Everest Challenge '05. The Solicited Report
Some of us need excuses to train, and find that racing is perfect for that. I don’t fit into that category so well. Although my results have been good on the bike, I have historically, like since high school cross country, not enjoyed racing. It stresses me out, throws off my regular training (which in turn effects my hormonal/mental balance, apparently I’m a finely tuned animal), I don’t sleep well, I get extremely nervous, filled with anxiety and begin to think of excuses to not race. Just the same, I think racing is a good excuse for me to travel, and being true to my astrological sign, I carry my house on my back well. This proved to be an excellent place to check out, as there is beauty to be seen all around if the pain of the body isn’t the only bit of sensory input being processed. In a race like this you don’t have to be suffering at such an intensity that you can’t be conscious of the fact it is an enjoyable experience, if you’re fit. I highly recommend it, especially for those that have patience.
Because my employer goes by the name “mom” I’m able to have a pretty flexible schedule and so decided to leave for the race on Thursday afternoon, such that I’d have Friday to play around before the race started on Saturday. A friend of mine, Matt, wanted to see me race, and came out to drive support for the race so he would be involved. A big thank you to him as he ended up helping me quite a bit more after the race was over. Matt was hit by an SUV a few years ago in Durango and nearly died. His heart stopped three seperate times, he broke some bones, had to get his mouth laced shut twice due to reconstructive surgery on his jaw, had a collapsed lung, torn ligaments, etc. etc. etc. Before that he was an excellent x-country and middle distance runner. I would always go out to see him race and now that the roles have been reversed it’s kind of a strange feeling.
We went to check out the last climb of day two on Friday. Beyond the end of the race there is a dirt road that leads up to the Patriarch Grove, which supposedly is home to some of the oldest known trees on Earth. (Sorry about the dust on the lens…)
As boys tend to do when there is a camera around, we turned into posers…
Clearly Matt is a runner, not a gymnast.
Don Juan, via Carlos Castaneda says the “assemblage point” of a tree is near it’s base, about where the lowest branch is. Try as I might, I don’t think I tapped into 4,000 year old wisdom.
Any ideas what this thing is? There was nothing written on it.
Above the non-bristlecone tree line. About 11,500’.
After driving around with the gas-light on for 30-45 minutes, we decided it was time to get the hell out of nowhere land, aka the White mountains. We went down to Bishop the back way, as it was shorter according to the signage, although we had no idea what we might encounter. Mainly we came across steep descents, tight turns, some righteous air (for a car) and lots of water.
Matt walked through this crossing before the car went through. In it he found a license plate, which we thought was pretty funny. The astute, or maybe even just the average observer, will have noticed that the license plate on the front of my car in the first picture is no longer there in the third, and is in fact on the ground in the last picture. Believe it or not, Matt didn’t realize that was my license plate, as he thought it was the other license plate the creek ate up. We didn’t realize I had in fact lost my plate until we were back at the hotel several hours later looking at these pictures. It was still there when we went back.
We stayed at the Vagabond Inn.
(Narrator: In a Napoleon Dynamitesque voice) “I’ll drive what I want to drive, gosh!” This was one of the support vehicles. Sweet.
The CAT4/5 field was about 4 times as large as the next biggest field. Here we are on the neutral start.
We started at about 4,000’, just outside of Bishop. Here we are around 6,500’ on Old Sherwin Grade, which is an excellent road that starts out with vast views and then after the first downhill there are more trees that envelop you.
Mosquito Flats is a bit over 10,000’, and the 6,000’ climb whittled the group down to 4 by the time we hit the top. One of those four was a guy that is 6’6" and weighs 205lbs.
Not exactly sure where Matt took this shot, but I believe it’s on the descent back towards the 395/Bishop.
A view off the side of Old Sherwin Grade.
On one of the false flats heading towards the second climb of the day. By now we picked up a few racers from the other categories.
David Yakaitis, semi-pro mountain biker (3rd last week in mammoth in the open cross country race and 6th in the marathon), CAT4 on the road, and I were a negligible amount ahead of third placed, Eli Richbourg. At this time my legs were starting to twitch, and I kept trying to tell myself it wasn’t the precursor to cramping, though I knew it was.
Off the side of Pine Creek Rd.
Less than 1,000’ into the last 6,000’ climb of the day and I was cramping. David and Eli were still in race mode while I was suddenly in limit-the-losses mode. I was dissapointed that I didn’t have my nutrition dialed in better.
A few miles from the finish at South Lake, probably around 9,000’. At this point I was still in third, but was in a lot of trouble.
It was tough for me to appreciate the beauty in the last mile, but Matt saw it.
I was cramping bad enough that I could no longer spin the cranks on the third to last incline. I had to walk for about an 1/8 of a mile to stretch my legs out. While walking, the fourth placed rider in our division passed me. I was able to get back on and climb the last two little walls to the finish without cramping up and falling over. I ended up losing about 25 minutes to David and 20 minutes to Eli in the last 5,000’. Bummer.
(Day two is on the way, but I’m off to dinner and as this has taken a while to re-size all the pictures and type this out I don’t want to leave this sitting on my computer without posting the message just in case the computer freezes up or something ridiculous like that.)
The start of day two, just east of Big Pine, was definitely colder than the start of day one. The neutral start was almost a bit painful and I was shivering pretty bad. It was nice to hit the first climb of the day and warm up.
