LP Rally - Epicman/Stupidity challenge report
** wow this got long - nothing else to do on my flight to Atlanta**
For the past 4 years I have been in LP for Epicman, usually the first friday in June. This year [and the last couple of years as well] it coincided with the EN camp which is perfect. Epicman was Dev Paul's [famous Ottawa ST and Xtri contributor and all around good guy] brainchild the year that the first race in LP to give him a chance to see the course. It is a 50 minute swim starting at 6:00 am [usually ends up being beach to beach to beach], a two loop ride at 7:00 with drafting and 2 stops at the gas station by the out and back and then one loop of the run. A couple of years ago former EN team member and infamous STer Murphy'sLaw decided that he could do a solo TT of whiteface the night before epicman and still outrun Dev on the run loop and thus, the ML stupidity challenge prologue was born. It is a 43 mile round trip from town BTW and generally a hard ride.
Took the whole day off on Thursday so there was no chance that I would get stuck at the office and miss the stupidity challenge. When I went to put the bike in the car I noticed that the rear brake was not centering correctly and hanging up just a little bit. Drove the 1:45 or so to LP [sunny most of the way] and went straight to Placid Planet. As usual they dropped everything and helped me out. Actually they were in the middle of building up one of the super fancy speed concepts. Very nice bike in real life. The thing I liked best about it was how the rear skewer was designed to fit right into the chain stay. Attention to detail in general is what is cool about that thing. The bars and the built in box thing are also awesome. 9k is a BIT steep but a cool bike for sure.
Anyhow, so the rear brake on my QR is a huge pain in the ass. He ended up fiddling with it for a while then truing the wheel a tiny bit to get the greatest amount of stopping power [this would turn out to be a good thing] without it rubbing. My friend Kevin Lanahan hit town while I was there and then I got a message from Rich Strauss that he was in town so we headed over to the Northwoods and joined him for lunch. Rich was of the opinion that it was going to rain all afternoon and that going up whiteface was a stoopid idea. Rich undid about 2 months of convincing Kevin that whiteface and epicman were a good call in about 3 minutes and he decided in favor of a swim and a proper RR. What do guys who live in CA know about riding in the cold rain anyhow? Hung around the lobby with Rich while he unpacked his bike and tons of boxes of EN gear [even bought a super cool visor] and talked the EN Rally folk who showed up. Saw Mike Graffeo and Dominick, met suzanne but it seemed like even more were there for the free rally thing. Did not manage to hang out with and or meet nearly as many EN people as I wanted. Kinda got sidetracked with the riding 150 miles and running 13 in 24 hours and then drinking the requisite amount of Ubu ale.
Dev Paul and the Ottawa gang showed up and Dev started whining about not wanting to ride up Whiteface in the cold rain. Murphy’s Law and John McGovern [American Zofingen RD, owner of Catskill Mtn Multisports and general cycling badass] showed up and were generally of the opinion that Dev was being a wuss. Dev bailed and we went to down to 4:00 meet up by the Brew Pub. It was raining HARD. One non canuckistani ST doode and a bunch of the Ottawa crew showed up. Our friend Chris mentioned that he was tired from a 2:40 marathon 2 weeks before and a 700k ride last weekend [uh ok]. I think about 10 of us set off down the hill toward Wilmington.
As it was raining hard, foggy and windy it seemed like a really bad idea. The Ottawa contingent vanished and then there were 4. We had 2 lawyers, one non risk averse wall street type and [as we found out later at the bar] a rocket scientist. Interesting. Once all the reasonable Canadians were gone there was nothing that could stop us. It is the same kind of reasonable thinking that makes the Canadians so sucky at starting unnecessary wars and such. We did have plenty of testosterone to go around. When we got the bottom of the hill in Wilmington is actually kinda let up. Naturally we badmouthed all who had bailed and started up. The group broke up pretty quick. It was actually kinda hard to tell where anyone was as it started raining hard again and was foggy. Couldn’t see shit and was pretty miserable. Tried to relax and sit on 330 watts or so. At the toll gate I started to worry about coming back down. Bottom line is that the road sucks up there and descending it on a nice day can be kinda sketchy. That was combined with the fact that I have been a huge wuss on the new bike since I crashed it in the rain a few weeks back and think the brakes kinda suck in general. Bottom line is that they do not stop the bike nearly as well as the Ultegra calipers on my old tri bike and my Roadbike. Regardless, it was a tough day to go up the hill. The visibility got worse the closer we got to the top and the wind picked up. Couldn’t see anything. Was hard to tell where I was as there really are not many turns in the climb. Hit the crosswalk in 1:00:23. Visibility was about 20 feet at the top. It may have been sleeting, hard to tell, certainly an unpleasant place to be even on the leeward side of the Castle. Was a few seconds slower than last year, didn’t care at the time. Avg watts were 307, NP 309. Last year was 2 watts fewer and a touch faster. I think I would have easily beat an hour on a dry day. Oh well, next year, or maybe the weekend of LP. We did not spend much time hanging out on top and generally got the hell out of there.
John and I on what was NOT a nice summer evening!
The way down sucked even worse than I thought it would. I has put full fingered gloves on over the top of the cycling gloves at the top. They were soaked through instantly. The bare zipp basebar was slippery as hell. It was scary. My hands were killing from holding the brakes the whole way. I could keep from accelerating decently but no way I could have stopped on the steep parts. Tried to keep it under 30. Even good brakes would have been sketchy, mine were “for entertainment purposes only”. I was super happy to be getting close to the bottom but then worried that I would not be able to stop and hit the toll gate [which would have sucked and I later learned was something that a couple others were worried about as well]. It flattened out enough so I managed to stop. I was bringing up the rear in a big way at that point. The rest of the way down to Wilmington was not as bad and it stopped raining at that point.
I have clear memories of last year and the 14 mile or so slog back to town with ML and Dev really sucking after coming down from Whiteface. It really is the hardest part of the LP course. Not to mention that R and P were about dead at that point. However, the 4 of us worked together really well and it was surprisingly pleasant and went by really fast. Huh? Maybe it was because I finally started to warm up. Who knows. Did notice that the power tap hub was not transmitting. That sucks. By the time I got back to the Hotel I was feeling human again other than numb feet.
The EN talk was still going on so I stuck my head into the bar to see who was around and say hi. It was a little like when they walked into that bar in animal house as Strauss stopped speaking and about 50 people turned around and stared at me generally soaked, filthy and covered in road grime. Looked like a really serious bunch, I decided that a shower was a good call and that I would see them later for a beer.
We regrouped at the bar at the Northwoods. Ate burgers, bacon and everything else warm and salty they had. Got to hang out and chat with Rich and the gang. Followed 3 4 a PB protocol correctly this time. This may be the first time that we have ever actually managed to stay within the 3. It may or may not have had something to do with the fact that they closed the bar. Did the admin stuff for the ride in the am, checked the radar and hit the rack.
5:00 came pretty early. Ran into Dev in the am and he was headed out to do whiteface and skipping the swim. About maybe 40 people hit the water for the official Epicman start. When it came time to roll out of town at 7:00 on the bikes it was again the same 4 of us that went up the hill the night before. Legs felt better than expected. There was little dilly dallying out on the road. We did the revised out and back going past Jay, that will be fine for race day if needed. We did take a nice break per lap at the gas station. John and Justin each had a sausage egg and cheese during the first stop officer Ford stytle. The only thing that stood out was that we must have had a first time ever tail wind for the section from Wilmington back to town as we were rolling about 23 mph up the false flats into town. I was waiting for the impending collapse but it never came. We were back to the cars by mirror lake in about 2:45 rolling time.
The second loop was more of the same except that we followed the detour to the original out and back. There is a long and nasty hill in there. No way the race will go that way. The ride from Wilmington back to LP for the 3rd time in 22 hours or so was not that fun. John decided to drop us like a bad habit and took off. No idea how he managed that as it was much windier. We lost Justin off the back so it was just ML and I working together until we picked up an Adirondack Tri club guy I know which helped. Our total rolling time was 5:31. As I mentioned my PT hub was taking the day off. Hopefully once it dries it will be fine. I did not see one EN kit out on the road. I guess the 8:00 start time for the RR’s made all the difference. We rolled through a lot of groups and got rolled through by none so that was at least good.
Got back to the car and did a leisurely 4 minute transition. Would have been more leisurely but Jon ran by me and had some choice words about weakness or something. Still had not decided if I was really going to attempt the entire run. I did want the cool Epicman finisher medal and to be part of the very exclusive club of E dot/Stupidity Challenge finishers but was not sure if I was up for running for close to 2 hours. As I took about 3 steps from the car is seemed like the sun came out for the first time in 2 days. I ran easy down the hill to see how I felt. Actually felt decent. Decided I would run at EP for the first 9 and then walk the hills back to town. Sat on a 7:30 pace and held on through the out and back and then back across the bridge. Seemed like that was plenty. My foot felt a little weird but as I never get blisters I did not worry much about it. Looked at it when I stopped to walk up the hill by the ski jumps. The sock on my right foot was folded down and rubbing and I had the Curt Schilling look going for me [never good for a Yankees fan]. Oh well. Saw Mike and Dominic and a couple other team folks I do not remember headed out as I was headed back. Walked the hill, ran into town and then walked that stoopid hill into town [hey, I watched the female winner last year walk that hill] did the out and back and was very happy to be done. Ran for 1:48. Not too shabby or at least I did not think so until I heard that ML ran 1:33. Maybe I should not have bet him dinner on tupper lake.
Got my cool medal [not sure just how many copyright violations are in that thing but it is cool] used the lake as an ice bath and made my way back to the hotel. There are only 3 other stupidity challenge finishers [ML did it twice] Showered and headed to the Brewery as that is an Edot tradition. Ran into Rich who did a 4 hour 375 TSS ride and was somehow still standing. Saw Suzanne finishing her run after a 6 HOUR COMPUTRAINER RR – freaking crazy person. Intended to be back for the EN dinner but time on the deck at the pub went by really fast and I did not make it back until 8 or so. Hung around in the bar at the Northwoods for another couple hours but did not run into any EN folks.
Had intended to swim before heading out of town to make my daughters soccer game but it was raining really really hard in the morning and I decided to skip it. Saw Rich and some of the gang who were reevaluating the Epic ride which was planned. It was miserable out. Driving down the hill out of town I passed a ton of people on bikes on the downhill in the pouring rain, I was very glad to be in my car.
All in all a lot of stuff packed into a couple days. Lots of fun. Wish that I hung out with the gang more and got to hang out with the gang more. Next time. Hope that everyone had fun.
Comments
Chris - I actually read the whole report - very interesting. Good to see you again at the Northwoods. Sorry we missed you Friday night. After dinner, a lot of the group headed over to the Brew Pub rather than stay at Northwoods. You looked like you were running pretty well on Friday, but your face/body language was telling a different sort of tale. I think we passed right around the top of the hill before the out and back. Maybe I'll see you up at IMLP this year. Forget if your racing or not - if not, I'd be glad to tackle the Whiteface climb with you on Saturday.
Dom
Dom,
Not racing this year and was thinking about making a proper assault on whiteface on saturday am race weekend as I have to go to a Kayak Volunteer meeting at 10 which works out perfectly.
I must have just missed you at the pub on Friday...see, only bad things happen when you leave the bar
Well, at least the SC is aptly named.
I've got a pic of you coming up Big Bear--will post it as soon as I download the camera.
Too bad about the PT---would've been nice to know how many TSS.
Weather looks different from last year, that's for sure