Boyne Challenge CPS Race #4 July 7, 2007

Race Time: 3:39:46
Placement: 16/21
YTD Standings: 6th

My HR Info:  Max: 220 Avg: 157
Zone 3: 46:10 Zone 4: 52:14  Zone 5: 51:04 minutes.

Boyne Marathon..again. 33 miles of torture. I was not overly excited about doing this race, but had to take advantage of the double points. However, to take advantage of those points, one has to finish in a decent spot. I did not achieve that part of the plan.

There are a couple of positive things that happened at Boyne. First, I finished 12 minutes faster than they year before. Second, the trail did not beat me up as much this year as last. I will say that last climb to the top of the mountain did kick my butt, however I made it. It was tough to keep a strong momentum up that hill because of slower riders. The loss of this momentum put ALL the pressure on leg muscles. That's just a part of racing. Last year we took the cart path so that was MUCH easier.

So what caused my 17th finish out of 21? Leg cramps. They happened in the EXACT same spot as last year: Beginning of the third lap. I was just behind #485, who ended up finishing 7th, when the leg cramps hit. I waved goodbye to him as I dismounted my bike and fell to the ground in pain. Given my finish, these cramps cost me 28 minutes.

I don't think the lack of training caused these cramps. I trained by doing three laps at Yankee Springs, which equates to about 39 miles. Yankee does not come close to the elevation changes that Boyne has and Yankee is not near as difficult, but I knew my legs could handle the 33 miles. What I did wrong was not prepare my body for this race. I thought I did, but in hindsight, I did not come close.

First mistake, I bought some packets of Sustained Energy from Hammer Nutrition. I read the mixing directions, which resulted in a very thick drink. I thought I did something wrong so I discarded it. That is exactly what Sustained Energy was suppose to be. One bottle with that and one with water or diluted Heed to help wash it down. Second mistake, and one I've made all season, was not giving me enough servings of Heed (since I didn't use Sustained Energy). I mixed according to the directions, however I did not pay attention to what size person those servings are for. At 190 pounds, my serving size was considerable larger. Third mistake was not taking enough Endurolytes. It was an Extremely hot day, so I took four capsules prior to the race but never replenished my body at each lap.

I honestly believe that if I had trusted Hammer and followed the right serving size, I would have finished in the top 10.  Live and learn. Anyway's, no pictures of this race since my team member was not able to make it. This also meant I had to stop at each lap to grab water bottle. I don't think this caused me too much time since I put my stuff at the top of a hill so all I had to do was sprint down the hill to make up time. In the end, it was fun and I'm glad I did it.