Race Results

Send in some race results to chinook@chinookcyclingclub.com, let everyone know what you are doing.

Congratulations to Ryan Brown for Winning the Whiskey Dick Triathlon in Ellensburg!

Ryan won the event with a time of 2:33:45.

Congratulations to Craig Groendyke for taking 3rd at Nationals!

The 4^th of July, was spent driving to Sun Valley, ID, with Elizabeth, for the 2013 USA Cycling National Championships, Marathon Mountain Bike Race. Friday morning I did a short ride around River Run Plaza, the finish area, then down to the start of the Cold Springs Trail.  I went about ¾ of a mile up the trail to get a feel of the climb.  Then back to the room to rest and make all the final preps for Saturday’s race.  I picked up my race packet in the afternoon and found that the start location had changed, there was now a short climb up the canyon from River Run Plaza, and our start time was 2 minutes later.  This was good news, as the 60 + men’s field was not going to start with the 50+ and 55+ fields.  Also confirmed, for the first time, that there would be a 65 to 69 field (YEA), and that there were 6 riders in my field.  Turns out there were only 5 riders and one did not start.

Saturday morning at 8:40 AM we are off.  There was a call up of about 6 riders in the field, past champions and other highly ranked riders.  The rest of us were finally allowed to move up behind the “select” riders.  The climb up the canyon on a service road was about 16 to 18 %, followed by a run up to the single track that we followed down to the finish area (line).  This was the same start we did in 2011 for the Cross Country Championships, and I did not want to get mixed up in a mad scramble so early in the race, so I hung back and followed the leaders with 2 or 3 riders behind me.  We went past the finish line and started the first of two long laps.  We road down a bike path along the Big Woods River to the Cold Springs Trail (6.6 miles and 2,500 feet of climbing with some short pitches of more than 20%.  The trail had long sections of 7% to 9%.  I do not recall any flat or down hill sections on this trail.  It did not take very long before I was feeling the elevation.  My Garmin said I topped out at 8,060 feet at the top of the climb.  We descended on the Warm Springs Trail to the Traverse Trail (access road) which had climb of about 1 mile.  Then downhill on a road to the River Run Trail.  A fast downhill run with over a dozen sharp steep switchbacks.  I don’t do switchbacks very well.  I took these with caution, as you could see evidence of where riders had slid out and gone down.  I got to the finish line at the end of lap 1 and Elizabeth was within with a cold bottle of sports drink.  I started the race with a 24 oz bottle of sports drink and 70 oz of water in a Camel Back.  The average temperature for my first lap was 64 F with a high of 73 F.  I felt I had been drinking often and enough along with taking plenty of Endurolytes.  About 1/3 of the way up the Cold Spring Trail on lap 2, my hamstrings began to talk to me.  This is not good, as from experience if I keep pushing it, they will cramp and I will be in big trouble.  The only option is to keep drinking and back off on the power.  By the time I got to the top of the Cold Springs trail I had stopped several times to stretch my hamstrings.  The cramping got so bad, I had to walk the last 100 feet. The second lap had been a real soul searcher up to this point. I would stretch, get back on the bike and take two pedal strokes and the cramps would return.  This section of the trail is on the south side of Bald Mountain, and the temperatures were in the upper 70’s.  The second lap averaged 77 F, with a high of 86 F.  I filled up my water bottle here.  This would bring my total liquid intake for the ride to 3 x 24 oz bottles, one 20 oz bottle just before the start and 70 oz in the Camel Back.  It was not enough!  All this time I am thinking I was in 5^th place.  It only took a little over an hour to get back to the finish from the high point on the course.  At the finish it was a great feeling of satisfaction.  I was pretty sure I made the podium, I had not crashed, I had hit a top speed of over 32 MPH, and climbed 6,350 feet in 39.3 miles.  5 hours and 30 minutes total time by Garmin.  The official results say my time was 6:04:20!  I think they forgot to subtract the 40 minutes my group started after the Pro Men started at 8:00.  Turns out, I ended up in 3^rd place, 60 – 69 men.  My first Podium at a National Championship Race!

Elizabeth was there to greet me at the end.  What a trooper!  She spent 5 ½ hours of killing time while I was having fun/trying not to kill myself/not get injured/and fulfilling a lifelong goal of getting on the Podium.