pierre hole 100 part 2, 24 hour nats pre-ride and ernesto update

Saturday was the start, freaking early start at 6am, but at least that meant an early finish to soak up the atmosphere.

Gun went off, and the pace went up immediately. I settled into a pace I could hold for the next 8'ish hours and by the first downhill, I was catching riders already who had flatted on the very first descent.

about half way through the first lap and i picked off a few more here and there. i was moving up and felt good.

2nd lap, all is still going good and i am settling in and picking off riders. seems like i am riding alone a lot at this point, but the heart rate is still holding strong.

somewhere in lap 3'ish, i start to come unglued. heart rate is dropping and i am having difficulty breathing. asthma is starting to kick in slowly but surely and i try not to panic, but i am dropping places and speed. eddie o catches me on the long climb and is out of sight pretty quickly. i try to take in some caffeine to fight off the asthma, but it's too late.

lap 4 become hellacious at this point and i have slowed way down right along with the heart rate. i come through the pit area with 7 miles to go and have to sit down to catch my breathe, but continue to push on. the last miles seemed like an eternity as i had to push my way some little pitches i was flying up just 3 hours before.

i make it in under the time limit to get the belt buckle and somehow still manage a 12th on the day when i was sitting top 5'ish. very disappointing, but happy i pulled it out.

would suck down a few puffs from troy's inhaler along with a few brews before we called it a night.

the next day we would drive straight back as i think the race hit us all pretty hard and hella big breakfast we had in grand junction was enough food to feed us for an entire day, so we rolled on in back into golden colorado the next day....

and then hit up the 24 hours nationals course the day before the rough course layout came out.

behind jon's arm is the pit area, which will be a different spot then compared to other venues out there as you can literally run across the street for brews in case you run out during the night.

otherwise, the course is going to have very little climbing and what rocks they do have on it are going to be very techy and ouchy if you happen to decide to inadvertently eject yourself off of your bike. hope you find a sandy spot if you do.

after that, rolled out, had some awesome Chinese food compliments of Jon - which i have to say mucho thanks to for his and his families hospitality for my week long adventure out west.

and up this week -

reassemble bike 1, bike 2 and 3 repairs and new treads - done

interbike registration and flight - done

asthma doc and new (hopefully) "working" meds - tomorrow

another 100 - this weekend

sologoat out