Ok, let me first start by saying over all this was fun. Weather was perfect; I didn't crash or have nutrition issues, and met my goal time. However, let me rant for just a moment about Tucson's need to SPEND A FREAKEN DIME ON SOME ROADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! O!M!G! I would say 80% of the roads we road on were pure crap. Beyond crap. Like brain rattling crap...endlessly. I was cursing at the roads the entire time. Ok...all my b*tching is not going to fix the roads, so I will stop. I just needed to get that off my chest.
We started out very well, and trying to hang on to pace lines. Somehow Jen and Josh got stopped at a traffic light, and we didn't see them again until mile 28 or so. We then hooked up again, and tried to ride as a group, but it was tough. Sometimes you just see a nice line go by, and you have to jump on it and get the benefit of the pull. For about 3/4 of the way Harry, Travis and I road together. Harry and I enjoyed pancakes at the firehouse stop! YUM!
For those of you unfamiliar with this race, you have to get off your bike twice and walk through dry washes. The first one is like at mile 8. Down a big dirt hill, across the deep, loose, sandy wash, and back up a hill. That one was not too bad. The second one is way long and the sand was really deep and wet in an effort to keep the dust down. When you finally get to the top of the hill you HAD to stop and take off your shoes and bang out the sand and rocks, etc. We were all joking that this was a cyclocross event, and that at mile 92 we had to canoe!! Soon after that was the toughest hill of the course. Steep grade up to a false plateau, and then you go straight up a 12% grade WALL!! I was down in one of my lowest gears, and I was standing up mashing as hard as I could and my chain started jumping and sounding like it was going to break!!! I tried to let up on it a bit, but if I let up too much I was not going to make it and fall over!!! Crappy Specialized piece of crap!! So I just started saying PLEASE chain...don't break or drop! PLEASE!!! Somehow I made it one piece and upright on my bike! Whew!! This was definitely not a flat course, and was plenty challenging. I was riding by myself toward the last third of the race, and would drop behind lines when I could. We finally got to Tangerine where there are really nice rollers going down hill, but the head wind was pretty strong. I got in with 2 guys and let them block for me! :) I took my turn pulling, but they didn't like that as apparently I do not block as much wind! Sorry!! With 8 miles to go my toes were completely numb. I made the mistake of pulling up more to let some blood flow to them and OMG the pain!! I was literally on the verge of tears. I stopped at the last aide station with like 4 miles to go JUST to wiggle my toes and get past the pain and get some normal blood flow going. I was good to go after that, and made it to the end pain free. Lots of cool and funny jerseys out there. Saw a few wrecks. Scary!! Over all it was fun and challenging and I am glad I did it. However, I am not sure I would do it again. If the roads were better I probably would, but the road conditions were just ridiculous!!!