EPIC TRAININGS SYSTEMS
Endure, Excel and Achieve
Furnace Creek 508 Solo Race Report- Stage 5
Stage Five: Shoshone to Baker, 56.3 miles. Elevation Gain: 2186'. 2007 Arrived Baker Sunday 4:38pm, 33 hours 38 minutes Avg. Speed 11.33 (Fixed) 2008 Arrived Baker Sunday 10:07am, 27 hours 07 minutes Avg. Speed 14.11 From the 508 website "After an easy 750 feet climb up Ibex pass (Mountain Section Seven), there’s a killer, long downhill, then the road to Baker is mostly flat and straight. The crew should stock up on gas, ice and food in Baker as no supplies are available until the finish." After a 15 minute stop at Shosone for a complete kit change and refueling the support vehicle we were off. It was 5: 30 ish in the morning. I wanted to get to Baker as soon as possible. Baker by sunrise is a really nice goal. Something I had never considered. More importantly is doing the Kel-Baker climb before it heats up. Baker is always hot. There are always clear skies and the sun just beats down on you. Here's a picture taken in Shoshone at 5:31am The course description says "easy". And it is fairly easy when you are not tired or sleep deprived. Do you remember when I said that the great tailwinds would later become miserable headwinds? I experienced them going over Townes Pass. Now I am experiencing the headwinds on the way to Ibex Pass. Here is a picture after descending Ibex Pass. 23 miles from Shoshone 30+ miles from Baker. The winds were slowing me down and it was warming up. I should have switched to my TT bike Portia but my undercarriage was in pain. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TAILWIND! I kept saying to myself. This was my lowest point of the race. I'm over the 24 hour point. I haven't slept and we are 350 miles and over 25,000 feet of climbing into the race. Usually once the sun comes up I am invigorated. "It's a new day!" But this was a lull. I knew what it was. I could indentify it. I have had lulls in my Ultras before. That is the first step in overcoming your lull. Indentify it. Then think what can I do to get through it? What haven't I been doing? What do I need to be doing? Clothing change? Equipment change? Hydration? Food? Massage? Unlike most people I like to look at how far I have gone rather than look at how much I have left. I do that because I get charged when I realize that I have come 350 miles. That is more motivating to me than I only have 150 miles left. Finally coming in to Baker Time Station. I lost a lot of time on this leg. My goal for Baker was 28 hours. I had lost the 2-3 hour cushion I had earlier in the race and I was down to less than an hour. I got in officially at 27 hours and 7 minutes. My average speed had dropped to 14.11 from the start. And the section that was supposed to have a tailwind took me 4:45 at an average speed of 11.84 mph. Total time off the bike had gone up A LOT on this time station. 1 hour 20 previous now add another 45 minutes for a total off the bike time of 2 hours and 5 minutes. |
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