After Terrible Two the weekend before, I swore I'd give up riding, sell all my riding gear, list my bike on Craigslist and never look back.
Instead, at 5:30 am on Saturday, June 25th, I was at the starting line with a couple hundred other people to tackle the 155 mile Climb to Kaiser. Purportedly one of the toughest bike rides in the country (according to Bicycling Magazine, but what do they know).
I was actually thinking about the Climb to Kaiser since early in the year and it was part of the original plan together with the Terrible Two. After my experience at TT, I thought that perhaps if I used only the EFS powder all ride long, and made sure I drank it and plenty of water as well, I might be able to get through a ride and still feel decent (and hungry) at the end.
So off we went. Boy did they ever set off. There was a Clovis PD car that served as a lead car through town and the first 20 miles, or so, before the first climb. Some guys were legitimately fast and had every reason (and physical ability, considering what lay before them) to go like bats out of hell from the opening gun. Others, like me, who should have known better, weren't legitimately fast and had no reason for taking off like they did. After 17 miles of 25 mph through the flat lands, I dropped out of the pace line and watched everyone move off in the distance. It was the smart thing to do. I'm not sure how much it helped or hurt by the end, but it's the second week in a row where I deviated from the plan too much.
Once I was on my own I settled down to a normal rhythm. I drank the EFS and water, I thought, pretty regularly. I used three 24 oz bottles of EFS and one of water in the first 45 miles.
As climbs go, the first two, Wildcat and Tollhouse were pretty mild, particularly Wildcat. Tollhouse had some sections that required some work, but the "wall" I was expecting to see in the last half mile, that everyone had warned about, wasn't much of a wall at all. Sure, it was a little steeper, but nothing too arduous.
The climb out of Big Creek is a brute. 4.5 miles, 10% average, 20% max. The road was in terrible condition. I can't imagine riding it in the opposite direction--steep, narrow, poor pavement, steep drop offs directly to the right. Nah--better to take this in from the Shaver Lake direction to Huntington Lake.
By this point, I was still feeling pretty good. I was still drinking. I did note, with some minor alarm, that it was burning when I had to pee. I don't know if it was because of what I was drinking, or if it was coincidental. I was beginning to feel the effects of the effort by the time we reached the rest stop at Huntington Lake, 69 miles in. This was also the lunch stop. I drank the second of two Ensure's. Went down okay. I tried to eat some other food, mostly fruits, but I was sensing the coming on of the stomach shutdown. Now it was just a matter of whether I could avoid it by drinking still more, eat more, eat something different? What?!
Just before the lunch stop I happened upon an old friend, Keith Cook, who's son, Roger, is a hotshot fast guy. Keith was one of those that took off fast in the morning so he could ride with his son for at least part of the day. We rode to the rest stop together, but he went on in order to catch sight of his son coming down from Kaiser Pass.
The last 8 miles up to Kaiser Pass were the longest of the day. My legs felt decent, but my head, my psyche was getting to me. Perhaps the altitude had something to do with it. I just didn't feel 100%, or anywhere near it. Going uphill, trying to calculate how long the climb would take. Not knowing what to expect. I saw Roger Cook come down about 6th place overall. I didn't seek Keith Cook coming back down until I was about a 1/2 mile from the top. It is weird how the summits seem to suddenly sneak up on you. Just when you think you've had enough, so has the mountain.
I'd managed to eat one GU at the Shaver Lake rest stop without (almost) gagging. I tried to eat (do you "eat" gels?) another at the top of Kaiser and had less luck. I got about 2/3 of it down, gagged, had to throw the rest out. I tried to eat a few other things, but I wanted to get rolling as quickly as possible. I wanted to get done.
The descent is a lot of fun, particularly once you're back on the main road, past the forest service gate. There was a lot of water on the road from melting snow. Enough that the lube on my chain was washed off and I had a noisy bike by the time I got back to Clovis. The watery roads nearly ruined my pair of Quackcyclists' socks, too!
Tamarack Ridge, normally, wouldn't be such a big deal, except for a little fatigue from what had gone before. I caught up with a young man and we rode together for a while. I kept noticing a car stopping and taking photos. At first, I thought he was one of those photogs that later places his digital images on his website for sale to the ride participants (like Photocrazy). Then I noticed that he kept leapfrogging me. I was getting a little paranoid. I finally realized that he wasn't stalking me, he was stalking this young man. And, it turns out, he wasn't stalking him. I asked the kid, "did you bring your own private photographer?" He said, "no. . . that's my dad." Mystery solved.
We worked together--I think we did anyway. I intended to, I don't know if he intended to. I could tell he was tired. But he kept a pretty good pace. I'd passed him earlier on the late portions of Kaiser Pass, but he caught back up to me on Tamarack.
After we crested the last of the 4 individual climbs that make up Tamarack and descended towards Shaver Lake, he ended up gapping me by a little bit. I was starting to feel really crappy by this point. I was getting nervous about the fact that, once to Shaver Lake, I still had 47 miles to go (and, while I knew that was mostly downhill, that certainly didn't mean ALL downhill).
Before reaching Shaver Lake I caught up to the kid again. We both stopped at the rest stop. I tried to eat and drink, made up another bottle of EFS. I opened a Pepsi and tried to drink some. Even the Pepsi made me gag. I got a sip down, gagged and shot it back through my nose. I was wiping Pepsi out of my nose for the next 15 miles. Not being able to eat, or drink, realizing that I still had a ways to go, I was getting panicky.
It was not all downhill to the next stop, but there was a lot of it. I caught up to Keith again in Auberry and we ended up riding in together the rest of the way. We passed the kid again--he hadn't stopped in Auberry. After we passed him, we didn't see him again. He ended up finishing about an hour after Keith and I.
Keith was running low on energy. I was absolutely dehydrated, lips were dry, mouth was a mess. Not totally out of energy, not a total bonk, but I was getting dangerously close--although not as bad as at the Terrible Two the week earlier.
Keith and I tried trading pulls. I think he probably got the raw end of the deal. I have to say that it really did work out better that we could ride together. We caught up with one other fellow at the Millerton Store rest stop, the last rest stop with just 16 miles to the end.
This fellow decided to ride in with us in order to benefit from a group. Despite the fact that we'd just caught up to him, he was obviously stronger than either Keith or me in those last 16 miles. It was weird in that occasionally I felt pretty good at the front, other times, just dead. I'm not sure how Keith felt, but he was saying he wasn't about completely out of gas.
I'm not quite sure how I made it in. I did. Together with Ray Winter of Fresno (a runner who got into biking at the urging of some friends while rehabbing a knee injury. He ran Boston this year, says he'll do one more Boston then stop marathons because it's too hard on the body). Nice guy, and patient with Keith and I.
After finishing, all I could do is sit in the shade and swear. I was having almost the same feelings I did at the end of the Terrible Two. Zero appetite. Completely fatigued. After a while, I managed to get a shower. Threw up in the shower. Felt a little better. Nothing to throw up. Nothing came up.
I tried some 7-Up, then we left about 6:30, or so. We stopped by the Foster's Freeze on Clovis Avenue. Linda had a vanilla shake. I opted out, but changed my mind and had a root beer smoothie. It went down well, and stayed down. I wished I'd had a larger size!
By the time we were near Merced I was willing to talk about solid food again. Then I pushed it to Turlock. We ended up at a Chipotle at 8:30 and I was able to down three tacos and a Coke. No problem. I have an appointment with a nutritionist on July 15th to talk about the problems I've had at the three long events this year--Central Coast, Terrible Two, and Climb to Kaiser.
I don't know if it is what I eat/drink, how much I eat/drink, a combination of the two. Whatever I've been doing isn't working. I'd like to finish these feeling tired, but strong, and with an appetite.
Keith, Ray, and I ended up in 11 hrs 19 minutes. Keith was 2 minutes better than his time last year. His son Roger did 5 minutes better than last year and finished in 9 hrs 26 minutes. The "winner" (in quotes since, technically, this was not a race) finished in 8 hours flat. He was the previous record holder in a time he shared with one other guy of 8 hrs 4 minutes. It would have been cool to see 7 hours 59 minutes. Keith, Ray and I were at about 41st out of 181 finishers. After having let all those folks go earlier, I don't know when/where I caught back up. It didn't seem I was passing anybody.
Big Creek is the location of a Southern California Edison powerplant. It's in an incredibly beautiful valley. The river that feeds the powerplant was flowing huge amounts of water, similar to what's happening at Yosemite it's being fed by a huge snowpack this year. One local rider and I talked a bit and he commented on the enormity of the flows--"it just doesn't happen like that usually."
Some of the views from Tollhouse and Big Creek climbs were amazing. From the top of Kaiser there wasn't really much to see.
I swore off the bicycle again, the second week in a row, after this ride. It's Tuesday evening following and I am holding firm so far.
