Battle at Burlingame 2013 Race Recap

Well, the first race in the EFTA series is in the books.  This was my first time checking out the Battle at Burlingame in Charlestown, RI.  This was also the first year I'd ever visited the park period, but the Battle was my fourth time there since January.

After figuring out that the 2:30 pm Sport start would enable me to attend both the Kentucky Derby party to which we had been invited in Westchester on Saturday and make the race start on Sunday, I signed up.

So I went to bed pretty early - midnight - for being at a party and was up and at 'em shortly after 6 am.  I herded the family into the Element and we were off to Rhode Island. 

Along the way we stopped in Greenwich, CT, for breakfast at a place called Meli Melo.  Not super traditional breakfast fare.  I had the omelet with ratatouille and parma ham. It came with a small salad and some bread.  Cori and Harry both had smoothies and croissants (Cori's chocolate, of course).  As we ate we looked out the windows at Porsches and Lambourghinis driving by.  Greenwich is pretty ritzy.  And breakfast was good, but pretty pricey, about $40 for an omelet, two croissants and two smoothies.  Yipes!

Yes! 

After breakfast we headed onward, stopping at the market just before the event venue to grab some water and a sandwich as well as some snacks for Cori and Harry to spectate by.

We pulled into the main park entrance, which is different than the other three times I'd been here.  I actually felt for a moment or two that maybe I'd somehow missed the  race.  It felt like when Shrek and Donkey showed up Duloc to find it seemingly deserted.



I thought the Battle at Burlingame was today?

As it turns out, just like in Shrek, everyone was at the melee.  We finally go down into the area near the lake and the place was teeming with sport riders preparing, experts and elites in progress and spectators galore. 

I headed over to registration with Cori and Harry and grabbed my number, using my flashy new EFTA license for the first time.  I was lucky #473, just three away from the #476 I had worn the day before at the Jog with Judy 5K in Woodstock, CT.

Max Beaupre was tooling around like he does on a teeny, tiny litttle Specialized kid's bike.  Just jumping stuff and pulling wheelies.  He had done his first Cat 3 race and won it as a 13 year old in a 13 - 18 age group.  Well done Max!

Cori met up with Beckie Beaupre with whom she would spend the bulk of the remainder of her day.  Harry went off with Jack Beaupre and that was the end of him.  So nice to have them at the race.  Spectating has the propensity to bore you something fierce, but throw a little chit-chat in and it becomes at the least tolerable and mayhaps downright pleasant.

I downed half my turkey sub and stuffed myself into my Bums kit as race time drew near.  I managed a little pre-riding around the park. Nothing technical. Just opening up the legs a bit.  I did see a few friends racing the classes before me come through the start/finish/lap area - including John Beaupre, John Modig, Karen Potter. Liz Allen and Steve Offiler.  They all looked great. Liz seemed to have some confusion as to how many laps she had left. By the time her conversation was over, I too was confused.  It was somewhere between one and two.  And probably an integer.  That narrows it down.

Potter cleaning up!

Liz Chabot Allen!

Ultimately, I saw a bunch of folks finish the expert race or just after they finished.  Modig jumped up to the 19 - 29 category again and took first.  Beaupre took second in the Expert masters race.  Potter took first and Liz Chabot Allen second in the women's elite class.  Alby took 4th in Elites.  Those guys are so fast.  Geesh.

I had initially thought my race went off at 2 pm, but as I got to the starting line and queued up, something felt weird.  Mostly because I was the only one there.  As it turns out, it started at 2:30, so I had to wait a while longer.  Which meant I had to go and rescue Cori from standing at the spot she had walked to so she didn't have to wait in the middle of the woods wondering what the hell was going on.  With my rescue mission accomplished, I tooled around a little more to bide my time.

Just before 2:30 Cori and I ran into Dan Bove.  We chatted a little.  He knew the importance of the hole shot on this one.  As it turns out, having the knowledge and doing something about it are two different things for me.

At 2:30 I headed back to the start.  There was no racer meeting to speak of.  Just a count down as each class went off.  As we lines up, I looked around and saw my cat was, as usual, ginormous.  I used all twenty fingers and toes and then couldn't count any higher.  Why can't these guys just get a sports car like a normal mid-life crisiser?

I managed to get a spot on the front row and was soon engaged in conversation with the guy next to me - Eric Olds.  He was super nice and had driven 5.5 hours from Belfast, ME, to do the race.  Five and a half hours?!?!  I knew this guy must be crazy and that I should probably get in front of him before he did something insane in front of me.

So sans much fanfare, we were off, chasing guys ten years younger then us that went off two minutes before.  The course followed up some campground roads, but quickly turned into a dried up ditch that had some trickily placed rocks that I'd heard had the propensity for chucking bikers over their handlebars.  I fell in like a good boy and took the one safe four inch wide line through the middle.

Having stayed on my bike through the first minute and a half of the race I had  big ol' smile on my face.  And then I started getting passed.  By the likes of Dan Bove, Eric Olds and John Robertson.  And they had seemed so nice.  Geesh.  They passed me like I was standing still.  I looked down and saw my tires were still moving, so I guess I wasn't standing still, just not pedaling fast enough.

The course is a mix of campground roads and singletrack.  For me, it was three laps of 5.5 miles each.  I knew I wasn't winning this race in the first five minutes, but there was a very real possibility of blowing up and losing the race.  So I settled in and paced myself.  

The course had a pretty sizable log to get over early on.  It was at the upper end of my comfort zone, but what with this being a race and all, I had at it.  With success.  Woo hoo.

A couple of miles into the course there is a left that brings you into Bridgeland.  There are seventeen bridges one after the other after the other.  And then a small breaks and three more bridges.  Most have roots interspersed between.  Some have turns in the bridges themselves.  One particularly tricky one has a 90 degree turn right before getting onto the ramp onto the bridge.  The bridges are fun, but they pretty much ensure you stay in your place while proceeding through them.

About half way through the lap there is a climb up onto a ridge that is about is tech as the course gets. It climbs up and then dips down the side a little and pulls back up top several times.  I definitely was still in a string of riders my first time through and dabbed with those dabbing before me.  As you across the ridge, you can see the riders in front of your down to your right at the bottom.  At the end of ridge, there's a tough left around a rock that tries to throw you off another rock and down off the ridge.   I found if you cut hard enough left there was another line that was far more comfortable for me.

I came off the ride and kept pushing through the singletrack.  Some super fun stuff that eventually crosses a road (with a few terrific, enthusiastic volunteers).  There were a couple more log crossings and even a full on log pyramid to get over.  Only a couple of short steeps.

33% there!

I was still feeling good toward the end of the lap when we busted back out into the campground area and hopped a few more logs before heading through the start of the race and heading out for lap #2.

I wasn't quite sure where I was for placement any more, but was feeling pretty good.  I was gaining on the technical stuff and trying to hold my ground, with some modicum of success, on the roadie stuff.  I still couldn't find Dan Bove anywhere, but whatever.

I may not have seen Dan Bove, but Cori sure did.

Somewhere on lap two I managed to pass Eric Olds. The group was definitely thinning out and I found myself alone here and there finally. Just out for a Sunday ride.  That's all.

Lap three I managed to pass another guy or two.  Up on the ridge I eked by John Robertson.  And then I was passed by someone towards the end.  I was hoping he was younger than me, but couldn't be sure.  He looked young.  But maybe he was just well-preserved.

I finished the race in 1:26:05 and took fifth.  I was very happy with that.  Dan ended up finishing in 1:24:35 and grabbing a third place podium spot.  John Robertson came in the sport behind me and Eric Olds the spot after that.  We had 23 finishers in our group and one DNF.

Here's the GarminConnect of the course.

Loved the course.  Loved the people.  Definitely would do this one again!  Next up, Weeping Willow.