So I will save you all some time if you don't want to read the entire gory blood and guts heavily skewed details of my CFiTT run.
I did it, I won. I didn't puke, didn't bonk, didn't cramp, didn't quit, didn't get picked up, didn't camp out and sleep over.
I did it all in 25 hours and 37 minutes. Rode 177 miles. I did it all Under my own power and support. I rode every inch of the course, some of it twice.
Naysayers can promptly line up to kiss my butt, I have proven that I can DELIVER and I DID IT ALL ON A FIXED GEAR BIKE.
There. That's it. If you don't like long Gorey blood and guts detailed accounts and endless dribble about how cool I am and about how fond I am of myself and my accomplishments you can promptly click a link on the right or navigate to another site. I will give you several seconds to ponder this and then move on at your leisure.
....................
....................
....................
Ok, if your still here then you want to read the rest of this. The story will be broken down into three parts, cause one huge chunk would not do it justice. It all started on a small farm on the city line between Osteen and Deltona, a Young man Named Karlos had just got done packing and prepping his gear when suddenly.....
The door opens, its Brett. Brett came all the way from Pennsylvania talked the Infamous Dave Hawkins into giving him a ride and he was at my house early since we were gonna wake up at 2am to get to the race on time to do everything we needed to do.
I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked but it was better than nothing. We got to the race after breakfast, everyone was scrambling to get ready and the race didn't start exactly at 6am cause I wanted to make sure every ones SPOT units were tracking. So we started instead at 7am and promptly we all took off after the riders meeting and I answered any and all questions.
Within the first ten minutes I looked over my shoulder and Brett and I were alone. I didn't know if we had dropped them or if it was tactic but we just kept the cranks turning and doing the work to get out of Paisley woods.
I had a small crash, lots of sharp Hitchikers, trying to stay on top of my electrolytes and food and I was checking the clock and I was on schedule when we hit the first forest road and headed towards the paved road.
We got into Billy bay, Brett and I kept leap frogging thru there and then emerged on 19 and headed across towards the Rail Road Grade. At that point Brett out paced me and pulled away. From that point forward I watched him get smaller and smaller on the horizon.
I expected this and Never even considered the possibility of closing the gap.
By mile 35 I had run out of water completely, something else I expected, and I kept the pace steady towards checkpoint one at Silver Glenn. By the clock it showed at my arrival at the Glenn I was 13 minutes behind Brett. It didn't matter, I watched as he was already changing and getting ready to leave, I had to do some repair. Drink, take some liquid calories, refuel, enjoy the water and just relax a bit. I stayed about 1 hour and 18 minutes at the Glenn and then took off.
By that point I had watched Tom Rassiga and Bryan Frantz both roll in.
I started making my way on FR 86. The sun was incredibly hot. I kept splashing water on my head and face, taking tiny 5 second breaks in the shade, till I eventually made the Lake Eaton Loop. Once I descended down into the loop, the sky opened up in a strong cell of a storm and I suited up and put on my jacket. Got all my pics and kept going and eventually began the climb out of Lake Eaton and came across Tom Rassiga who had confirmed that he had retired from the race.
When I came out as I put away my jacket I noticed a fresh pair of tire tracks that had looped back to Lake eaton. I figured this was Bryan and I put a counter attack down. He must have kept his break short and I thought for sure he would rest as long as I did. Wrong. I took off like a Bat out of hell and raced my ass on my way out of the forest. Watching the Mileage, ticking off the miles keeping my effort steady and diligent.
I came out of the forest, hit the pavement and did the same thing. I kept looking over my shoulder and didn't see anyone coming, got to the Fire Station, refueled and refreshed spent a little bit of time at that stop.
I took off again and not even 5 minutes after I hear Bryan ride up. He says Hi, I say to him did you get a picture of the fire station. That sent him turning around for some bonus miles.
He went back, I kept the pace as best as I could on the road. Hit the 24th st road and Bryan caught me on the Limestone portion. Really nice guy, we chatted it up, stayed together, he eventually, took off and I caught up to him again at Marshall Swamp. We refueled and then took off in the single track and eventually popped out on Baseline road. He was about 20 bike lengths back, I kept thinking wow, he really does not want to violate the no draft rule, but I kept wondering why he didn't just take the front. He had gears and lots of pep he could have dropped me but instead he followed about the same distance back till we got to Santos.
At Santos, we discovered the convenience store was closed down which was a total bummer. Almost disastrous actually as I was in need of liquid and solid calories. I got a hold of Papa Johns and got them to Deliver. When I arrived at Santos, I discovered the Roberts were there and that really put a huge smile on my face. They had been watching the site and made the trip to visit and take pics, it was so good to see them after a LONG hot day.
I took a serious break, showered, changed, made some repairs, ate food, took a nap. The pizza was delicious and coke provided some much needed caffeine and sugar. Little did I know at this point what the night had in store.....
No comments:
Post a Comment