My training has mostly been commuting to work twice a week (10 miles each way) and running a couple times a week. I did not train for the cross country ski and snowshoe as I should have. But my goal was to finish, not to set any records.
There is a 13 mile road bike ride with a 1,800 foot climb. I did great on the road ride. I was somewhere in the first third of the group. My legs felt fine.
The run is 5 miles long and climbs 1,200 feet. I did fine on the run. I was only passed by a few people. The run started out dry and ended with snow and ice patches.
My legs started to hurt on the cross country ski portion. There are a lot of muscles that were not used to that level of effort. It hurt but it went by really fast. You need climbing skins because you climb another 1,200 feet. (I rented them from REI for $8)
The snowshoe section starts off fairly flat and then get steep. I lost a lot of time on this section. I got one of the worst altitude headaches I have ever had. I was passed by hoards of other racers. My ski boots gave me blisters and the snowshoeing exacerbated them.
The last half was a long steep exposed slope. The view was amazing. It looks a lot like Pinnacle up in Driggs. If I do it again, I am taking a camera.
The snowshoe down was fast and fun. You could glissade (slide) the steep sections.
The cross country ski was a little nuts. It was hard to keep your speed under control.
The run down was brutal. The uphill run felt like it was over in no time. But the downhill just sucked. I walked a bunch. The downhill should be mostly running and much faster then the uphill. It felt like it was 10 times longer and my downhill run time was the same.
It felt so nice to get back on my bike. I passed a couple people on the bike down.
Overall breakdown:
Bike up: 1:09 (13 miles 1,800 ft)
Run up: 1:16 (5 miles 1,200)
Ski up: 1:02 (another 1,200)
Snowshoe up: 47 (median about 30 min) (total climb time 4:16) (600ft)
Snowshoe down: 17
Ski down: 32
Run down: 1:16 (median about 55 min)
Bike down: 51:33 (total descent 2:57) (round trip 7:13)
Out of 103 male soloists, I placed 88th. Also 32 of the 45 female soloists beat me. The fastest time was 3:52. The fastest time in my age group was 4:30.
During the run down I decided I would never do this crazy race again. But now a day later the memory of the pain has faded, and I thinking, "perhaps".
I finished, that was my main goal. I was so fun to be around the race atmosphere. The scenery was amazing. It was fun to race in winter weather.
In retrospect: I probably got dehydrated. If I do this race again, I will try to carry water with me. I should have run more during my training. I lost the most time during the snowshoe up and the run down.
It was a very well organized. The course was well marked. There were tons of volunteers.
2 comments:
Wow! You are amazing! Can't believe you do that for fun! Congratulations on achieving your goal and thanks for the race breakdown. It was very interesting.
Very Impressive Krynn! Jeff's training for the National Marthon in about a month right now, and we both did a half marathon in November, but I'd never heard of a quad until I read your very detailed report. Quite impressive, I think the bike down in snow conditions might be a little intense, and the whole altitude thing would be a factor, especially given the fact that we basically live at sea level now, but mmm, very interesting and inspiring! ;)
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