12 Hours of Lodi...

Hey People.

Sorry I've been off for a while. It has been a rediculously stressful time for me and I don't write well when I'm having a rough time. It just doesn't flow. Things are looking a bit up, so I think that I'll be writing a bit more.

Lodi was a great experience. I had a lot of fun. Many props to Jason for completing 8 laps in pretty miserable conditions. David and Bob completed 9 laps. David had some blistering laps on that ride. JoeP, Ricky and their partner (Markie?) won the sport class. Evan and his team took second in the sport team class. Kate took third in women's solo. Joe Foley's team had a rough time because one of their guys was injured and Joe took them to get a few stitches. That kinda nixed their performance. Joe did a few laps to finish out the day. I could tell he was really disappointed, but he's such a dang good natured guy that he didn't let it get him down. Denis rode until his lights failed, then he slept in his car. He got up in the morning and did 4 laps during the day. He sounded like he had fun doing the ride solo. I talked to Craig and he seemed like he had fun. He said it was pretty brutal. I didn't hear how his team did. Barbara said there were some fun times, but like many people I talked to, found it frustrating to have to stop and get out of the way of the faster riders all the time. It was really hard to get a flow going when you were having to hop off the bike all the time. There was really no room to pass on this course when you were in the woods. Kevin did some blistering laps. I saw him a few times over the night. He was the first person that I knew who passed me after my crash (more on that later). He stopped and talked to me for a few moments and that really helped. I was REALLY pissed at myself at that moment and that got me back in the right mindset. Kevin rode till his lights died, got some sleep, then come out and did some fast laps after sunrise. It seemed to have worked well for him. I don't know what his final count was, but he was moving really well every time I saw him.

Thanks to all that cheered me on. The course was GREAT! It was twisty and tight. There were TONS of roots. It flowed really well for the most part. I loved it on the pre-ride. The rain started, and things were made much more difficult. The roots all became like ice. There wasn't enough rain for stuff to get really muddy. The dirt portions of trail were perfectly tacky almost everywhere. The roots made it a bit tough, though.

There were many sections on the trail that were not conducive to wide handlebars. There were three spots between trees that were narrower than 28". For me, that means less than an inch of space on each side of my bars. Most of them were slightly offset so I could get one side through, then the other side. One spot was my nemesis early on (someone whacked it down late in the evening and it was significantly wider). On my second lap I hit the left side of my bars on a tree just hard enough to throw me off balance. I pivoted and hit my shoulder and ribs on the opposing tree. That displaced my already tender ribs and I had a miled disolcation of my shoulder.

The shoulder has been loose for years. It often pops out, then right back in again. It did this time, or so I though. I did another lap and a half on it before heading for the car for a much needed nap.

I put on dry clothes and crawled under a blanket in the front seat of Jason's car and slept for 90 minutes. I felt great when I got up. My shoulder and ribs were tender, but I felt strong. I went out with Jason and Denis for a daylight lap. I went pretty fast up the first set of climbs. When I got to the top, my shoulder started hurting again. I finished out that lap and started the next one. At the top of the initial climbs, I started hurting in a way that tells me I'm doing damage to myself. I did as much of that lap as I could, then called it quits. In all, I finished 5 laps.

Laura came out Sunday morning. She was great and it was perfect that she was there. She could see that my shoulder wasn't right at the end. She told me so. I figured that I hadn't fully relocated it. Once I had that fixed, I felt MUCH better. Changing into dry clothes helped too. I then spent the rest of the morning helping pack up and get things ready for Jason's return. I cheered on some folks and helped a few people that looked like they could use a drink or food or technical help.

I really enjoyed the ride, but was completely frustrated by having to fight that much adversity. Had I one less thing to deal with, I think my results would have been a lot better (especially if that one thing would have been not injuring myself). That is the way things go, however. My preparations were almost perfect. The only thing I could have done better was to get more sleep leading up to the race. That wasn't possible with all the things going on at home. I ate perfectly for the race. I alternated between Extran and Amino Vital in the camelback. I had one of the these tablet things that help replace what you sweat off on each lap. I forget what they're really called. I call them "condoms" since they are packaged like condoms. I had one gel each lap. I was never hungry and I didn't have any dehydration problems. My legs felt GREAT the whole time. When I stopped for a nap, I ate a Boca Burger and drank a bottle of recovery drink. When I got off the bike at the end of my race, I had two bottles of recovery drink.

The drive home was easy. My stomach wasn't ready for much solid food, so I fed it what I was craving. That was..... Beef Jerky. I ate a whole bag while driving home. Jason napped and talked to me a bit. We unloaded my stuff at the house, then he drove home to his place. I hauled all my crap inside. Dumped the wet clothes on the floor by the washer, took a shower, ate a canteloupe and another boca burger, and went to bed. I guess I played with the cats a bit for a few minutes before bed. They could tell something was up. They were playing to humor me. Laura wasn't home yet, so I climbed into bed and slept. The cats curled up with me. It was nice. I slept pretty much straight through till morning. I don't often sleep more than 8 hours in a stretch. I had no problems sleeping 16 hours straight.

We'll see how my shoulder is feeling for riding this week. At this point it is more of a worry for me than my ribs. My shoulder is a bit tender right now, but I have most of my range of motion. My ribs basically feel like they did a few weeks ago. They've never stopped hurting since I fractured them 6 weeks ago, but they were hurting less in my daily life... mostly just when I breathe hard while riding. They'll settle back down.

If I got anyone's Lodi experience wrong, please let me know. I'll make corrections.

Thanks for reading. I'll write more soon.

Pete