Mountainview 9 Hour part 1

I need to do this in two stages so that I can get everything down. I'm now recovering from the Mountainview 9 hour in Midland Ontario. All I can say was awesome. This was the best course I've ever raced on. I'll get more into it in part 2. This is the all about ME section.

So the regular routine on Saturday morning. It was a nice change not having to travel far to race. Midland is basiclly my hometown so with that it definatly motivated me to ride hard. Unfortunatly I was doiing the race unsupported which was a new change for me. That did change through the day.

My plan was to go hard and drive the pace really high for the first few hours. As I said I was very motivated to do well at this race. I was still not 100 sure how recovered I was from the 8 hour solo the weekend before but figured go hard and take a chance. It pretty much worked and lapped all but one of the solo racers by the 5 hour mark. Up to lap 9 I ran sub 32 minute laps with most at the 30 minute mark. I backed things down a bit to maintain.

Mom showed up for a couple hours n the morning to keep bottles filled then Brent and his family stopped in for a bit. Thank you SO much for the bag of ice!!!! Mom was back shortly after that and was there for the rest of the race. Thanks again. Everything was on track and my legs felt amazing. Now as teh race came closer to the end my stomach started to jump around and my energy when down. It end up being a banana that my stomach didnt like. Yep you know what that means. Threw up a couple times and got that evil out. A bit of complaining and a gel pack and I was back out on the bike.

Now that lap before was tough. The climbs went really bad and this course was uphill for the first 10 minutes. No cramping or anything it was just my stomach saying get that out of me and it took my energy away to prove it. After the lunch drop I felt great again. I took it pretty easy on the first couple climbs then picked up the pace again to catch up with Matt Wynen so we could finish the race together. This guy did awesome riding it on a single speed. Sorry but my little chicken legs need gears!!!! We've raced against each other a few times. Great guy racing for Cambridge Cycle.

So with all said and done I added a 1st place to my list. 16 laps. I really wanted to win this race, something about having the hometown crowd around plus after an out of towner took the solo last year I figured that title needs to stay in this area.

Thanks to Lee for the beer after the race. MMMM hit the spot and defintaly tasted to better that sport drinks!!! My Giant NRS1 ran flawless even with all the dust. Oh yes the dust. I'm also over the stomach problems after races. No dizziesness or vomiting and food is staying in me. That has definatly been a big thing with me making sure that I can eat after races.

So with the back to back 8 and 9 hour races some body parts are a little ticked at me so I'm going to take the week off the bike and let things heal. I have a massage now set up for sometime this week. Cindy from Handle with Care massage is going to squeeze me in. My legs feel really good but having the massage will be great. Today is sitting on my butt staringly blankly. That and the hottub!!!!!