2014 Lotoja Report Part I

Another Lotoja has come and gone and I have to say the overwhelming feeling I have right now is that of relief. I'm so glad that it's over, for now at least.  In fact, throughout the race my only thought was how relieved I'll be once the agony is over.  That thought kept me going through the dark times.  And a great relief it was.  More so than in past years, and I'm still trying to figure out why.  My only conclusion so far is that it just hurt much more due to the hard pace and lack of stopping.

My main goal this year was, as always, to beat my personal best from the year before which was 10 hrs 9 mins.  But beyond that I secretly had the goal of time in the 9 hrs 30 mins range.  I trained hard, though I wished I had a chance to race a bit more throughout the season.  I still had quite a bit of miles and climbing in my legs and I felt as ready as I could be.  I was also 4 pounds lighter at race time than I was last year so I figured that would help as well.  I was thrilled when I finished this year in 9 hrs 38 mins. but looking back there is still much that could have gone better.

Packet Pick-up

Those who have done this race know that there is much thought and preparation that goes into everything in order for be ready just logistically let alone the training.  Hotels, travel, bike prep, kids watched, food planned, etc. it becomes a little overwhelming at times.  I admit that I sometimes got bugged that so much work had to go into just this one race.

But race day came at last and once your on the starting line there isn't any more you can do to prepare, so that in a way is already a relief.  My start time was early, 6:15 a.m. while it was still dark, just like last year. I raced in the Masters 35+ A's category, again, just like last year and the pace was steady out of Logan all the way into the outskirts of Preston.  As we began the rollers approaching Strawberry Pass I hear someone next to me that we were exactly 3 seconds ahead of last years pace.

I still look asleep.

My support was amazing, once again.

Ready or not.

As we approached the steeper sections of Strawberry I felt pretty good.  I was with the lead group and the climbing felt comfortable to me.  I had already stayed with the lead group for longer this year than I had last year so I felt that was already a win for me.  I could see others being shelled out the back and I still felt good.  But that lasted only so long.  I could feel the lead pack pace pick up and I had a hard time keeping up.  I pushed a little harder into the red but that only lasted so long as well.  Soon I was slowly losing contact.  I began to establish my own rhythm at that point and climbed the rest of the way up to the false flat.  As I hit the flat I began to with I had others around me to help battle the wind but there wasn't anybody in sight.  I let up a bit and found myself with a couple of teammates on the final portion of the climb.  I was glad to have them there.

Once over the top I grabbed a bottle from the had outs and began hitting the decent with my teammates.  We were joined by others and soon we were in Montpelier.