Last year I did the Tuscobia Winter Ultra 80 mile race by bike. I did this as a test for my gear going into the Arrowhead 135. Overall I learned a lot doing my first long-distance winter race. It was rough and didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked, but I did finish. This year I wanted to come back and attempt to do it properly. I decided that doing the 160-mile ride was a good idea. Again, to get some practice for the Arrowhead, to push myself, and to have some fun.
Last year, I ran into some issues. My light went out quickly because it turned on in my pack. I've since learned how to use the lock function. My backup light due to battery performance in the cold wasn’t as bright as I would have liked, so it was slow rolling in the dark. I also managed to put my car in the ditch before the race and started about an hour late. Basically, the start and end of the race were pretty rough, but everything in between was fun and went pretty smoothly. Overall I finished in 12 hours from my start time, so 13 hours from the actual race start. I felt like this year I should be able to do better. In 2018 I was stopping frequently, fell hard on the ice once and just felt undertrained and underprepared.
Based on last year's speed I sort of figured this year getting to the halfway point would take at most 12 hours and I should finish in 24 - 26 hours if I didn’t sleep. The day before the race I realized there wasn't going to be a little rain and mostly snow as I had anticipated. Instead, it was going to be warm, right around the freezing point, and rain a lot. This caused me to leave a bit of extra gear in my hotel room. Had I seen the weather before I left the house I might have brought some changes of clothes, although as I type this I don't think that would have mattered. Changing into dry clothes would just cause them to get them wet in a few minutes and then I'd be carrying multiple pairs of heavy wet clothes. So, I ditched some gear, like facemasks, heavyweight gloves, heavy backup jackets. I also didn't have a dry bag with me for my sleeping bag, since snow should just brush right off the stuff sack. Rain is a different story. Luckily, a good friend of mine told me to not trust dry bags, and to wrap my sleeping bag in my bivy sack (shout out Paul). This was vital, a -20℉ down sleeping bag soaked through would probably weigh at least an extra 20 pounds and be useless if I needed it. The only other change I did with my gear due to rain was stuff some electronics in ziplock bags. I am certain that my cheap mp3 player is not water-resistant.
I woke up about 30 minutes before my alarm. I'm a pretty anxious person when it comes to being on time, and races cause me to lose a lot of sleep. It's so bad, that sometimes I think about not doing races to avoid this stress, but I'm hoping, despite doing this for 4 years now that it will eventually get better. I get ready and head to the start with my partner Kristi (Thanks for putting up with me getting up before 5 am!). I finish loading my bike at the start and then hang out waiting to get going. The wait is long because, well I was very early, anxiety you know... I line up on the trail about 5 minutes before the start. There is no gun or fireworks to signal the start, the race director just says "alright get going" and we all take off. I miss pretty much the only turn on the trail at mile 4 and probably end up adding 2 extra miles to my ride. I can't read well without my glasses and when riding in the winter I've pretty much given up on wearing eyewear. They make my nose and ears cold and they always fog or ice up at some point. No big deal though, one of these days I'll get the start of Tuscobia right. I feel strong and am moving at a good pace. This is the first time I've ever done any real training for a race, and it felt like it paid off. Around mile 20 is when things start to slow down. The snow becomes like sand and my cadence becomes low as I struggle to keep moving forwards. I'm not the only one, there are a few people ahead of me and we all are playing leapfrog with each other. I drop the air pressure in my tires which helps a little bit. Then the rain begins. Everything gets a nice ice coating at first. Then as the day warms up everything is wet. I don't put on my rain jacket, mostly because I didn't want to get it out and stick with my Patagonia Nano-Air Light jacket, which performs great. It soaks up the water and becomes heavy but I stay warm and don't notice that I'm wet at all.
My clothing choices this year have changed to clothing that dries as fast as possible. I sweat a lot when biking, even in the winter, and moisture trapped in your clothes will make you cold. I didn't want to spend time trying to change in and out of clothes as they get wet, but rather be able to just keep on what I have. This year, I went with a bunch of different Patagonia alpine climbing gear since it's meant to be worn without being taken off for long periods. They are also meant to be used for stop and start aerobic activities such as climbing and belaying where you move a lot then stand still for a long time, this may be a little overkill for cycling but if I did get mechanical I'd appreciate this. With all the testing I did, I'd say my setup works great for me.
After the excitement of missing a turn, nothing of significance happens, from this point on. It just continues to snow wet and heavy snow. I make it to the checkpoint, eat a bit, mix up some more drink mix, fill my water bottles and continue. I realize it took me 7 hours to get to the checkpoint which feels very slow. I leave the checkpoint and continue to pedal on, my knees start to hurt, when high force and low cadence are used to keep going on the crappy wet snow, it starts to strain the knees.
Somewhere between the first checkpoint and the second, I start to get a lot of anxiety about trying to stay out overnight. I worry that if I have to bivy I'll be in a wet sleeping bag, that will end up weighing 60 pounds in the morning. I worry that any clothes I could change into for sleeping or getting warm as the night comes on are soaked through. I worry about what to do with my boots if I were to bivy; leave them outside to get filled with water, or try to wear them to a bed where they will soak my sleeping bag. The food I keep in my pockets to snack on is also soaked and falling apart. I snack to keep myself awake, but I also won’t be able to do that as easily tonight. All these fill my mind as I trudge along with my knees hurting and stomach starting to ache (I think I ended up eating too much, which has never been an issue for me before). All of these issues start to get to me and I start to think I should call it a day.
I text Kristi that I'll be dropping at the halfway checkpoint. The roads are terrible and it will take her 2 hours to come to get me. That said I assumed it would take me at least another 2 hours from where I was to get to the checkpoint, so it seems fine and I continue. As I get close to the checkpoint and off the actual Tuscobia Tail onto the city streets I see what Kristi was talking about when she said the roads were bad. They were covered in ice. I had to be very careful about getting to the checkpoint.
I get to the checkpoint which is in a bar and am greeted by very friendly faces. They cheer as I come inside, I feel like a rockstar. I try to eat some food, but my stomach is still bothering me. As I get talking to others it sounds like a lot of them are dropping as well. So, I don't feel too bad about dropping at this time, as I sit longer and begin to feel better I start to regret not going on to finish. A guy I had been playing leapfrog with all day, and who also missed the turn with me at the beginning of the race, said he was going back out. When I met up with him later, at the Arrowhead 135, I found out he ended up dropping at mile 120 because the conditions were so bad. So I feel okay about my decision.
As with any race, I learned some new things and will adjust my food, nutrition, and gear for the future. Not finishing this race has me wanting to come back for more next year but also had me very worried about the training I've been doing for the Arrowhead but more about that another time.
My loving support crew and editor.
