PCP2P Episode 1 (The attack on Mr Antsy Pants)

Its been about a week since Park City Point 2 Point, and I think my forearms have finally recovered enough to be able to type without using only a single index finger. Also I have a 206 mile (stupid) race in 34 hours to do and I cant let too many races back up.

When I registered for pep2p I was the very first person to get online and mark my X. I was so excited to do it I probably hit refresh 78 times in a 1 minute time frame to make certain I got in. I spent the spring and summer putting countless (not really countless, I have a Garmin) hours riding to survive this event. The summer went by quickly and 2 weeks prior to the race I figured I better pre ride this baby.

I spent 3 days pre riding the course During one of which I was forced to take a major detour by a mamma moose and her two little ones. I came to find a lot of respect for the course and decided it was gonna eat my lunch. It did.

Race day morn I decided that it would be a good idea to jump in with the 8-9 hour group off the start and ride off the back of the group. I anticipated I would (might, could) finish near 10 hours. On paper this was a brilliant plan as I wouldn't have to deal with the inevitable line of racers that would last for the first hour of the ride. The problem with this plan is that the line was just that, inevitable. So I found myself following wheels, eating dust, and conserving energy.

My goal until the first aid station was to take it easy, keep the heart rate low, keep the hands loose, drink lots of water and don't let anything rattle me. So whenever the line was going slower than I wanted to I made up a little saying that I would tell whoever was around me.

"You know" I would say, " If it wasn't for all these slow people in front of me, Id be winning this race right now!"

No one ever even chuckled, I found it amusing though.

Anyway back to the race..... Round valley was great, flat smooth and dusty. The best part was feeling like you were being transcended to the heavens when you rode right into the sunrise. The combination of straight into the sun & glasses coated with a nice layer of dust made for some adventuresome riding that Im certain caused the single track to turn into double track. I know I made friends with a couple trees and more than a couple bushes.

As round valley progressed I passed 5 or 6 guys that clearly self sorted poorly, most of which I had to do some trail busting to get around, no big deal. I had one guy want to get by me when I was on a wider section so I moved over and let him by. Then immediately had to slow to let him merge in. I thought "That was kinda stupid". It reminded me of the jackasses during rush hour that have to be one car further ahead in the line. But I had decided nothing would get me worked up this morning as I knew the day was gonna be long long day.

A few minutes later another request came to move though, It was Eric Bright. (lets call him mr Antsy Pants) If I would have known it was AP I would have moved slightly to the right, waited until he got beside me, (lure him into a false sense of security) then promptly swerved into him causing both of us to go down, only I would come out on the better end of the deal as I would only be bleeding a little from his chainrings, while he would have multiple mechanical issues and bruises due to my enormous weight advantage.

Now thats not what actually happened, What happened was AP wanted because he saw a gap between my front wheel and the rider in front of me's rear wheel of 4 feet, grew infinitely excited for the possibility to move up one spot in the overall ranking and requested that I move off the trail so he wouldn't have to get any weeds in his spokes.

So I moved off the trail to the right (which is not my responsibility when Im following wheels, If someone wants by when your in a line they can make there own way through the brush) In hind sight this was a bad place to move to the right as there was a sage brush rapidly approaching me for a head on collision. I moved back left, AP was there and I broke his spoke, frame, and heart.

I picked myself up, shook my head in disbelief, and rode off. I did however remind Mr impatient that its a 80 mile race (ie 12 hours for him) and maybe he could wait for a better spot to go round.

Now that I'm bleeding and covered from head to toe in the dustiest dust you've ever ridden in, I had some fun descending the twisty 1 track back through the start area.

The next section of single track that climbs up to deer valley was just more of the same, Follow the wheel of the guy in front and try to get them to laugh at my "I would be winning this race if" joke. It never worked. I couldn't even get fatty to laugh and he laughs at everything.

My bride of one year (what a sweet heart to let me race all day on our Aniversery) met me at Silver Lake lodge, swapped out my camel bak, and gave me some encouragement and a bite of the most revolting breakfast sandwich I have ever bitten into. But hey, I needed calories so what the heck.

I climbed straight up Bald Mtn. and felt pretty proud of myself as I was climbing what so many others were pushing there bikes up. On the climb I finally caught back up to JDub (Jdub is always my carrot as he is a much better climber than I am). He looked like someone took his last cookie as we were riding up the mtn together. I thought that he was gonna be done for at the next aid station, so I tried to muster the best words of support I could. I think it came out like "COMON J" or maybe "UGHHH" either way it must have been earth shatteringly inspirational!

Bald mountain went by quicker than I had remembered during my training ride and I was grateful for that. On the descent I was introduced to a new section of trail named "Bow Hunter". This was one of the roughest pieces of dirt I'de ever ridden. This trail was so rough it made my stomach hurt. No wait, It was so rough and pitted it made me throw up.

Throwing up from riding is not something new to me, but forcing myself to close my mouth and swallow it because I needed the calories was.

The descent back to Silver Lake lodge was a blast and went by pretty uneventfully with one exception. I saw a guy in an Adobe kit. Not really anything worth mentioning right? Well to me in my extremely tired state of mind, reminded me of the line from Pee Wee's Big Adventure when there in the Alamo and the tour guide says A-D-O-B-E. So of course I had to let this poor chap know. Turns out we would pass each other many times over the next 40 miles.

Coming up... Leg 2 PCP2P.