Julian Death March - Second Loop

Loop Two

Man writing these reports takes a long time. Haha.

The start of the second loop was obviously difficult. I simply did not want to do it. I was having a hard time finding the right motivation.

It started with a short paved climb and then a few miles of paved descending. Immediately I became frustrated because I knew I'd have to finish the ride with a climb up what I had just descended.

Eventually I reached the park that I had to ride around in. I knew the loop was about 22 miles and I thought it was about 2500 feet of climbing. Turns out it was about 3000 feet of climbing - or roughly the same as climbing Blackstar to Sierra Peak. Imagine doing a ride a little shorter than The Traverse and then having to go to Sierra Peak. Not fun.

The Park

The park we were riding in started out very pleasant. Fast and easy fire road that was overgrown with green grass. It had started to cool down and I got a burst of energy from something. Maybe it was the gels I was eating.

I came up to a creek crossing where I ran into the second place finisher. I was in my big ring and after going through the creek I realized that was the wrong gear because on the other side was a long steep climb.

As I was changing gears I saw the third place guy fly down and bomb through the water crossing. The climb turned out to be very tough. Everyone told me the second loop consisted of a lot of short and steep climbs. They were right.

After clearing the first steep climb I could feel my legs starting to twitch a little. I took it easy at the top to avoid cramping and cruised through some more easy fire road areas. The scenery was really nice. There were rolling green hills all around and a nice breeze helped cool me down.

Descent

As I approached the turn around point I ran into Calvin who was going in the opposite direction. A brief "Hi" and we went our separate ways. I was actually encouraged because I didn't think he was that far ahead of me. Turns out he would finish a little over an hour faster than me. I was racing the virtual partner on my GPS and keeping pace and so that mistakenly led me to believe that I was closer to Calvin that I actually was.

Soon I started to descend and again I got worried. The fire road was steep and loose. It reminded me a lot of Coal Canyon. Actually it was exactly like Coal Canyon. Sandy, rocky and unmaintained. I ran into two more riders - one of who was a girl. Ugh. A girl. A girl was ahead of me on the course. Defeat.

Every 20 yards or so I became more and more demoralized. The terrain was just so unforgiving. Even though it was a fire road my wrists were starting to hurt and I knew I would have to climb back out of the area I had dropped in to.

Ascent

Eventually the downhill ended and it was time to climb. I didn't have to climb what I had just descended, but the climb was similar as far as the terrain - if not a little easier. I was really starting to slow down and my energy level was very low. As I started to climb up the technical section I had come down earlier I ran into a singlespeed guy that I thought was way ahead of me. I was so excited to catch him while he walked the climb we were on.

I managed to clear all of it, but not without a tremendous effort.

All I wanted to do was to see a few other riders going the opposite way, which would mean I was not last. I ran into a few guys and that made my day. One of them was a guy I had been trading with on some of the earlier climbing. I don't remember passing him, but there he was. He was heading out and I was heading back.

Meadow

After finishing one of the loops I started heading back the way I had come in. Just one more loop to do before I could hit the pavement and go back to the finish.

I saw another rider or two as I was hitting a meadow with cows in it. Not just cows, but bulls as well. There were no barriers between me and the cows/bulls and that made me a little nervous. I saw one bull that looked especially mean. If he had decided to charge me I would have been in big trouble. I don't think I would have had the energy to get away from a determined bull. Haha.

At this point I saw two more riders in front of me and that really surprised me. I hadn't seen anyone in front of me for quite a while and I wasn't sure how I had caught up to them.

I managed to pass one of them on a gradual climb, but the other guy managed to elude me. He had a white shirt and an orange Niner and I remembered him from earlier in the day. He was the guy that had caught me on the Oriflame climb.

Out of the Park

As I climbed my way out of the park I started to focus in on the white shirt guy. He looked like he was in significant pain and was riding pretty slow. Despite how injured he looked I just couldn't overcome him. His pace matched mine and the gap remained the same.

Interestingly enough another rider suddenly appeared a short distance ahead of me in addition to the white shirt guy. Took me a while, but I managed to reel him in.

White shirt guy wouldn't give in though.

Pavement to Finish

I got out of the park and onto the pavement and was still just a tiny bit behind white shirt dude. He kept looking back to see if I was there and after he saw me he would turn around and then stand up. Haha. I'm not sure if he was trying to stay ahead or what. He was still looking very, very tired and was far from pulling away.

Part of me wanted to attack him and get ahead, but the greater part of me just wanted to relax and cruise to the finish. I decided I wouldn't try and make a move - mostly because I didn't have the energy to do it.

Then something strange happened. We hit a short but fast descent and he took it very slow and started weaving on the road. I took it very fast and passed him. It was almost as if he was giving me the spot ahead of him. I have no idea why he did that. It didn't matter. Once I passed him I was not going to let him catch up. I started standing and I attacked the last mile of the course on the pavement. He was not going to finish ahead of me.

FINISH

I finished a minute or two ahead of him and rode into an empty finish area. It seems that 80% of the riders were already done and gone. My time for the second loop was about 2:37, which was 30 minutes slower than the virtual partner. Ouch.

I drank a Coke, ate a banana, got my free t-shirt and drove two hours home. Haha. I made a slight detour in Ramona to eat KFC. It felt so great to eat chicken. I looked and smelled like a bum, but it was great to just sit and eat and not worry about how sloppy I was with the chicken. Haha.

The ride was around 82 miles and it marks the longest ride I've ever done in one day. I'm actually pretty happy with my performance. I'll write more about that later. Always have to have lessons learned!