Iron Cross VII - I've been travelin on this road too long......

Race Details from my Garmin 305:

Distance - 62.01 miles

Time - 5:35:12

Avg. Speed - 11mph

Calories Burned - 5443

Avg Heart Rate - 151 bpm

Total Ascent- 6750 ft

The story:

I started off with the main pack and held on for the first three of four miles. Of course everyone went all out from the beginning and I tried to sit in while we were on the tarmac. When we approached the first climb, I knew it was my time to relax. The climb wasn't terrible, but I was no match for those <170 pounds. I stayed with the second main pack through check point 1. Things were going great at this point and my hopes died as we approached the first walkup. The walkup was one of the worst experiences of the race, carrying a 25 pd bike and a 190 pd body up a 50% grade was a huge pain. The time between the first walk up and check points three and four went smoothly. All was great through check point 4; however, at 12 to go something drastic happened. As I was riding through a single track sections I smacked a rock off my pedal. I tried to quickly get clipped back in, but was unable because my clip was torn right out of the shoe. Shortly afterward a rider wrecked in front of me, causing me to dump the bike, which took my other pedal off my shoe. So with 12 miles to go I lost both pedals and had to ride on the top of my egg beaters. This was probably the most demoralizing and painful 12 miles I've had on the bike. At time I had to run with my bike forever in order to get through the section. The only thing that kept me going was the socks. All in all, I didn't want to give up and wouldn't quite unless it was impossible to ride.