty awesome to feel God's grace as he gave me the strength to roll through the finish top 10 at Nationals.
http://app.strava.com/activities/22335530
