Race Report for Laramie Enduro, 72 mile Mt. bike race up in Laramie, WY.
Drove down to Denver to Kathy's house and we carpooled up to Laramie for Saturdays race. We left town about 1:45pm on Friday and hit heavy traffic right away. It didn't let up until we were past Fort Collins. It took us about 2½ hours to get to town, we went straight to the depot for packet pick-up and then on to the hotel to unload the bikes, clean up and then back to town for food. We joined a few friends, Kyle, Brian, Jeff M. and his 12 yr. old daughter Reese at the Altitude Chophouse for an early dinner. Finished up by 7:00pm, back to the hotel for last min. preperation and then to bed by 9:00pm.
I decided to have a drop bag at the 3rd aid station (the half-way point) so I put in spare tube/air/ frozen bottle of water, salt and vinegar potato chips and a few extra gels and NUUN tablets. Got that bag ready, filled up my 70oz. camelback and loaded up my feedbag and bento box with my gels/bars/cliff blocks/electrolyte tablets. I got a pretty good nights sleep and was up at 4:45am. The race started at 7:00am and we wanted to be out at the start by about 6:00am. Left the hotel about 5:45am. The temp was a bit cool, low 50's but perfect for racing. Did a quick little warm up and then on to the start.
The Open racers and single speeders started at 7:00am, sport just 10 min. behind. I was middle to back of the pack which was fine for me, I wanted to start a little easier this time around and not be so totally trashed when the last 20 miles came around as they are the hardest and where I cramped big time last year. It was going to be warm today, 85 for the high, so I needed to make sure I was staying on top of my electolytes for the day. About 15 min. into the race my left hamstring started to cramp up, crap! I started taking my Endurolytes 30 min. into the race when typically I would take them after about 2 hours. The race starts with about 500 yards of gravel road and then we hit singletrack for about 1 mile and then it goes to a double track, in the trees and downhill and rolling. So fun! hit more gravel road for a few miles and then singletrack/climbing....then about a :20 min. descent on a gravel road. We hit the first aid station at mile 16.2 (17 on my computer) at 1:01 in the race.
The next section was moderate climbing on a gravel road for about 15 min. and then some rolling hills, thru some creeks for another 30 min. or so. Hit pavement for a couple hundred yards and then back to some sweet singletrack in the woods, nice and cool and I was so happy that there was no one around me for this section. Lots of roots, rocks to manuever around and less stressful not having someone breathing down my backside. I think we stayed on single/double track until the 2nd aid station. I got to the 2nd aid, mile 30.2 (33 on my computer) at 2:29, the same time as last year but at least this year I was feeling really good! I grabbed a handful of Endurolytes and quickly left this aid station.
On to Aid station #3. Nice easy descent on a triple track for what seemed like forever! There was some fun singletrack, rolling hills, riding along barbed wire fences, some gravel road. This section seemed to go by pretty quick and within :50 min. I was aid station #3. Time of 3:21 and 40 miles. ( I didn't check my computer to see what mileage I had here). Had my drop bag so I changed out my water bottle, filled up my camelbak and tossed in 3 NUUN tablets, mixing flavors of cola (which was already in the pack) and pink lemonade...not too bad. Grabbed a handful of potato chips/gold fish/peanut butter & Jelly
bagel (1/4 of one) pretzels and I was on my way. Took longer at this stop then what I wanted but I tried not to be in such a hurry. I loved this course and was trying to really enjoy it. Kathy caught up to me here and I never saw here again. She is riding very strong these days.
On to Aid #4. Another downhill section of singletrack, rolling, thru the trees, then came more climbing, and rollers. Can't remember too much of this section but it wasn't that difficult. The hard sections were the last 20 miles. Oh, I think this might have been the section that I went flying by some guy (who didn't want me to pass him). I was on a double track and I went to pass and when I got in front of him I hit a rock and went flying in to the sagebrush. Scraped up my thigh, I recovered so quick and passed him again within about :30 sec...Never looked back but I think I scared the crap out of that guy! I rolled in to the aid station @ 4:36, (52 miles.. 55 on my computer) filled up a bottle with water, I was drinking from the bottle more than the camelbak as I didn't want to have to re-fill the camelbak the rest of the race, easier to fill the bottle. grabbed a handful of goldfish/pretzels and I was on my way.
To Aid #5. Lots of climbing on this section, started off with gravel road and climbing with little breaks every so often, then we hit the singletrack and climbed, some loose, some very steep (hike a bike sections for me), it would ease up a bit and then climb steep for a short bit. I hit the singletrack climbing at about 5:05 and pretty much climbed for :45 min. Got to the aid station at 5:50 or 5:55. I did another quick fill of the water bottle, handful of goldfish and I was out of there.
Had a flat/downhill section for about 2 miles, got to a little parking lot, rode thru that and there was a guy set up with a bottle of whiskey and some cups.... just in case I wanted a quick drink before the next tough climb. Got to the base of the last climb@ 6:02, this was ride time so total time was 6:12 or so. This was a technical, hike a bike section here. It took me anywhere from :15-20 min. to climb it and then we had some singletrack descents, some sections were a little sketchy but I was so proud of myself for riding this. Some girls were walking it and of course I wanted it to look easy and blow by them...now that I passed them I needed to stay ahead of them. I was following some guy and he asked if I wanted to pass, I said sure as there were a couple of girls on my butt. I had heard another guy yell out to the girls behind me that they were almost finished. I had no idea where I was on the course so I took that info and just FLEW down the singletrack. Sure enough we popped back on to the road by the start/finish area within a couple of min. I was able to stay ahead of them and I finished the race in 6:49 (ride time was 6:39) 12 min. faster than last year and I felt a ton better. I still had lots of energy left so it was obvious I didn't lay it all out there today. I could have ridden harder but I really enjoyed the ride.
Start to Aid #1: 1:01 To Aid #2: 2:29 To Aid #3: 3:21 (at least :05 at this stop)
To Aid #4: 4:36 To Aid#5: 5:55
Start to #1: 1:01
#1 to #2: 1:28
#2 to #3: :50
#3 to #4: 1:15
#4 to #5: :50 from the last hard climb to the finish was :37 min.
