Edit: Just after I posted this, I remembered that I had the flu last week as well...I was already happy with performance and had forgotten that little detail! anyway...read away...
Wow! So...I made it! First attempt a any mountain bike racing longer than three hours so I was a little nervous going in. I'll get into the race recap in a minute but first I just have to say that this whole experience was great. I've never been that far into Arkansas and realizing that I was still in the Ozarks was a pleasant surprise. Hot Springs was definitely a cool (albeit very busy) town- population signs said ~35,000 people but with all the tourists it seemed 2 or 3 times that!
The USAC ProUET event was very well organized and everything clicked off smoothly from what I could tell. The course was fast...faster in the first couple hours than in the last couple hours...but definitely fast and fun- no smaller ring stuff here! It wasn't very technical but rough with lots of loose rocks, some nice places to catch high speed air, half a dozen or so water crossings, very fast flats and downhills, switchbacks, and 'fun' climbs. Aside from those flat sections it really reminded me of riding around Duluth, MN- and I love that place as well.
About 150-175 riders lined up for the Le mans start. I'd love to see a video of this- running in these shoes is not always the most stable! Jumping on the bike I was not in a very good position, but made up a lot of time and positions on the road section of the prelude before settling into the singeltrack of lap 1.
Each lap was somewhere between 10-11 miles and at a 6-hour long kind of pace I wanted to avg about an hour each. Laps 1 and 2 were easily done in that and I was holding a good pace and surprisingly good position until about 1/3 of the way into lap 3...front tire became very soft and where ever was leaking was too much for the stan's to fill- I tried pumping up 3 times hoping I could last until the end of the lap and make one stop as I needed to refuel anyway. The last time I pumped it up I rode out as long as possible before I realized other riders were suddenly closing hard and eventually passing. No choice now but to stop and throw a tube in it...I wasted way too much time on this deal and easily lost 20 minutes on the race. After the first time I pumped the tire up again I should've pulled off and went with the tube right away. Lesson learned!
Overall still feeling great about the race, refueled on lap 4 and caught major hamstring cramps 2/3 into the lap on a short climb that luckily I was able to spin out of by dumping the gears and reving the cranks up to about 100 rpm for the rest of the race- kept eating and drinking and didn't stop- thought that might make it worse! Starting lap 5 I looked at the time and knew I wasn't going to make my goal of 6 laps. But still happy with how things are going overall I kept spinning the lighter gears and again had to spin through another spell of major hamstring cramping in the exact same part of the course- but again not stopping, they were not as bad as the lap before so kept on truckin'!
That finish line was a joy to see...I rolled through the traps at 5hrs 50 mins with only 40 mins left to fully complete another lap- obviously that wasn't happening so I was done...and happy with it all.
Upon the finish I realized I should've started the lighter gears earlier because my last lap felt really good. It was about 8 minutes slower than my first and second lap, but for not ever racing this long- I was good with that. Fueling-wise...I could've done a little better- that combined with better handling of the flat tire situation and I could've gotten the 6th lap for sure- my fitness is obviously in good order so I am super pumped to build off this! I wasn't sure how I was gonna feel about this Ultra-Endurance stuff in the end but so far I love it.
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