[ORRando] Furnace Creek 508

Fri Oct 10 12:54:50 PDT 2008

   Thursday I drove solo to Sacramento to meet up and stay with my nephew Matt who would also be my crew chief.  Matt has done this several times before and is quite good at it.  Friday we drove the 5 hours to Magic Mountain where the race begins.  The afternoon was busy with checking in, setting up the lights and signage on my Suzuki and a lengthy wait for mandatory vehicle inspection.  You can see my primitive drawing skills on the pre-race mug shot:
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show02/pages/_A031411.html

  Soon my volunteer crew people Karla and Steve drove up from L.A.  I had contacted Karla via the event bulletin board "crew available" listings.  These two young people were energetic members of MidnightRidazz, an L.A. group akin to Portland's ZooBombers.  We met them only the evening before the start.  Nobody complained about cramming 3 crew into my little Suzuki along with all my extra food, clothes, bikes and parts.
   RAAM founder John Merino and 24-hour record-holder Michael Secrest both spoke at the Friday meeting.  The meeting Friday was too long, limiting our pre-race sleep, and then I was too wired to doze off easily.  Being tired going in is never good, but unfortunately what usually happens.  I was worried about some symptoms of an oncoming cold and I had failed to get much extra sleep the prior weeks.  
  The solo start was 7 am Saturday.  81 of the original 100 entrants actually made it to the starting line.  I met and chatted with Bill Walton, who is quite a fan, and came to the start wearing a 508 jersey just to support us.  Here he is with the brother of the race director:
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show08/pages/_A041604.html

  I lined up in the second row behind my Seattle friend Chris "Ram" Ragsdale, who would eventually finish second.  Here is a picture right after the 7 am start, barely getting light:
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show04/pages/DSC07060.html

  We received a police escort for the 4-mile neutral rollout.  Temp was about 60 degrees and I was comfortable in my shorts, obra jersey and the white "arm coolers" that were part of our race packet this year.  These are designed with spf sun protection more than warmth.  After the neutral section we turn onto San Francisquito Canyon, start climbing and spread out to stop drafting.  Crews have to drive ahead 20 miles before starting to support us.  Meanwhile we climb more than a couple thousand feet.  I rode in about 20th position on this section.  As we climbed the temp dropped to the very low 50's and we rode into a cold misty fog bank.  By the time I reached my crew I was asking for jacket and gloves and officials were requesting us to turn lights on.  Race director Chris Kostman drives the unsupported section, taking pictures along the way before returning to the 9 am team start: 
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show06/pages/_A041549.html

Here are my eventual time splits: http://dbase.adventurecorps.com/individualTd.php?e=1360

  We soon busted out of the fog and had the typical long-ranging views of the spectacular desert scenery.  The wind picked up and was mostly behind us, so early split times are very fast.  But the wind was gusty and the route is not straight, so we would get the occasional stop-in-your-track headwinds around bends.  There was also a brutal sandstorm to ride through between the first checkpoint and the wind generators.  My first century split was a quick 5:14.  Temp climbed to high 80's.  Here are a few pictures from this section:
from Hugh Murphy: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2228911130094322183AJMtkU
from Ben Jones: http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2547407420072786939lZQxiR
Trona leader board: http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2231093280072786939aBQLMT
30th place at 2:53 pm.  (154 miles in 7:53!).  Next picture is shortly after Trona:
 http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2959597710072786939ptiDfU

  After a short break at the rest area just north of Trona, I continued to ride strong into the afternoon and evening, including a 200 mile split of 10:13.  At 200 miles we turn east to begin the climb up 5000 foot Townes Pass, which unfortunately also presented us with a headwind.  Here is my picture as Chris Kostman passed on his way from the back to the front of the pack just as I was starting the long climb.  It is almost 6 pm, start of night-riding rules (lights and reflective gear on and following car always behind with safety lights):
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show14/pages/_A042117.html 
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show14/pages/_A042118.html

  The fast descent into Death Valley in the dark is always exciting.  This time it was even more dramatic because there was a rare thunderstorm with rain and bright lightning flashes.  The riders an hour ahead of me got pounded with heavy rain, while I had just a little, but lots of dirty splatters that would remain on my bike and shoes the rest of the event.  We reached the Furnace Creek time station a couple hours ahead of my midnight goal pace, nearly halfway in less than 15 hours!  Unfortunately my stomach got sour in the night, right when I was also fighting drowsiness.  We stopped at the Badwater rest rooms for half an hour, then another half and hour farther down the road where I got about 15 minutes sleep along the road after dry heaving my empty acid stomach.  My 300 mile split was a disappointing 19:24 (more than 9 hours for the 3rd century).  Somewhere along here RAAM 60+ champ Donkey Jones passed me unawares.  I got going again, but was rather slow all night.  My following crew beeped a couple times when they thought I was weaving too much and dozing off.  Once the sun came
back up after the Shoshone time station I got myself back up to speed and rode the last three
legs stronger than ever...didn't even stop at the last two checkpoints.  I really wanted to finish before dark Sunday, but didn't quite make it.  We were near the top of the final big climb at 6 pm when we were required to stop and put on the bike and vehicle lights again.  But the climb seemed very minor this year compared to the last two years when I did it completely in the dark.  A highlight of the ride was passing a 4-man team rider with just a few miles to go.  I was "sprinting" for the finish, hoping to break 37 hours, but not realizing I still had a few miles to go.  I was a very happy finisher at 8:10 pm:
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show22/pages/_A052698.html
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show22/pages/_A052699.html
Medal ceremony with race director Chris Kostman:
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show22/pages/_A052708.html
Post-race photo with crew.  (Matt, Del, Karla and Steve):
 http://www.the508.com/2008web/2008shows/2008show22/pages/_A052709.html

  In summary, 37:10 is my 2nd-best overall time, but my best by 3 hrs since turning 60.  My first FC508 in 1996 at age 51 is still my fastest.  This year moves me up a couple positions (to 5th) on the all-time 60+ list and nobody over 62 has ever gone as fast.  Next year I will want to attend the pre-ride meeting to be inducted into the 508 "hall of fame".  There are only 11 riders with 5 or more solo finishes, led by Reed "Flamingo" Finfrock with 9.  Young Alex "Kakapo" Kohan, 18, from Salem became the 18th Oregonian finisher and established an age-group record for teenage recumbent riders. 

-- The "Spider"
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://orrandonneurs.org/pipermail/orrando/attachments/20081010/86070fa9/attachment.htm 