Sunday, May 31, 2009

scorching run to the pottery

4/25/09 morrisville 300K

after what was a smooth, comfortable 200K, I figured 300K was just another 4-5 hrs. and eating and drinking more... wrong..

we'd been enjoying mild early spring weather and out of nowhere, bam! low 90's..
the heat came early and wasn't playin'. but first, let's take it from the top:

I needed 30min. to get to the ride so with 45 to go I topped off the air in my tires.
HHHIIIIISSSSSSS! damnit, the stem pulled right out of the front tube! no time to change,
tick-tock. I ran to my lightspeed, and pulled the front off it as it has strong mavics and the brakes would line up ok..I used a different pump after throwing the silca out back and headed out. I tried to be cool and not go too hard but it was gonna be close..
nope, empty lot. I checked in and Al said they left about 5 min. ago..i took off and he called me back for my control card. now i'm off. hustling. after 6miles I passed gary and sara who were doing a repair (already!). that's all the riders I saw afor a while.
I hammered to frosty's (30miles)thinking everyone would fill bottles because it was warm already. not! frosty's was closed. onward. 20 more miles to snow camp and there they were! problem-fast, hard start. 50 miles on 2 bottles. I would never recover from this. I drank a couple drinks at the store and chased the dozen riders to siler city. at the control we ate and drank more. off they went (again!) and I was stuck at the light.
i rode with one or two riders to seagrove, stopping for more drinks at the halfway.

the highlight of the ride was Dean's fabulous set-up at the turnaround: ice, cold water, gatorade, bananas, fig bars, sunscreen, tires, tools, and chairs! I took full advantage of this, hoping for some rejuvination to come into me. it never really did..
byron and I left for the return and stopped 10 miles out for more fluid. a gallon jug with "RUSA" scribbled on it rested on the newspaper rack. we topped a bottle and put some in our cyling caps ( this feels good,btw). off we went. the heat was oppressive.
with only 5miles back to siler city i faded and byron rolled on. i simply pulled off the road and sat in the grassy shade. after a minute i got another text from my sister who was worried and I said come on out if you can. chuck rolled up, and off I went, feeling a bit better. back in siler city, byron was hanging and we chilled a bit when bob rolled in and dean drove up. we visited a few and I announced I was done. 200 was all I had on this day. a top three high temp horror story for me and one I won't forget soon.

I did learn some important things about fluid and fuel. need alot!
don't leave anything to the morning: should have pumped those tires night before.

coming next: I'll tell you about the Acorn bags i'm running now (300 was first run).
they rock. i'll get some pictures and post soon!

geof

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