znfdl
10-31-2005, 08:29 AM
On October 29th, I started the Death Valley Double Century (actually 198 miles, with almost 10,000 feet of vertical gain) at 7:10 am. The temperatures were a cool 57 degrees with a brilliant sunrise. At 7:09 and several seconds the countdown began and at 7:10 the race was on. The riders started to hammer out a pace that was between 23 mph and 28 mph. I made the split and stayed with the fast group for a while. At the 96 mile mark with 6,000 feet of climbing behind me, I pulled into the rest stop after 6 hours and 10 minutes of riding and rest stop time. I was the 22nd rider out of 150 riders at the 96 mile checkpoint and was a full 1 hour and 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The mountain range at the 96 mile mark was a nice surprise as the mountains consisted of brilliant pink rock. The next 25 miles turned out to be more problematic, as the combination of a steady headwind, poor pavement and a 10 mile grade caused my average speed to plummet. I made it into the 121 mile rest stop in slightly less than 8 hours total time. After lunch there was a short screaming downhill and a climb to the volcanic formation of the UBEHEHE crater. This short 10 mile detour (5 miles out and back) had a bump in the pavement every 100 feet and a strong steady headwind. After climbing back out from the crater the screaming downhill continued. I hit a rock and heard the familiar pop sound. I was waiting for the hiss that usually follows the pop sound, but I escaped a flat tire or so I thought. I continued riding the remaining 30 miles until the 165 mile rest stop. I noticed that I was working harder than I expected at that point in the ride, but kept plugging along. I pulled into the 165 mile rest stop in just under 11 hours of total riding and rest stop time. I also noticed that my front tire had about 50 pounds of air in it, which explained why I was working so hard. At this point I was still 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The remaining obstacles to finishing the ride consisted of a almost 7 mile 2,000 foot climb up Hell’s Gate, a long fast downhill and 10 miles of flat road. Climbing Hell’s Gate under the stars was a beautiful experience. At mile 174, I decided to take a nature break and did not realize that my bike was not pointed directly up the hill. When I stopped, I ended up falling on my left side, which caused severe back spasms. I lay on the ground for about 45 seconds, hoping that the spasms would subside. I got off my bike, took my nature break and started to climb again. I went about 200 feet before the spasms returned, I rested for about 10 minutes to let the spasms calm down and I repeated this process for a half hour before I decided to abandon the ride as there was no way that was going to be able to climb the last 2 miles. I rode back down the climb to the 169 mile rest stop. Once I got off the bike, the back spasms continued for another hour. I ended up riding a total of 180 miles but depressed as I was so close to the finish, but one bonehead mistake cost me a sub 13 hour double century. Overall, I was happy with my ride, as this was a ride to test how much I recovered from a knee injury and almost 2 years off the bike.