PCP2P Recap

Saturday was the Park City Point 2 Point. I have a lot of jumbled thoughts and memories that I'm still trying to sort. My feelings for the race are just as scrambled.

The race organizers put on a top notch race. I was impressed, especially considering the PCPP is only in its second year. The course was challenging. It was well marked. Aid stations were very well stocked. Pre and post race entertainment, drawings, and food were great. Very well done.

Before the race, I had in my mind a time that I wanted to beat. This was based primarily on what some of the "lunch riders" had done the previous year. I lined myself up accordingly at the start line. I remember hearing Brad K. yelling at the crowd as he sorted himself to a different group "didn't you guys look at the finishing times from last year? Didn't you see how many people finished 10+ hours????" He proved to be correct as the majority of us should have sorted ourselves better.

Round Valley was fun and fast. By the time I reached silver lake lodge at Deer Valley, my bottles were empty. As I started the climb, I started cramping. I was shocked. I wondered why in the world was I cramping so early in the race. I would spend the rest of the day trying to keep the cramping under control. As long as I soft pedaled, I was fine. Anytime I put in a serious effort or put a foot down, I would lock up in pain.

My favorite parts of the course were the flagstaff loop, round valley, and skid row. The parts of pain were John's 99 (which is downhill, but bumpy and technical), the steps, climb up silverlake, and the re-route by Spiro. Check out the picture of Eric B's niner. He finished the race, 18 more miles, with his bike like this.

I would say my deep dark moments came after John's 99, on that lame dirt road and then going up the steps. I was not happy. I was thinking about pulling an Aaron S. and cutting off some of the route. I did run into Brad K. at that point and it was great to hear some words of encouragement from him. It helped me push on.

Some of the best moments were riding with people I know. It was a major boost to morale to ride with people like Jason M., Sam C., Keith P., and Adam L. The Mad Dog support crew was awesome. They had the right balance of taking care of me, but pushing me out of the aid station. It was also great to see Rick and Rico at the PCMR. Here is a link and here to pictures that Rick took at mile 60.

Hands down, the hardest race I have ever done (Take that with a grain of salt--my list of endurance races isn't very long). I am happy w/ my finish of 10:04. I had stop or paused time of 28 min. It was awesome to see people overcoming their pain and pushing through to the finish.

I did ride the new niner. The bike was awesome and performed flawlessly. I'll share more details on the bike later.

The Park City Point 2 Point 2010 from atomicmiles on Vimeo.