Race Report : Oakridge Fat Tire Fest

The heat wave descended, and everyone ran for cover. A road race got cancelled, and there was talk of shortening the mountain bike course. What's the big deal I thought, just bring a bit more water and watch out for Puffy Exploding Tomato Head. But that was before I tried climbing The Wall twice in 100F heat.

The Oakridge Fat Tire Fest is a popular mid-summer race with great singletrack and a mountain-town atmosphere. With a 3-week break since the last race, I had time to bump up the training a bit in preparation. I was feeling good until 2 days before the race, whereupon I became steeped in Guilt. On Friday the heat wave was coming on in full force, and the cold beer was going down sooooo eaily. I was up to 4 or 5 by the time I crashed out, and was feeling slightly fuzzy the next morning. No problem, I'll just do a quick 1-hour prep ride and shake out the system. That seemed to work, but then one of those guilt voices started coming out with tidbits like : "Great, you trained hard all week, and then you negated it all in one night by throwing down all those beers - what a waste of time. Why do you bother training at all...", etc. etc. To make matters more difficult, today was the company family picnic. Nice relaxing time hanging out with mine and other families, but the umm beer was free.... so I had to have a few, being in the hot sun and all, and seeing as how others were quaffing as well. Now the guilt voice was having a hey-day, reminding me quite often about my transgressions. But what's done is done, so we'll see what happens on race-day.

Drove up the next morning, and by the time the race started at 10:30 am, it was already 95F. Seemed worse than Bend, probably because it was a bit more humid. We had a vote beforehand on shortening the course, but it was overwhelmingly in favour of doing it the long way. Yeahhhh! - insert chest-beating and yee-hawing here. So one long lap to the very top of the mountain, and a slightly shorter lap following. 'The Wall' is about a thousand feet of steepish logging road climbing. Nothing crazy, but it's a relentless grade and is out there baking in the hot sun. The first time up it, I'm spinning nicely in my lowest gear, and just railing up the climb. Being on a 29er with regular 26" gearing, that's the equivalent of 2nd or 3rd gear on a 26". The field gets spread out, and that usually means no one in your way for the awesome singletrack descent on the other side.

Start the second lap. Am by myself and kind of daydreaming, rolling along in the shaded singletrack before the big climb, when all of a sudden I realize I'm off course. How the f*ck did that happen - takes me a minute or so to figure it out, and then I'm back on it. A couple people passed me me - can see them slightly ahead when get out onto the road. I push a little harder, as is often the case, and as the grade increases on reaching the beginning of the Wall, I realize I am not feeling that great. It's 104F this lap, and the dirt road is radiating heat like a black-top parking lot. I start to feel a bit of Tomato Head coming on, and try to back off. But the problem is I can't gear down, being on the lowest gear already, and I don't want to walk, so keep surging ahead. Suddenly I'm not having fun anymore, in fact this is definitely torture ! I want it to be over, but I'm barely pass the half-way point on the climb. My limbs start to become jelly-like, and I think of all those adjectives they've been using on the Tour de France commentaries, like 'popped', 'cracked', 'blown'. "Yes, Fortier's popped, he's slowing way down now, the peloton will surely catch him".

Manage to stay on the bike all the way up, but yeah I'm blown. Can't say it's ever happened that badly before. I keep looking behind to see who's catching up, but no one is in sight. Probably they've all blown too ? The ensuing singletrack descent requires all my attention, as it is only with great effort that I manage to keep the rubber on the dirt, and not careening out of control down the embankments or into trees. The slightest short uphill causes pathetic wheezing and tightening and cramping of muscles. Eat and drink as much as I can, and in the last few miles to the finish I'm actually starting to recover - or is that just because it's flat ? I grab the last podium spot. Only 5 of the 8 starters in my class finish - plenty of DNF's all around. So next time, drink more during race ? Drink less (beer) before race ? Pop more of those electrolyte capsules ? I downed 1 before the race, but forgot about them after that. Maybe some patches on the sack - nudge nudge wink wink.