Race the Lake 2011

August 21, 2011 was a Sunday morning.    Race the Lake is a 90 Mile bike race around lake Winnebago.   It is a competitive race, enthusiast event, and a leisurely event all in one.  It starts in Fon Du Lac WI which is on the southern tip of the lake.  It then proceeds around the west side to the north side and into High Cliff State Park and then down the east side and back to where you started.

I never thought I would actually do this race.   I bought a Trek road bike from Wheel and Sprocket in Appleton last may because of my Triathlon.  I didn't even know about it but I went back one day to get an air pump and he said I got a free entry into the race because I had purchased a bike.   I hesitated for a while thinking that 90 miles is a long way.  There is no way I would do it but I sent in my entry form either way.  I figured it was free so why not register and make the decision later.   Turns out someone I work with Jake had been riding bike a while as a kid and wanted to get back into it so he signed up too.   It is so much easier to do events when you have someone to do them with!!!!!!

 So August 21st came and we had actually only really trained for about 6 weeks.   the longest we had ever rode our bikes during that training was roughly 50 miles!  The race started at 5:50am yes that is am so we were up at the crack of dawn to do this thing.   We both signed up for heat 8 which is roughly the average of 18mph category.   Our goal was to finish this thing in 5 hours or so.  I was up at 3am I was so excited!   Jake picked me up at 4:15 in the morning to get to fon du lac which is roughly a 40 minute drive that would give us plenty of time to get ready.   It was crazy the number of bikers.   All in all there wher 1500 people doing this race.   We had never ridden in packs like that, never done 90 miles and trained no more than 50.   adrenaline was pumping and we were stoked!!!

So Jake and I started riding and Jake looks down at his computer that is telling us how fast we are going and next thing we know we are riding at an average speed of about 23 miles per our.   We looked at each other and started to worry.   Where we pushing ourselves to hard?  Are we going to burn out?  Why are we going so fast?   Should we fall back and see what happens?   These were all questions we asked but a little bit of the competitive side kicked in and we said screw it and pushed on the picture to the right shows Jake and I at the front of about 25 people.   When you ride in a pack like that the guys in front work a lot harder as they have to take the wind.  but for a while we rode in the pack and when you do that you don't have to work as hard to keep your momementum.   It is like you are being sucked along. This continued on through High Cliff state park.   We lead our group not the thing for roughly 45 miles.  We averaged 22+ mph the entire first half and we felt awesome!

So here came the problem!   At the beginning in the morning we tried and tried and tried to make sure that the bathroom wasn't going to be an issue.  Mile 5 I had to go....WTF!!!  I had gone 4 times that morning so I guess I was hydrated but for the goodness sakes I had to go again!   There was no way in hell I was stopping.   I had a long way to go and I figured I wouldn't have to go if I held it long enough.   we got to mile 45 which was half way and I thought about going the problem was there was no bathroom.   So now I have decided to go as fast as I can.  The pain is starting to build you know the kind where you don't want to stop when you are driving cause you just want to get there.   I made it to mile 55 yes I made it an additional 55 miles before the pain was bad enough I had to stop.   The really crappy part was it was  10 minute stop as this was obviously not a one person issue!1!  Jake caught up to me and probably should have just kept going.   getting off of a bike after 55 miles is not really the smartest move for your legs.   This ended up causing Jake to cramp a little bit and his muscles got tight.   I was fortunate enough to finish get back on the bike and make up some time.

During the race I had an app on my phone called realtime GPS tracker.   I turned it on at the start of the race and I was able to give a user name and password to friends and family to watch where I was in the race.   Jen was then able to track us and go and see us in multiple spots to take pictures.  It was also cool cause my mom and others who wanted to watch no longer had to sit and wait to see me for 5 seconds you could see exactly where I was.   By clicking on the icon of me the tracker would give you real time information such as speed, direction, GPS position, and elevation.   At one point when I did stop to go to the bathroom my Mom called my wife and asked if I was OK.   My tracker showed me drop to 0 mph and she didn't have a map to show that I was at an aid station. 

In the end I did make up some time and finished well ahead of where I wanted.  Jake and I both did.   the last 20 miles was a lot of hills which we both fared well.   Jake after he stopped cramped up a little but all in all it was an amazing day.    We have already started looking at next year and trying to compete in the 22-23mph category.  Something to train for and something to compete for us.    Below is Jake and I at the finish line.   We wanted to finish in 5 hours we both finished in about four and half hours I finished in 4 hours and 22 minutes and jake just a little later (due to cramping) which I still give him crap about.   It was an awesome day and a great time!!!