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furnace creek 508
October 2009 
Furnace Creek 508 -- Race Report
Posted on Oct 11th, 2009
by 
Cara
Cara
Allo Bonjour!
So a week has passed and now I can properly reflect on the experience. Here's a stage by stage breakdown. You can see all of our splits here.
Stage 1: TCTMJ
This stage is around 83 miles, neutral start, with a big climb in the middle.
We were waiting around for a long time until we were allowed to start leapfrogging.
TCTMJ came over the climb first.
But then got overtaken by Colossal Squid (CS) through the descents and flats. I guess having 0.2% body fat doesn't help so much on anything other than a big hill.
Stage 2: ME!
This was the most fun stage, primarily because of the epic tailwind. I had to make up time on Colossal Squid and give TCTMJ a cushion on them. I caught CS by the halfway point and then got TCTMJ some time on them.
Stage 3: TCTMJ
So this is allegedly the hardest stage in the race, 98 miles with some big climbs. Last year I did the stage in 5:09. Hmmm. So the winds were much different this year and it took TCTMJ 6:30. Of course CS finished in 5:30. Shit. There was lots of yelling from TCTMJ as the insane headwind took its toll both on the climb and on the flats. This is the most miserable I've ever seen TCTMJ on a climb.
Stage 4: ME!
OK, so I had been giving TCTMJ a lot of crap while he was riding. I kept yelling at him to go faster, mostly because we were loosing so much time to CS and because I couldn't figure out why he was going to slowly. Then I got on my bike. Stage 4 is 70 some miles, 40 flat miles, 15 miles climb, the descent and flat to the finish. HA! My average speed was 9.76 mph and it took me 7:32. I kept getting blown off my bike in the horrendous winds. I couldn't ride in a straight line and at times I was leaning so far into the wind that my pedals were clipping the ground. After a brief moment of "I think we should pull the plug" (which my team keeps reminding me of) I put on my birks and started running with my bike. Two interesting things happened here: A) I passed someone riding while I was running, B) the winds were so bad my bike kept getting blown away. Finally I got back on my bike, passed CS (and my 30 minutes into them) and finished the stage in an ok state.
Stage 5: TCTMJ
56 miles of more ridiculous winds. Highlights were getting passed, again, by CS and the dust storm.
Stage 6: ME!
This was my shortest stage: 37 miles. Ahhh. One big climb, one big descent. I caught CS 10km into the stage, then I faced some of the worst pavement known to humanity. It was more like hard gravel. The pisser of the stage was this: I had put about 10 minutes into CS but there was a train that had "broken down" which was blocking the time-station. I mean, the time station was 5 feet on the other side of the tracks but we weren't allowed to walk around the broken train. So not only did CS catch up before the train got fixed, they jumped in front of us in line and put their name down first at the time station. Tsk tsk. Bad form.
Stage 7: TCTMJ
The shortest stage of the race, it started with a 10 mile climb, then about 5 miles of rollers, and finally a 20 mile flat/descent. TCTMJ stayed with CS iver the climb but then lost 9 minutes on the last 20 miles. UGH!
Stage 8: ME!
60 miles with a 10 mile climb, downhill, rollers, then a 22 mile 3-4% climb into a headwind. Blah! I was very angry (to say the least) that TCTMJ lost so much time and this was exacerbated by the fact that in my first time check to CS I had only put 3 minutes into them. Ugh. Luckily I passed them around the 30 mile mark. On the final 22 mile climb I was tired and annoyed and my feet hurt and the pavement sucked and the climb just seemed to stretch into infinity. Finally I crossed the line, 14 minutes ahead of CS.
We were done! And I was really done...
Overall it was a great experience, much better than last year. TCTMJ and I didn't kill each other, Co-Colonels Mark and Greg were amazing (and had potentially unjustified faith in my ability to chase down the other team) and the staff of the 508 put on another great event. The day after the 508 Jeff identified another race for us to try: the Hoodoo 500. Lovely.
Now I get a few weeks of un-focused fun time. Maybe I will get a fixie to explore my new super hip hood of Silver Lake. Or not...
Super-Fantastique!
So a week has passed and now I can properly reflect on the experience. Here's a stage by stage breakdown. You can see all of our splits here.
Stage 1: TCTMJ
This stage is around 83 miles, neutral start, with a big climb in the middle.
We were waiting around for a long time until we were allowed to start leapfrogging.
Co-Colonels Greg and Mark
TCTMJ came over the climb first.
But then got overtaken by Colossal Squid (CS) through the descents and flats. I guess having 0.2% body fat doesn't help so much on anything other than a big hill.
Stage 2: ME!
This was the most fun stage, primarily because of the epic tailwind. I had to make up time on Colossal Squid and give TCTMJ a cushion on them. I caught CS by the halfway point and then got TCTMJ some time on them.
Video Report after stage 2
Stage 3: TCTMJ
So this is allegedly the hardest stage in the race, 98 miles with some big climbs. Last year I did the stage in 5:09. Hmmm. So the winds were much different this year and it took TCTMJ 6:30. Of course CS finished in 5:30. Shit. There was lots of yelling from TCTMJ as the insane headwind took its toll both on the climb and on the flats. This is the most miserable I've ever seen TCTMJ on a climb.
I think he needs to loose some weight.
Stage 4: ME!
OK, so I had been giving TCTMJ a lot of crap while he was riding. I kept yelling at him to go faster, mostly because we were loosing so much time to CS and because I couldn't figure out why he was going to slowly. Then I got on my bike. Stage 4 is 70 some miles, 40 flat miles, 15 miles climb, the descent and flat to the finish. HA! My average speed was 9.76 mph and it took me 7:32. I kept getting blown off my bike in the horrendous winds. I couldn't ride in a straight line and at times I was leaning so far into the wind that my pedals were clipping the ground. After a brief moment of "I think we should pull the plug" (which my team keeps reminding me of) I put on my birks and started running with my bike. Two interesting things happened here: A) I passed someone riding while I was running, B) the winds were so bad my bike kept getting blown away. Finally I got back on my bike, passed CS (and my 30 minutes into them) and finished the stage in an ok state.
Stage 5: TCTMJ
56 miles of more ridiculous winds. Highlights were getting passed, again, by CS and the dust storm.
10 miles of fun!
Stage 6: ME!
This was my shortest stage: 37 miles. Ahhh. One big climb, one big descent. I caught CS 10km into the stage, then I faced some of the worst pavement known to humanity. It was more like hard gravel. The pisser of the stage was this: I had put about 10 minutes into CS but there was a train that had "broken down" which was blocking the time-station. I mean, the time station was 5 feet on the other side of the tracks but we weren't allowed to walk around the broken train. So not only did CS catch up before the train got fixed, they jumped in front of us in line and put their name down first at the time station. Tsk tsk. Bad form.
Stage 7: TCTMJ
The shortest stage of the race, it started with a 10 mile climb, then about 5 miles of rollers, and finally a 20 mile flat/descent. TCTMJ stayed with CS iver the climb but then lost 9 minutes on the last 20 miles. UGH!
Stage 8: ME!
60 miles with a 10 mile climb, downhill, rollers, then a 22 mile 3-4% climb into a headwind. Blah! I was very angry (to say the least) that TCTMJ lost so much time and this was exacerbated by the fact that in my first time check to CS I had only put 3 minutes into them. Ugh. Luckily I passed them around the 30 mile mark. On the final 22 mile climb I was tired and annoyed and my feet hurt and the pavement sucked and the climb just seemed to stretch into infinity. Finally I crossed the line, 14 minutes ahead of CS.
Yay!
We were done! And I was really done...
My white aren't so white any more.
Overall it was a great experience, much better than last year. TCTMJ and I didn't kill each other, Co-Colonels Mark and Greg were amazing (and had potentially unjustified faith in my ability to chase down the other team) and the staff of the 508 put on another great event. The day after the 508 Jeff identified another race for us to try: the Hoodoo 500. Lovely.
Now I get a few weeks of un-focused fun time. Maybe I will get a fixie to explore my new super hip hood of Silver Lake. Or not...
Super-Fantastique!
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