Texas Time Trials: official report

I've been getting a lot of questions about how the 12-hour ride went Saturday, so here's my official report:

It was a chilly start at 5:30. I opted to wear an undershirt, jersey, armwarmers, and vest, shorts, Surly wool socks, and DeFeet shoe covers. I also had taped all the vents on the front 3/4 of my helmet shut. I did it for aerodynamics, but it helped a lot with the cold wind, too. All were good choices, but the decision not to wear knee warmers would come back to haunt me a little.

We took off on the first lap, and I was a little nervous about missing a turn on a course I'd never ridden. It was dark, after all. So for the first lap I kept the taillights of the fast guys in sight. The course was pretty tough: about 800 feet of climbing per lap. I'd say about 650 of those feet were in the first half of the loop, that also happened to feature a headwind that got stronger as the day went on. That first lap took me 1 hour and 9 minutes. That would put me on pace to finish over 180 miles, so I figured that was probably a little too fast a pace. The next couple of laps I did in about 1:15. Between those first 3 laps I took really short, 30-second pit stops to refill my food/drink and peel off warmers and such.

After the third lap, I took a long break because I had to poop. The 5:30 start had kind of messed up my normal "schedule." After I had that taken care of, I ate two sandwiches, tended to the bike a bit, refilled all my bottles and lined them up, and took off again. The next two laps I rode without a break, except to pick up a bottle. These laps were still taking me about 1:15.

After 100 miles, I again took a brief break, about 15 minutes. I peeled the tape off my helmet, because it was starting to get hot, and my perspiration was condensing in the helmet and dripping in to my eyes, which hurt. I put on some sunscreen. As I got back onto the bike, I noted that I wasn't feeling too fatigued, and wondered what was up.

It was about halfway through the sixth lap that my body started reminding me that I'd never ridden more than 100 miles before. My shoulders and neck started getting pretty fatigued, and I noticed a tiny nagging pain in my left knee. By the time I finished that lap (I had now slowed to 1:30), I knew I wouldn't have too many more laps in me.

When I came in from that 6th lap, I asked Julie to gather a couple of bottles and some food and hand them up to me in a musette between my 7th and 8th laps (Thanks Julie!). I did that because I knew if I got off the bike after my 7th lap, even if it was just to grab a bottle, I probably wouldn't get back on.

My 7th and 8th laps took me more like 1:45. I finished the 8th at about 5 p.m. and called it a day. The extra 7 miles I could have added on a prorated basis just weren't worth making another 20-mile lap.

I have a lot of people to thank. Thanks to Brad for convincing me I could do it, and Julie for helping in the race. Thanks to Arundel Bicycle Company; I asked them two days before the event if I could get one of their chrono bottle/cage combos, and they had it in my hands within 24 hours. Thanks to my business partner, Jason, for manning the shop alone on Saturday. A HUGE thanks to Ronnie and Nanette Bryant, who rescued me with a spare LED rear light about 10 minutes before the start. And thanks to Dan Driscoll for putting on a classy event. I had a good time and I'll be back. Hopefully next year I can trade my medal for a trophy.