Firehouse 50 TT and Best of Both 15K run Race report(s)

Saturday
Firehouse 50 Bike events. 50.5 Mile TT's ( team and indy) in addition to a RR and a Fantasy 50 that is 38 miles. ( not sure why this is underlining....??!)

We wake up to rain and clouds. We load up the cars and head to Grandview Wi for the starts of the 50.5 mile Firehouse 50 TT. Rich's group had 2 teams of 4, and a few of us were doing it solo.
Last year i did this solo for the first time and really enjoyed it. Well as much as you can enjoy a 50 mile Time Trial. I was excited to make a few changes in my approach ( ie WARM UP) and see if i couldnt use some of my newly acquired endurance to push a bit harder on the flatter sections.
But with the rain and wet roads i started to give up some hopes of a PR. That was ok. I just wanted to ride!
So no warmup and the usual "What to wear" filled my thoughts. Rich's teams went off around 7:20 and I was set for 8:19. So at about 8:10 it actually stopped raining for good. It may have been at 7:52 but whatever, the morning was filled with "on again, off again" downpours.
I settled on the LS skinsuit and off i went. Gloves. knee warmers. Yup. August. uh-huh.
Got to the start and was pretty relaxed but my Camelback kept sliding down my back. IT was totally annoying me and so i just decided to stay AERO until my time was announced. Meaning i was freezing hunched over my bike. But the dang bladder stayed put. We start in pairs, so i had some dude next to me that got off first and said "have a nice race..see ya" in typical testosterone form, so it was fun to match his pace up the continental divide and then finally pass him and never see him again.
So this could be a very long race report bc 50 miles solo makes you think alot. Or not at all. So here are the Cliff notes.
Race 1: First 12 miles up the continental divide to mile 5 then around Lake Namekagen and some rough curvy roads. The winds had picked up and I could feel i had no warmup. But overall ok, other than the having to get out on my hoods since staying aero across the bridges and open areas was too scary.
Race 2: Turn right on M. Phew, this is where i can make up some time. Oh, but guess not if there is a 20 MPH head wind. Lovely. And random gusts again. Oh well. Time to just be STRONG. Stick to your nutrition, even tho you have taken pressure off to PR, just follow the plan so you can practice for your next A race. A gel every 40 min and sipping on the bladder ( Infinit). This was a long section. I was passed by men and one woman right as i got into Cable and it was Marlo, looking STRONG! " go Marlo," I yelled.
Race 3: Mile 25, into Cable ( home of the Chewamequan Fat tire and the Birkie ski race... spelling?? Oh i should know this) ziggy zaggy on the roads and then onto the stretch that begins Lake Owen Drive. AKA the fun fest roller coaster. Blind fast corners. Whee! no yellow line. boo.
So you have to be careful, last year I nearly got bounced off my bike going down and up at 33 mph. This time i was careful and recalled the area and grabbed on good and sat my butt down hard. Phew. no bouncing off the seat today. I love this section. I do well with the short punchy rollers and have learned how to descend just enough to get up speed and then stand up and pump up those hills. The lovely thing is that even as my quads started to tell me that i had indeed been fighting wind and longer hills for 35 miles now, I had strength to keep punching the hills and when they evened out i had the strength to hammer on down the road. I dropped another leech who was conveniently sucking wheels as the fast guys went by, only to get dropped every 10 seconds. It was kinda humorous to watch actually. But i passed him clean after a hill and never looked back.
Race 4: Drummond and mile 42-50+ FINALLY! 63. I have a tail wind and this is just great. I am going 28-33 mph. wow. I took a gel just before the final turn and i was at 2 hours. I knew I wouldnt be under 2:22 ( 2008 time) but i also knew that I wanted to empty my legs and if i didnt have a full tank i could easily pop on the false flats ahead. So in went the gel and i was pleased i made that decision. In the past i would have just gutted it out. This finishing stretch was so much fun. Actually mile 25-on was fun! I was still passed by the eventual winner, Cam, and man she was flying. I was descending at 33mph and for me that is fast ..I think she had to be going 38 or 40 mph bc she disappeared!

I am trying to get the map in here but it is hard to read and it got cut off, but anyways..kinda as i said, 4 different races/courses.

Finish (above picture: tight 90 degree turn into the park area and onto the timing mat and i am done. 2:25:xx.
Sweet. With those conditions I will take an extra 3 minutes and I am pleased I was under 2:30!
I talk to Cam a bit then start to ride off but my left glute is wanting NOTHING to do with it.

I quickly went back to the car to change into warm clothing and got some ice for my bum. That helped a lot, and since it was so cold out and windy i really didnt want to hang around too long. But we had to watch the craziness of the RR finish. As I said, the race finishes on a 90 deg turn and there are people crowded around the turn trying to see the finish ( Um CRASHFEST). It is a too often sound to hear the ambulance sirens going during this race, and why they dont change the finish i dont know.

So honey and i watched as our friend and my teammate's BFF made the corner turn, gravel danced for a bit, then went on to win the race. Way to Go PETE! We hung out a bit longer and iw as ready to go home and warmup. In our ice bath. Hee. Seriously. We got the log -o-ice and I ran an ice bath and it was heaven. Nap time, then a fire and then dinner with our housemates at the Garmisch Inn then home to bed bc sunday was....

THE 15k RUN! woohoo!!
At this point my sore left bum was better but still tight. I slept ok, but had concerns about RACING sunday am. Elliot and chuck were going so i figured I would go, and see how i felt. I could always just run easy. And I wanted to run so why not run with others. I Did some warmup and i felt ok. My quads were a bit "stick" like but I wore some compression shorts and they kept my bum warm and i felt pretty good. My plan was...umm...hmm...just run. dont get sucked into chasing a female, but if at the end she is in sight and you have legs, go for it.

Long story short....
mile 1 6:59. Ooops, slow down.
Pick up elliot at mile 2. And we run steady on the rolling hills keeping about a 7:30 pace. I see girl #1 go and then girl #2 go and some guy says "you can see the 1st place girl, go get her" and i said to him "if she is there when i am at mile 7 I will chase, but unless she comes back to me I am sticking with the plan!" The plan became to run in Zone 3 other than the hills and just run. Dont turn this into an A race, just have fun. And help Elliot chase down high school boys who are in his AG. At mile 7 I told him he could GO whenever he wanted to, bc I was not going to sprint it in ( as if i could sprint it in for 2.3 more miles.) and off he goes. He said later that he went too hard too fast, but that was ok! He finished about 30 seconds ahead of me and ran a great race.
I had good legs, better than expected but the left ball of my foot was BURNING. It felt like i had a razorblade in there. I started wondering if i had Morton's neuroma. And then i panicked a bit. When i got done it was all i could do to stop from kicking my shoe off. nothing was there but a white patch that looked almost like frost bite.
Thinking about it i know that saturday my feet got REALLY cold riding . Carbon soles, plus cold makes me think i just killed some nerves or had frostbite minus the frost. It seems better but that was the worst 15 minutes...it felt like a hot poker.

So when we looked at the results we realized that the 3 women ahead of me in the B O B event were not listed in the run. One of them had started. I talked to her before we ran. Two of them had done the RR...and one had done the TT. Weird thing is that in Wis sport road races they time you. So these women had TIMES from a RR. Obviously FASTER than someone that had done an Indiv TT. But still i would have had to make up 6 minutes on them ( the RR ladies) and the TT lady had about 10 min on me. but she didnt show. So lucky me showed up and i never did find out what happened to the RR lady that started, but i am sure i would have made up the 6 minutes on her! I know it!

So just after the loaded all the kids into the fire engines to drive them to the start of their 2 mile race ( this weekend IS a fundraiser for the Grandview Fire department):


I got my big A$$ trophy beating the next gal by 45 minutes. I cant say my times were the fastest out there, they werent. I was 1st in my AG with a 1:10:09, and 3rd OA but the 2 girls who were 1-2 didnt ride saturday. So finally, a trophy that my nephews can be proud of. Though they seem pretty jazzed by the little medals too.
We headed back to the cabin to start the drive home. It was nice to get back to the cities where it was 80! What a great weekend with Rich's teammates, Greg and Marilyn Franzen, and all the other fun people i see up at this race. The weather was the worst it has been in my 4 years ( RR once, 4 man TT once, and 2nd year on the TT) and I look forward to more good times with the First Light team! Thanks for reading this too long RR!