Wishing all of the "Death Ride" Riders happy tail winds!

[maillotpois]

AS for MP- she's famous even here in my home town. AND LOVED DEARLY by all whom she has coached! I hear this every time I ask someone about that great lady from TNT who coaches the Marin group!!!!

Wow. [Blushing profusely....]

[smilingcat]

congratulation to MP and Jobob,

the ride can be super hot. Hot enough to melt the tire (being so much closer to sun) air is thin, sun is blazing hot in some years... Oui. Sounds like a year when everyone was reduced into raisin, dried out!!

MP, I don't know of too many who have participated in DR so many years in a row. whew!!! 7 or 8 years in a row of finishing all 5. superwoman if there ever was one.

On DR anything is possible. I've seen guys snap a chain, sucked up a derailure into the rear wheel, guy go over the edge coming down ebetts because of black ice... defeated by the scorching sun.

Good wonderful memories!!!

[RolliePollie]

we are taking a break from coaching after 10 years coaching for tnt and 5 years with the death ride program. mixed emotions for sure, but it is time for a break.

So let me know when you are ready to come back and maybe that's the year I'll be ready!

Glad to hear you guys had a safe ride. I heard about all the accidents and injuries this year...really too bad. And I'm sorry about the heat...with the intensity of the sun up there, even if the temp isn't terribly high, it's just HOT.

Last year I hiked Round Top mountain (trailhead at the top of Carson Pass) and I really felt the altitude... and I live at 4,000' so my body is at least a little bit used to it. You guys are just amazing...especially those of you who live at sea level!

[crazycanuck]

Jobob & MP, you two are amazing chickas. Jo-so glad you were able to participate this year & you're "back". May you have a better time next year

MP-thanks again for coaching w TNT

[jobob]

Here's my report, hope you're not in a hurry.

Our group (about a dozen of us, including me and Coach mp) started out from Turtle Rock Park at o'Dark Stupid. 3:45 am, I kids you not

I really enjoyed the ride through Markleeville before the sun came up. It was very peaceful and serene, and the miles flew by. Before I knew it we were making the turn to Monitor Pass.

Heading up Monitor I was still feeling good and had my sights on a five pass finish. I knew I wasn't going to be quick about it, but our last long team ride two weeks ago had given me a lot of confidence. That ride included two -- count em, two! -- ascents of Mt Tam and a climb up the infamous Marshall Wall. I rode about 109 miles and nearly 11,000 feet of climbing. Between that, our altitude camp over a few of these same passes the the weekend before that, and the excellent coaching and training rides throughout the season, I had a good idea of what I needed to do and how to deal with things when the going got rough.

It was lovely to witness the sky lightening with the approaching dawn as we climbed up Monitor. But somewhere along that first climb I realized I was losing energy and my legs were feeling like lead pipes. OK, I thought, I’ve got this covered, I’ll just keep up the hydration, nibble at the Ritz Bits & Wheat Thins in my bento box, take a swig or two of Hammer Gel, kick back a little, and I’ll feel better in a bit.

But I didn’t. If anything, I felt more lethargic over time. It felt like my bike weighed 50 pounds. I watched the rest of my group turn into tiny specs up ahead of me. I figured, eh, this is just a phase, I’ll settle in, and I’d either catch up to them or I wouldn’t, it was no big concern for me, I had tons of time. One of our coaches, Onnie, was keeping an eye on me, and all was fine.

And then the headache started up. It was nowhere near as bad as the one I experienced at Altitude Camp; this time around I had hydrated well throughout the week, both with water and electrolyte drinks, and I took an ibuprofen before we headed out. I glanced down at my Garmin to check the elevation, and sure enough, it read around 7480 feet. I had to laugh at that -- at altitude camp my headache had ramped up at around the 7500 ft mark. I’m nothing if not consistent.

I pulled over briefly to down another ibuprofen and to take a brief rest. That helped some and I continued on. The headache soon diminished, it didn’t go away entirely, but it was manageable. My energy was a whole ‘nother story, though. Whenever I tried to pick up the pace just a little, my heart rate would soar. I wasn’t wearing an HRM, but my chest was thumping pretty darn hard. OK, just ease up a bit. Trouble was, I was already climbing fairly slowly, so easing up meant crawling.

I finally reached Onnie who was waiting patiently for me. I was staying pretty calm and I wasn’t worried about holding her up. We finally reached the summit and I got my First Pass sticker. That perked me up a lot, and I looked forward to the descent down the backside of Monitor Pass, which I’d been told is spectacular.

And that descent down the backside of Monitor did not disappoint!! Since we had started out so early, not many people had reached the summit of Monitor just yet, so there weren’t all that many people on the descent. My Descending Mojo was present and correct, and I had an absolute blast. The vistas opening up ahead of me were simply gorgeous. Although dozens had passed me on the climb, I was able to pass many of them on the descent, which gave me a little ego boost. Mind you, I didn’t take any risks –- there was a helicopter ambulance parked at the summit of Monitor which reminded me of where I’d been and where I never wanted to go again! -– but the road was for the most part fairly wide and straight in good condition, the sight lines were good, and the idiot quotient was pretty low, so I had loads of fun. And I tried not to dwell on the fact that, even though I was exceeding 35 mph on much of the descent, and got up to 42 in some places (amateur to some, apparently ), it seemed like it was taking a reeeaaaly long time to reach the bottom. Ergh.

At the east base of Monitor I got my Second Pass sticker – woo hoo! – and I handed off my lights to Gerry, the husband of one of our teammates who had driven over from Nevada to be our drop off guy (thanks Gerry!), and dealt with necessities.

Our bunch regrouped and headed off for the return trip up the backside of Monitor. I hung in there for a bit, but soon I started to fall off again. Coach mp hung with me for quite a while, but we eventually got separated. I slogged on. I was reflecting a bit on some advice mp gave us at our pre-ride dinner the night before, the bit about the chicken and the pig, the chicken being “interested” and the pig being “committed” – ask mp for the gist. Well, slogging up the backside of Monitor, I knew I had no choice but to Keep Calm and Carry On. I was so committed, I felt like a slab of bacon on the frying pan. Which wasn’t too remote of an analogy, it was getting freakin’ hot on the climb.

You know you’re going excruciatingly slow and looking kind of pathetic when people passing you call out in really cheery, well-meaning tones: “You’re doing great!" and "Hang in there!". I also got lot of "Go Team!"s. I was beginning to wonder if people assumed I was a very recent leukemia/lymphoma patient, that’s how slow I was going (no offense intended to our honorees, many of whom can and do ride circles around me and many on our team!!).

After a while I realized that 5 passes were not in the cards, and four passes were also starting to look very iffy from a time standpoint. I was still staying upbeat, and occasionally chatting with people on the way up. I had to stop a lot, if only for a minute or two after which I felt better, but even so I couldn’t get any real momentum going, especially as the elevation got over 7000 feet again. This was starting to become Most Decidedly Not Fun.

Starting out that morning I had three big goals for the day:
First and foremost, I wanted this day to be fun. I wanted to be able to look back on this day fondly, with a smile, not a grimace, and I sure as heck didn’t want my love of cycling to diminish in any way from this experience.
Secondly, I didn’t want to mess up anyone else’s chances to finish all five passes, if that’s what they wanted to do. MP had already reassured me a couple of weeks before that it didn’t matter to her one bit if she finished all five or not; she’d been there, done that, and had lots of 5-pass jerseys to show for it. She convinced me that it meant more to her to see me do well and be happy with what I accomplished. Is she cool or what??
Thirdly, and this may sound hokey, but what the heck: I wanted to honor the TNT jersey. I was wearing our team’s event jersey, and I wanted to represent the team and the organization in a positive manner.

Crawling up the backside of Monitor, I had hoped that my difficulties would diminish some, but that simply wasn’t happening; if anything, I was getting more and more worn out. My reaction to the altitude and the heat was, on this day anyways, beyond my control. But what I could control was how I dealt with it. Sure, ending the day with only two stickers was kind of embarrassing, but it would be a lot more embarrassing to try to push myself more, for one or two more stickers (big whoop ) and in the process wind up a sniveling cranky whiney heap at the side of the road. And be a burden to my other teammates. And I sure wouldn’t be a good reflection on my team or the TNT organization that way.

So as I approached the top of Monitor, I had pretty much decided to cut my losses, call it a day, and head back to Turtle Rock.

At the summit, there was mp patiently waiting for me.

We had a fun descent down the west side of Monitor Pass. By then it was a lot more crowded than the east side descent. I stayed clear of trouble, but I saw a couple of near misses ahead of me that rattled me a bit. Although I was very confident in my own descending, I couldn’t say the same for a lot of the people sharing the road with me at that point.

When we reached the base of Monitor and the intersection (Ebbetts to the left, Markleeville and Turtle Rock to the right), mp talked me into giving the climb up Ebbetts a go, at least as far as the rest stop about a third of the way up at Scozza’s cow camp. I was feeling rested and exhilarated from the descent so I figured, heck, why not?

But as we were heading up the very shallow grade towards the campground where the lunch stop was located, my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. I was tired. So when we reached the lunch stop area, I said my goodbyes to mp and to Kurt, another team member who had come down with a cold early in the week and as a result was also having a bad day. MP knew better than to give me any grief (I told you, she’s great), but she did ask me to consider at least giving Ebbetts a try, pointing out that I had all day to do it.

I hung out at the lunch stop a bit, and I did feel a lot better. After a while I figured what the heck, it’s not like I had to rush it, so I set off up Ebbetts after all. Once again I went at my own leisurely pace, but since I had no time cuts to make, I relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. Ebbetts Pass has some of the loveliest scenery on the entire ride. After a bit I saw mp and Kurt who passed by me heading back down – mp looked very surprised and happy to see me continuing on!

As I pulled in to the Scozza’s, one of the volunteers was shouting out to riders that it was the last rest stop for seven miles before the top of Ebbetts. Ugh, seven more miles to climb. I refilled my bottles and treated myself to a few Oreo cookies. Nowadays I only allow myself Oreos when I donate blood, but I figured I deserved them today. I headed off, thinking I’d go as far as the cattle grate or maybe the fake 7000 foot sign (which is actually at 6800 feet) and re-evaluate.

When I reached the cattle grate a couple of miles up the road, I looked ahead and saw the road kick up a lot. Argh. I also realized that hardly anyone was descending at that point – the bulk of the riders were still up ahead, either reaching the top of Ebbetts, heading down the other side or climbing back up the other side. So if I turned around right then and there, I’d be ahead of the teeming masses and have the road nearly to myself. I pondered that for maybe another nanosecond, and set off back down the mountain. And it was very very good. There were a few other riders descending with me but by and large they were fast uber-studly riders with good sense and excellent bike handling skills. And I held my own quite nicely.

I got back to the lunch stop where mp and Kurt were hanging out with Lorri Lee Lown of Velogirls. You’ve already heard of mp’s derailleur problems; she decided not to tackle Ebbetts but instead wait for the rest of our group to come back from the front and back Ebbetts climbs, and help them get thru Markleeville, past Turtle Rock and up Carson Pass. Word was that a few of our group were having some difficulties with the heat and the altitude, so mp felt she would be the most help if she joined them at that point and pulled them to Turtle Rock and points beyond. Kurt likewise was going to help out where he could. I figured I wasn’t going to be much help, so after a nice leisurely lunch I said my goodbyes (again) and headed off for Turtle Rock.

As I approached the infamous Grassy Knoll at the edge of Markleeville, I heard someone calling my name – turns out a few team members (Leah, our team manager; Amy, a team member who had a crash a few weeks back and couldn’t participate in the ride; Ken, one of our SAG guys who also volunteered earlier that day up on Monitor), and a couple of teammates’ spouses had set up a cheering section near the Knoll. I joined them and was a part of the cheering section for a couple of hours – what a blast!

After most of the team passed by, I set off for Turtle Rock and the end of my own ride. There I met up with LeeBob (who, after dropping me off at 3:30 that morning, headed back to our hotel in Minden to catch a few zzz’s before heading back to Turtle Rock much later in the morning to hang out at the team tent and wait for us to roll in), and a few others holding down the fort. Eventually, the rest of the team rolled in. The heat & the altitude took its toll on a few who managed “only” four passes, while a good many of the team did all five. I’m pretty sure I was the lowballer with two passes, but that’s OK.

I ended up having ridden about 64 miles with around 7800 feet of climbing. I got over 40 mph a few places on the Monitor descents, maxing out at a shade under 44 mph (some did closer to 50-55; I may be a confident descender, but not THAT confident!!). On the flip side, I averaged about 4 mph heading up the backside of Monitor.

So there you have it. I accomplished my three goals for the day: I think I represented the team well, I didn’t interfere with anyone else’s goals, and, most emphatically, I had a great time. Can’t ask for much more than that.

[OakLeaf]

Woohoo! Way to go jo - and MP too.

[indysteel]

Awesome job, Jobob! For some reason, I found myself getting kind of emotional while reading this. TNT makes me think of little Collin, for one, and for another, the and support among you, MP, and your other teammates is really moving. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Catrin]

Way to go Jobob and MP! Your story made me all teary and thank you for sharing.

[smilingcat]

Hi Jobob,

Speed is way overrated. Besides, you finished a tough tough metric century. Good for you!!

I hope you got to see the water fall on Ebetts. You can hear it but, you have to stop and look for it. If not try again next year

stay cool and stay safe.

[Crankin]

Congratulations. The fact that you enjoyed yourself and had fun, despite not being able to do the whole ride is awesome. And to me, it's the most important thing.
I can't imagine doing that kind of riding at altitude. I start noticing it above 3,000 feet.

[maillotpois]

Great report!! Glad you had fun and met your goals.

after Monitor pass on my first Death Ride in 2002, my only goal became not to throw up. I did meet that goal....

[Biciclista]

good ride report, Jobob. what an intense ride! I think you were great. thanks for sharing...

[gnat23]

Jobob,

So so so proud of you! You worked towards a goal, you went out there on the big day, and you found out what you were made of (and it's ain't soft and squishy)! Nice work to you and yours!

-- gnat!

[Bike Goddess]

Ditto from me too! When we were up there last fall with BJ guys I was amazed that anyone could do that ride. I found the altitude was also an issue for me and to this day, despite what others seem to think, I don't know that I could do the entire ride either.

Kudos to you to listening to your body and doing what's best for you. Even though you didn't complete, the work you did to get there is totally awesome. You are one determined lady and it shows.

I talked to some of those faster riders today and they all said that heat was a big factor this year. Never know what the Sierra is going to be like from year to year. MP probably remembers when it hailed coming down Carson a few years ago.

Hope to see you on the road. We should do a ride one of these days. Maybe the Farifax Mt Tam ride sometime this summer or fall.

Now MP don't you go out and get all excited about that motorcycle I understand you ride from time to time.

[andtckrtoo]

Jo - you rule!! I read your report and you're just such a great person that I truly hope I have the honor of riding with you one day soon.

I love your attitude. I love the fact that even though you did not complete all 5 passes you appreciate what you did finish and were true to your goals. I tend to focus on the finish line way too much. I have to remember that truly riding a good ride has nothing to do with crossing the finish line and everything to do with enjoying the ride.