I raced the 20 mile
pats peak race on July 15th. It was a 2:00 start for us experts, and it started thunderstorming on and off on the drive up. The course was king of slick when I got there, and it got real bad after the downpours started.
I started off fine on the first (of 4) laps, but midway through the second lap, I felt like I had no energy left. My tires were slipping everywhere on the downhills and I thought I should be able to go more aggressively, but I kept sliding out. On the third lap, I was traversing one of the ski slopes after a downhill section, and I lost traction on the off camber and went sliding on my right side for about 15 feet. One of my shorts legs was all the way up to my hip. A few days later I realized I had slid in poison ivy! I had it all over my right thigh and arm.
Because I had a bad day aerobically and technically, I had little fun. Up until then, I've only dropped out for mechanical failures, but I was considering dropping out then, but I kept on until the finish. I ended up 9th out of 11 in the 30-39 age group.
