Oh no, August Is Here!

Not that we don’t love and cherish all the warm blue bird days August brings, but man, that means that we’re through the heart of summer and on the slippery slope to fall!  Ahhh!!!! I’ve only just begun to find legs that are capable of anything other than spinning circles and I’m not ready for the days to shorten.  At least I’m not a teacher staring down the barrel of three more weeks of freedom til the next great unknown classes… (Sorry for all you world changers out there, that’s one of the few things I don’t miss about being a teacher).

The last month has been one of incredible joy, adventure, accomplishment, and not sleep.  With a season’s worth of preparation coming together nicely for my big priority race of the year (Butte 100), I found myself restless and wondering about all the possible things that could go wrong in a 100 miles that would topple my card tower of fitness (it’s a gently one, doesn’t take much).  I decided that kind of thinking was part practical and useful, while mostly setting myself up for self fulfilling prophesies (man I love it when I can use that phrase in context properly!)  So I did my best to be ready for every possible mechanical and biomechanical and headed down to the heart of MT with mom, dad, Jen, and a big ass RV.  Seriously, check out this thing… no wonder the pros are so much faster!

While it was disappointing in some ways not to be racing with the legend Tinker Juarez, it also took a lot of the tenseness away and made it super exciting realizing that it was just a bunch of dudes (and chicks!) all with real jobs battling it out with each other for the next ten hours and countless miles of amazing trail.  It also meant I could attempt to pace myself instead of blowing to pieces trying to hang with Tinker as long as possible.  That made for a considerably more enjoyable race experience as I never really hit rock bottom where I’d pay the piper for a few hours of pedaling squares after an inglorious implosion on the coattails of the aforementioned legend.  It wasn’t too long into the first climbs that Matty B. and I had whittled the crew down and starting showing some cards while simultaneously keeping an eye on each other.  We yo-yo’d back and forth on the ups and downs for the first 30 miles before Matty decided he “didn’t have the right gear” to climb at my tepid pace and into the sand and sun he pedaled away.  My (amazing) parents were in a race of their own driving from aid to aid to help me with feeds and any mechanicals that could arise, and they gave me a couple minute time check as I came through the third aid.  I wasn’t too concerned, and I kept plugging away enjoying the face that the adventure had just begun and many many many miles lay ahead.  As I came through the first 50 and the start/finish zone, my dad asked me if I was “Ok?”  I think he was concerned that Matt was going to pedal away with the win and I just didn’t have it… In my head I started to wonder if he was right, but the ole heart told me to keep spinning the legs so it had somewhere to direct the blood and to just see what happened.  I continued to grind away as the heat of the day started to set in and the stomach began to protest at everything I threw at it.  Every year I pack the feed bags with tons of options of food and drink and each year, I come home with 90% of those bags still in tact, but rotten.  Sure enough, the handful of salty potato chips turned into a ball of sawdust, the wasabi almonds resembled something like a piece of cork, the cookie bar… straight up raw whole wheat flour.  Dangit, when am I going to learn that at a certain point, the only thing that goes down and keeps ya firing is gel and coke.  Around mile 60 we begin the treacherous “Basin Creek Climb”, which is kind of a geographical anomaly.  Somehow, we climb for nearly 2000′ for over an hour and change, and yet somehow, we never seem to descend.  It’s always the hottest and the hardest part of the race.  But I had been looking forward to it all day.  It was the climb I had been training for all season, both physically and mentally.  And as I was grinding along and telling myself positive things, fully conceding that Matty could be the strongest man today, there I saw him up ahead.  I caught up fairly quick which led me to believe he could be in the middle of “cracking”.  As I came along side him I tried to encourage him to ride with me, but I got a good look at him and could tell he was in a moment of damage control.  I began to feel stronger through the last thirty miles of the race and despite a blown shock that gave me the option of riding either locked out or with a fully compressed shock, I enjoyed regaining the lead and riding to the win.  As I came barreling down the finish straight I could hear the crippling whistle of my dad and then a loud and memory conjuring “Go Benny Go!!!”  I had done it, and it was rad.  I felt great crossing the line and had a huge sense of relief and realization.  At this point in life I’m pretty used to accepting the chips as they fall, knowing that I can only control so much.  Today, I was fortunate.  Today I was blessed.  I know I worked hard to earn it (just like Lance did with all those tours right? 😉 , but more than anything, it was the support from my family, my friends, and a loving God.  And now, weeks after, it’s just a distant memory.  It’s significance has faded.  It is fleeting.  Oh well, it was fun and I can’t wait to do it again!  Kudos to all those that dared to push themselves and Reese’s (another kind of candy bar like the Kudos bar) to my wife for making the time cut AND finishing 2nd in the women’s 100 field!

Thankfully, you’ve made it through the race report and I’m on to bigger horizons and higher mountains.  With only six, or five, but hopefully six (I’m not the greatest calendar counter) til the Rut, I’ve begun my crash course training with a couple of days in the park.  The first was a fun mix of riding (climb Logan on the road bike), running (a few miles of Highline cruising), and climbing (Scree Scramble up Mt. Gould).  Not surprisingly, walking became challenging two days later, so on the third day, when I could just about get me heels to touch my butt again, Jen and Steve Gnam and I went for an awesome little alpine jaunt up Going to the Sun Mtn and Mahtapi, finishing with a cool ridge that took us to the Bering Creek divide and down the Sun Rift Gorge.  It was an incredible day, complete with a misty mountain morning, grizzly bears (a sow and two cubs), two beautiful summits, a rocking lightning storm, huckleberries, and great company.  It was so good to be in the mountains in no rush, just soaking it all in.  It’s pretty awesome that even after growing up here, I’m still in awe of what an amazing place I live.