Cycling: The Uxbridge Icebreaker....a Bike Mechanics dream!

Monday, March 27, 2006 - 04:40 PM

It's the morning after and I'm still cleaning the mud off my clothes, bike, shoes, hair....

My friends were wondering why I wasn't doing "the Bay" race this weekend, a staple on the winter road circuit, the "warm-up" distance race for any spring marathoner, or triathlete looking to get some long runs in with a few thousand others in tow. There's that word again, Ironman, it's been "stuck" on me since the mid-eighties, when I started watching the 1hr taped show, every fall, from Kona. "One day, I'll be doing that." It would appear more than ever that the time is now, my body isn't holding up well after two car accidents, and running has become "stale".

The year started well, down in Florida for 30 days over Christmas, riding both trails and roads on my mtn. bike and my buddy Gerry's used road bike, a sweet Cervello Prodigy that has my name on it. Some early morning swimming at the Tampa YMCA, an outdoor heated pool. Sweet. My sister in Orlando lives next door (750 meters) to the entrance to the Econ Forest, an awesome place to mtn. bike and kayak / caneo on the Econ River - the terrain is mostly dirt and sandy bottom, twisty, sharp and narrow single-track, very few hills of course, and when you're lucky you come across interesting "neighbours" like wild boar, snakes and armadillos. Alligators are around too...

I have heard of this "Icebreaker" race before, naturally as it was listed on my web-site, but I never gave much thought to competing in it, still a little early in the "season" to be thinking outdoor riding. Yes, I am not a hard-core mountain bike type, just yet, as my handy and very reliable Giant has been indoors and un-used since my return mid-January from Florida. In fact, as I prepared my bike this morning, a mere 45-minutes prior to the race start (of course), I still had fresh Atlantic Ocean sand on the under-belly of the frame, from my brief ride along the beach in Jacksonville.

As I pre-rode part of the course, I realized that exactly a year ago, on this weekend, I was running the Rome Marathon, so it was quite a different experience to be in Durham Forest, near Uxbridge, in near-freezing temperatures. I was just as un-prepared for the this race as I was a year ago in Italy, having done no outdoor riding on the year, and only had a few 20-45 minute indoor bike sessions on a crap, stationary "bike" that was in my parents basement, one of those models that surely sell on t.v. for $399, "..and it conveniently folds under your bed"...

There would be no post-race capuccino and hearty carbo-meal with fresh tomatoes, sauce, bread and all the wine you could drink. Instead, hot dogs, pop and whatever energy bars were lying on the floor of my van...

It was exciting to be here, the day was perfect, and a few people I had spoken with regarding the race figured that with the mild winter this year, the 15th edition of the "icebreaker" might be pretty tame....yeah right, tame like a Bengal Tiger in a cage who hasn't eaten for 3 weeks. My pre-race ride around the start/finish line convinced me I was in for some good variety, and within minutes the mud is everywhere. So much for starting with a clean shirt!

It was good to see so many young riders, and of course it was a pretty hard-core crowd. I decided not to put my new clips and shoes on the bike, instead opting yet again for the trail running shoes and basket-pedals. Hey, these items were brand new, I wouldn't want to get them dirty in the very first race....Big mistake #1, I would spend a great deal of the race "shifting" my left foot and sliding the half- broken basket / pedal back into the socket, so my power output here wasn't ideal.

Another rookie mistake, the only rider not in clips...and the only rider with un-matched running gloves and a 1995, too small bike helmet covered in stickers. It wasn't a pretty sight!

Once the race started, I settled in, the first 200 yards were white-knuckle riding for me, 79 were competing in the 50km, 2-loop "enduro" distance, and with the start all ice and snow, you didn't want to wipe out and get stampeded from behind, and then we hit mud and water that immediately had your face and glasses covered, welcome to the Icebreaker!

Just at the start line, I spotted a good friend Zoe and Kevin, veteran riders, fresh from their honeymoon, so that was re-assuring to know that if I was stranded in the forest and they saw my van still in the parking lot, I wouldn't be forgotten.

Zoe and I would end up going back and forth, her skills, equipment and race experience far superior to me, but hey, I have a few screws loose myself, so on the downhills I knew I could make up some time! The course presents an ideal combination of hilly gravel country roads, wide paths through the forest, some single track (mostly either snow/ice covered or mud/ice covered, or mud on mud), now that was tough to ride! The single-track sections were tough, mostly slushy snow that made maneouvering and passing difficult. I knew we were in trouble when we passed a tractor, with snow chains!

The only treacherous section was the "bob sled run", which all riders are forewarned about, and for good reason. Zoe and I arrived together here, 32 minutes into our first loop, and it was nuts - pure ice, great if a hockey game broke out, not good on a downhill, narrow slope, with trees and steep fall-off ledges on the side. Many like Zoe and I chose to walk, why ruin an entire season of racing at the first crack! Appropriately, a sign suggested that this was "Pierre Leuders" Bob Sled Run...

The first lap was successful, no falls, no getting lost, the bike was still in good shape, my feet were surprisingly pretty dry, and after 1:20 I felt good, but I was thinking of backing off the 2-loops and remaining content doing just the one, after all, I could already sense the fatigue, and the 2nd lap would definitely pose more challenging as the weather warmed up. Plus, a family get-together at 3pm was looming, you can't be late for your 4-year old nieces birthday. I stopped to refuel, and Zoe zoomed by a few minutes behind me, damm, she's doing another lap, I guess that means I have to as well....Kevin was probably not far behind on his second lap!

I felt good on lap number two, but it wasn't long before I realized my ego had gotten in the way of common sense, my quads started to cramp up, no surprise of course, I wasn't exactly "trained" for a 3 hr. mtn. bike ride in these conditions, so early in the season. Zoe was far ahead of me by now, she was moving well on the country roads, as for me, the conditions were taking their toll on my bike. The mud was piling up, the ice was caked on top of the mud, then there was mud on top of the ice, like a sandwhich! Oh, and my bike, it was started to "groan", "whine" and "wimper", clearly, this was not kind to my poor little Giant. Funny noises were starting to come out, clanking, ka-chunking, and the poor little guy was clearly now in a happy place.

It was also disgusting trying to drink out of the water bottles, and my poor Cliff Bar was semi-frozen, and with the pieces of dirt and mud in my mouth, I couldn't guess what flavour this particular bar was. Maybe a new flavour, Mud Pie.

Now, as we approached the bob-sled run a 2nd time, my cramps really came on full - rookie mistake #3, do not get off your bike when your legs start to tire, you won't get back on! Here I was, the farthest point away from help / support, I'm about to tackle the most dangerous section of the course, my legs have seized and MY BRAKES AREN"T WORKING! Yes, my rear brake was gone, my front brake maybe 15-20% effective, quite possibly from the mud, ice and whatever else was clinging to the equipment. Picture this, I'm careening down slippery, narrow, ice and slush-covered trails, sans brakes, and when I use my feet as brakes, my quads cramp up worse. What to do...? Why, crash into a tree, of course, that will help me stop.

I immediately started thinking, "have I ever been in this much pain in a race before?" Well, yes, in fact, and my mind started to wander (when you are alone and stranded in a forest, these things do happen...) to the Boston Marathon in April, 2002, the last time I was in "racing form" for this distance. I had rolled the dice and went for broke that day, running a sub 2:45 pace until mile 22, Cleveland Circle and the infamous "cemetary mile". I stopped for water, and that was it, my day essentially over. I struggled onwards, stopping, walking, jogging the last 4 miles, and at the 40km mark, across from Fenway Park, I had leg cramps so bad I could not manage to lift them up and walk over the last "hill", the ramp over the highway below - it's not really a hill of course, but under these circumstances, it felt like Whistler.

The only difference between these two scenarios, was that in Boston I had thousands of spectators screaming at me, and I could smell the hot dogs (Fenway), gas fumes (expressway) and beer (drunk Boston College students) surrounding me. In the Durham Forest, it was fresh pine, clean country air, and maybe a squirrel was standing nearby, looking at me, screaming in hysteria quite possibly....

Well, the day finally ended, over 3hours, and at the finish, I had to stand and wait for 10 minutes before I could move out of the finish area and into the parking lot, my legs were done. I can't recall ever finishing a race this beat-up, even my 2-day Sea to Summit Adventure Race, which included 10.5 hours on day one, wasn't so bad. Truly relieved, but feeling rewarded for gutting it out and not quitting, I enjoyed the post-race music, sunshine and BBQ. Not last, not first, now I need to find that mechanic....