Pedal Pushing Patons: King of Burlingame 2013

Today was the King of Burlingame. It's a race in Charlestown, RI, completed in a time trial format and was my first race this season. That means that it's not a mass start. Each person starts in succession, thirty seconds apart. My goal? Don't get passed. Thirty seconds is not a lot of time.

While the winter has been great for skiing with 20 days on the hill this year, it did not do much for my mountain biking endurance. You know what goes great with skiing. Drinking beer. And eating fatty foods. I'm a solid five pounds heavier than I was in November.

I had ridden once in all of February and that was way back on February 6th. After that I didn't get on a bike until March 5th. This did not bode well for a March 24th race. But enough about me being out of shape.

Coming into this week I had managed to get a ride in down at Burlingame last Sunday. That's the smartest thing I've done in a long while. More on that later. And then I did a quick night ride down at Bluff Point in Groton, CT, on Thursday night. As it turns out, you can't do a night ride at Bluff Point and my accomplices and I ended up getting an earful from the park police and the town five-o. But that's a subject for another blog that will never be written.

My sport class race was set to go off at 10:00 am. I woke up this morning after a solid night's sleep, which is practically unheard of for me the night before a race. I had gotten my riding stuff together the night before and just had to throw everything in the car and get a bite. I still haven't quite dialed in my pre-race nutrition and tried something new this morning.

Oatmeal!

Healthy, filling and seemingly non-threatening to my stomach. Yes, oatmeal folks. I was pretty pleased how everything went today including my energy levels, so I think I may stick with it.

I arrived at the race at 9:00 am, an hour before my race was scheduled and at just the time the expert level race was scheduled to commence. I saw a bunch of them, including Karen Potter, Liz Chabot Allen and Liz Bove, heading to the starting line as I was pulling in.

As I was in line to grab my number, Matt Danis came up behind me in line with his family. We chatted for a while (the line was sizable). After I worked my way to the front of the line I paid my additional $10 license fee (more than 50% of the race fee I had paid of $18). My destiny was to be lucky #535.

Matt scored #506. A good solid number and maybe the highlight of his day.

Danises? Danii? Danimals?

After getting my biking costume on, I headed the mile ride to the start of the race with Matt. We were there about 15 - 20 minutes before the 10 am start. All the experts were off already, so it was a bit of milling about. I took the opportunity to ride down the dirt road and get my first real glimpse of the lake that the Burlingame trail system circles.

Watchaug Pond

They did a pretty good job getting the races started on time and we were started based upon our race numbers. One rider every 30 seconds, starting with rider #501. That meant with lucky #535, I had about 17 minutes to wait. I watched Matt go off a few minutes after the hour. He had opted to ride his single speed with an 18 tooth gear in the back. He said he ran the same gearing last year and was pretty happy with how it treated him.

I sidled up to the starting line as my start became imminent and had the opportunity to talk with rider #534, bedecked in a green NEMBA jersey. He asked me my name and told me his was Josh Burgel. He promised to remember my name so when I passed him he could offer some encouragement. As it turns out, he may as well have forgotten it. Maybe he did.

I finally was at the starting line. Three, two, one. And I was off. Sort of. It must have taken 15 seconds to get clipped in. It felt like 15 minutes with all the other riders behind me watching me. But I got clipped in eventually and was off.

Anthony Chabot picked up some video footage of me near the start. I'm in the first 10 seconds.

As I had mentioned earlier, I had pre-ridden the course last week. Twice. The second time was well worth the beat-down it gave me. I learned a handful of line choices that were going to come in handy. I also learned that the first part of the course was brutal. Lots of short steep climbs. Nothing too sustained, but there were a lot of them. I also knew they wouldn't go on forever.

At the 1/2 mile mark I came across Matt Danis. Walking against traffic pushing his bicycle. I couldn't quite gather what had gone awry, but I'm confident things weren't going according to plan. Bad news, Matt. Tough way to start the season.

So I went out gangbusters. Things were looking promising. I passed my first rider (other than the dispirited Danis) at just about mile one on the nose. Then another rider with a mechanical right after. Then I started hitting the hills. I wish I was a little stronger on this point of my riding, but given the shape I'm in, I was feeling good. I was cleaning the tech, so even though the hills were hell, I was not as worried as I might have been.

By the end of the hills, I'd passed another couple of guys and was still not passed by anyone. Still making my goal, but a lot of race to go. I apologize to the guy who let me pass only to have me bobble and dab almost immediately. He was kind enough to let me stay in front.

I did a lot better on the short steeps than I had on my pre-ride the week before. Some of them are super tough. Already climbing when you hit a 14" drop, except it's only a drop on the other direction. It took a lot of oomph. As much as I had.

By the time the worst of the hills were by, maybe 2.5 miles in, I was gasping, but smiling knowing I was in the clear. After cruising down an extended wide track to the lake, there is a pretty long dirt road climb before getting back into the single track. If I'm reading my Garmin correctly, it's about 75 feet in 0.8 miles. I saw a rider up, but I also took the opportunity to look over my should to see a rider back. Egad! I worried about this. Before the race started. I knew long dirt road climbs on my Hi-Fi (a 21" full suspension 29er) were a danger area. I managed to fend off the rider back and close on the rider fore.

When you get into the single track again, it quickly turns into a series of drops off water breaks. Super fun. There are a few techy sections that I cleared. But only because of the pre-ride. Thanks to all who took us out last week, especially Steve Offiler and Liz Chabot Allen.

Oh, and while I'm thanking people, I'd like to take a sec to thank the race volunteers. These folks selflessly donate their time to make this event a success. The course was well-staffed, with numerous volunteers at a number of key intersections. All were very encouraging. Great to see so many smiling faces. The intersections were also all clearly marked and everything was well signed. These guys did a great job putting everything together. I took a couple shots of what the rest of the park looks like and you can see what the folks who cleared these trails must have had to do to make this race happen.

Just after mile five, I hit the only mandatory dismount on the course as I entered onto Buckeye Brook Rd for a few tenths of a mile. I had just passed another guy just a little ways back. It took him a minute to pop out of the woods behind me, but once he did, he came on pretty hard. I still managed to keep him off until I entered back into the woods. There are a bunch of bridges through the next section and a couple super-technical rocky areas. I managed to keep clipped in and eked them all out. Again, I would say how important it was that I pre-rode. There was one series of bridges in particular that would have had me off the bike. It's a pair of bridges end to end, but the second bridge pops you onto a tough rock off which you need to make a 90 degree left onto a third bridge. Damned near impossible. BUT, I knew that skipping the second bridge and taking a wide berth around would allow me a straight shot onto the ramp of that third bridge. It did just that.

Getting close to the finish. Just one more technical section and then a series of easy bridges and a long slow uphill and I'm done! But the tech section first. Yikes! The one thing I hadn't gotten either time on the pre-ride was a log pile that was definitely out of my comfort zone. I was having a good ride though and had just passed another guy when I came across it. I decided I'd try instead of unclipping and running over it. It was like some other guy was riding the bike. Up and over, smooth. Wow!

I came through the last section without knowing how close the guy behind me was. I just cranked with everything I had left. I crossed the finish line. And I wasn't passed! Mission accomplished.

Some guy who finished shortly after me

After the race I spoke with a few of my fellow sport racers. All smiles all around. The guy who had been gaining on me, as it turns out, was the same NEMBA guy I'd passed a lot earlier.

I rode back to the parking lot and checked out the event tent, but only the expert results were up. Karen Potter won the women's race. Liz Chabot Allen took third and Liz Bove fifth. I overheard someone muttering about Potter winning when this isn't even her strong suit. I mean, she's an endurance racer for crying out loud. Turns out she broke the women's course record. Potter!!! I also saw Beaupre finished respectably with 5th in a large age category (40 - 59).

Expert Women

Beaupre is in here somewhere.

After tooling around a little more, the results finally came up for my sport race. I ended up 15th out of 39 with a time of 52:40. Not my best race, but honestly better than I had hoped. And I didn't get passed!