Furnace Creek 508 2011 Race Recap

So I was not successful in completing this year’s FC508.  I managed to struggle through 309 miles of the course, when my team and I decided it would be foolish to continue.  I was already at the 28 hour mark, which just left me 20 hours to complete the remaining 200 miles, which would show me some of the toughest climbs of the day.  I had suffered enough at this point and it did not make any sense to struggle another moment just to make it to the next time station.  The point where I got off the bike was the bottom of the descent of the Jubilee Pass, just before the 2,300’ 9.5 mile ascent to the Salsberry Pass.  I had barely managed to hold onto my bike during this descent and I wasn’t willing to risk crashing during the next descent had I even managed to make it to the top of it.

Furnace Creek 508 Elevation Profile

As I got off my bike and sat down in the support vehicle, I looked into my crew chief’s eyes (@gregbarnett) and I could tell he did not think I should go on.  Greg had been discussing my progress with the rest of my crew (Jeff – @blahspam and Bill – @williamrozner) and they all were more concerned for my health than completing the race.  Jeff was keeping track of my time and constantly reminding me that I had to move on.   While listening to him I was on a seesaw in my mind; on one end my brain was telling me to suck it up and keep going and on the other end the growing realization that I was running out of time and soon would not be able to finish no matter how badly I wanted to or how much further I rode.  Eventually, realization grew so fat and heavy that it could not be ignored and with the confirming opinions of my support crew, I knew it would be useless to risk injury or worse, just for the sake of a few more miles.

Perhaps couple of factors affected me this year.  I went into the race sick with an Ear, Nose and Throat infection.  I was on antibiotics for the week before the race, and just on the day I flew to California, I came down with a terrible ear ache.  I saw an ENT specialist to make sure it was ok to fly, and he gave me antibiotic drops to put in both ears.  The flight from NY to Burbank was awful on my body.  The dry air decimated my sinuses and I was in pain throughout the flight.  When I landed I was congested and couldn’t sleep.  For the three days before the race, I got very little sleep and my appetite was less than normal.

The second factor was I had a lot fewer cycling miles this year.  I got a late start towards training and I hoped to make up for fewer miles through strength training.  The strength training didn’t really help my aerobic capacity though, and I noticed while I was riding that my HR seemed to be higher than it had been in the past.  This just reinforces my past belief that strength training should only supplement my endurance training, not be a substitution.

Despite my cold and fewer cycling miles, the race started off good and I did the first 100 miles averaging 15.5 mph.  For the first 25 of them I wore a helmet cam to capture part of the race.  I hope to have clips of that video here sometime soon.  When I reached Stage 1, I was only 5 minutes slower than I was the previous year.  Perhaps, I should have gone slower and conserved some energy for later.  The second miles did not go nearly as well and my digestion started to shut now.  I was on the climb into Death Valley at the 209 mile mark when I really started to get into trouble.  I needed to take many breaks during this climb and my digestion completely shut down.  I would pull off the side of the road and vomit in order to try to clear my stomach.

Without being able to get anything into my stomach that might help wake me up, I began to get tired and slept for about 30 minutes in the support vehicle.  The nap refreshed me and that allowed to me to go another 100 miles.  However, all during that time, I wasn’t able to take in any substantive nutrition.

I guess my first feelings upon immediately sitting in the support vehicle while my crew packed my bike was relief.  I couldn’t imagine at this point going on any further and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go to sleep.  I was completely out of it.  We drove into Shoshone, which was the next time station and reported that I would not be continuing on due to illness.  We briefly discussed going to a hospital to get an IV, but I decided that I would see how it would go for a while and see if my digestion recovered.  In the meantime, we waited for a friend @speakofthedevil to come meet us.  She was driving from several hours away to cheer me on.  I was feeling somewhat embarrassed that I was sitting in the support vehicle as a race dropout and didn’t have much strength to get out of the car to interact with her or her son.  I hadn’t seen her in a few years and I really wished it was under better circumstances.

My disappointment in not being able to complete the race grew more profound as we made our way home.  Silently, I started to weep to myself as the realization set in.  I was as sad as I’d ever been and it made me think of the boys you see on TV that just lost the Little League World Series.  It was like I struck out with the bases loaded with the tying run on third to end the game.

All of my friends, relatives and family were very supportive of me and I am told not to look at not completing the race as being a failure.  It is hard to look at it any other way.  This blog entry however, is going to be the last I dwell on it.  I know I tried my hardest this year and the stars just did not align themselves properly.  In fact, during the entire night of my ride through Death Valley, the moon was slightly less than full.  Perhaps it was this missing piece that threw me off.  If anything, my inability to complete the race this year has given me a much, much greater appreciation for what I accomplished last year in finishing the race.  I know now that if I am allowed to go back to the race again, I will go with a fire in my belly and extract my revenge.  In the meantime, I have this year’s NYC Marathon to look forward and then I have only 9 months to nail Ironman Lake Placid in 2012.

I would also like to thank all of my Twitter and Facebook followers who send me messages during the course of my training and before, during and after the race.  Your support is so greatly appreciated and will be remembered forever.