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Michigan Mountain Mayhem - CycleTour


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Boyne City, Michigan
United States
Norther Michigan Cycling Club
55F / 13C
Precipitation
Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Had my bags ready Friday night and just had a quick snack at the motel and watched the weather radar and noticed the ugly blob of rain coming.
Event warmup:

Waited out the rain
Bike
  • 00m
  • 124.27 miles
  • 0.00 mile/hr
Comments:

Ended up finding a motel in Boyne Falls Friday so I was able to swing by and get my packet and check out the parking. With riders being able to start at 6:30 I had planned on an early departure. Arrived at the school at 6:20 just as the heavier rains started. I decided to wait out the rain as it looked like it wouldn't be a long event. As soon as things started slowing down I hit the bathroom and got moving. There were just a few riders heading out as it was still raining, but with the hills I didn't want to start with a huge group. There's about a half mile of flat before turning onto another road and getting to work on the hills. Roads for the most part were in good shape and the downhills were fun. I knew I made the right call by waiting as the speeds were fast and with the just the light rain falling made seeing real well difficult, the heavier rains would've been downright dangerous. For some reason I was thinking about the fact I failed to bring my insurance card with me. Bad mojo.

As usual riders would climb on by me but I caught and passed quite a few folks on the downhills. Even with the clouds and rain there were plenty of areas I just looked around and enjoyed the scenery. Shortly after leaving the area around Schuss Mountain I flatted the rear tire on a nice downhill, did a quick tube swap and found a small sliver of glass or rock in the tire, I was worried about the tire holding up as it was more worn then I had thought. This was the first time I ever flatted in an event. Hmm yet another bad omen.

I thought the second aid station was for all the riders but apparently it was for those on the shorter events as I was in need of water and thought I would've hit something around mile 25. By the time I stopped at mile 52 aid station I was rather thirsty. Had some nice snacks and hit the restroom before heading out again. I was freezing at this point and it took a bit to warm up again, being wet with a breeze and clouds wasn't much fun. I had set out to do the 200k with 10,000 feet of climbing, but decided I'd be happy finishing the 100 mile route.

Then came the end of my day, while chatting with another rider that started to pass me about a half mile earlier I barely hit the edge of the road and before I knew it I was sprawled out and had heard my shoulder pop. After a little cussing rant, I could feel my clavicle was popped out of my shoulder. We stopped some passing riders to get the number for the sag wagon and when a fellow rider called they said it would be awhile, so the guy I had been chatting with called his wife who was in the next town having lunch with her mom, they came down and picked me up. Of course we were about as far away from Boyne City as anywhere on the course. I crashed just after noon and didn't end up back to my truck til 2:30. On the ride back to Boyne I noticed some of the roads were in real bad shape, I realize they have there "Wall" hill but the roads are so poor in this area it could easily be scrapped as there's plenty of hills throughout this course that "the Wall" isn't really needed or necessary.

After getting my stuff into the truck I drove up to Petoskey to be seen at Northern Michigan Hospital and they took care of me quickly. I thought they would pop it back in, but he said all the ligaments were blown out and that the collarbone would just pop back out, so I was sent home in a sling. The poor nurse had to help me change clothes which were kinda of ripe, but the dry clothing felt so good. Managed to make it home by 9:30 but had stiffened up badly, not to mention my ribs were sore too.

The aftermath was not pleasant, the drive home was tough. I couldn't sleep laying down so I slept on the lazy boy for a few nights. Grade 3/5 AC separations are not the easiest thing to have especially when your a firefighter. After doing therapy in July and August using up my allotted benefits I did PT on my own to keep things up. There have been ups and downs. I finally have clearance to go back to work full duty on November 1, 2011. No Triathlons for the year was also a bummer but at least I had a chance to sherpa for my wife that has had to put up with me all summer.

One thing I've learned from this experience is the importance of being identified if you become incapacitated. I ordered interactive Road ID's for both the wife and I. A couple of inches this way or that way and I could've had a serious head or neck injury and unable to communicate.


What would you do differently?:

Get some more time on good hills before hand, maybe next spring can be a bit drier and not crash.
Post race
Warm down:

Ride in the back of a Ford Fusion holding my arm up.

Event comments:

Hope to go back some year and finish at least the 100 miler. There were a few areas with downright bad roads and areas with stop signs at the bottom of hills which is frustrating to brake when you want to fly. Otherwise it was a beautiful course. The wife said she is not signing off on me doing events by myself so far away from home, well see about that ;-)




Last updated: 2011-02-18 12:00 AM
Biking
00:00:00 | 124.27 miles | 0.00 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Below average
Wind:
Course: 50k, 100k, 160k, 200k, all with lots of hills.
Road:   Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2011-10-28 11:37 AM

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Subject: Michigan Mountain Mayhem
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