Antelope Island Road Race

When I started racing back in 2006, the race on Antelope Island was my very first road race. Back then, it was called the Buffalo Stampede. Being my first race, it automatically became my favorite. And, it is still my favorite race, even after yesterday's race. This year the name was different (now the Antelope Island Classic), the course was different, and the weather...well, every time I've raced this event the weather has been different.

In 2006 it was sunny and pleasant. I sucked and I lost. But I was hooked.

In 2007 it was gale force winds, blowing sand around like a sandblaster. It caused my asthma to kick in, and it was the only race I've ever DNF'd (did not finish).

In 2008 the race was canceled due to permitting problems.

So I was super stoked to see the Antelope Island race return to the calendar for 2009.

Course Description
The island consists of only a few roads that I am aware of: the 4-mile loop that goes around the visitor's center on the north end of the island, a road heading south to a restaurant that serves buffalo burgers, and the road to the ranch.

In the past the race has been held solely on the loop around the visitor's center. You did how ever many loops it took to get your specified race mileage. The Cat 4 women would do 8 loops to get 32 miles of racing.

This year the course started at the entrance to the causeway and crossed the causeway. At the end of the causeway, it turned right to loop counterclockwise around the island. The number of loops determined the total miles. Our group was told to do one lap. After the lap around the loop, we turned right onto Ranch Road and continued to the end where there was a u-turn. Then we came back on Ranch Road to the top of the final hill where the race finished.

Pre-Race
My teammate, Dawn, and I had left our houses before sunrise in order to get to the race on time. We carpooled to the race in the driving rain. Our race started at 8 am. We got to the entrance of the causeway just after 7 am and were surprise to see that the parking lot was full and we had to park quite a way down the road. We got out of the warm, dry car, put on our raincoats and ducked under an umbrella to go pick up our race numbers. Once we had our numbers, we headed back to the car to unrack the bikes and go get warmed up for the race.



By the time we had our bikes ready, we were already quite soaked. We hopped on our bikes and took off down the causeway for a warm up. Most people spent their warm up time in their cars with the heater going. We didn't ride too far for fear of missing our start time. It wasn't long before we were swimming in our clothes. Dawn told me that it felt just like SCUBA diving: you have all your gear on, but you still get sopping wet. I had worn my "waterproof" shoe covers, but even before we were done warming up I could feel the water sloshing around in my shoes. The faster I spun, the more I could feel it in there whirring around. It was kinda a cool feeling...not something you get to experience every day.

The race
We got back and realized that everyone was lined up. To save time (and because it wasn't a very big group anyway), the organizers had put the juniors and the masters women in our group. We pulled up to the start line and heard the instructions from the official. Then she blew the whistle and said something like, "Stay neutral until the..." That's all I heard. I think that's all anyone heard because the race stayed at super slow speed for at least a half a mile down the road. It was like nobody was in the mood to race. Then one of the little junior boys pulled to the front, and I decided I had had enough. I went around and drove the pace up to a reasonable race speed. I liked it better up front anyway...not so much road water flying off the wheel in front of me and into my face. I had my sunglasses on and, while they helped keep water out of my eyes, they were pretty useless for me to see anything. They were off by the time we started up the first climb going into the 4-mile loop.

The pace of the race stayed pretty mild until we got halfway around the loop to a mild climb before the descent to the turn to Ranch Road. Then one of the girls attacked and two of us chased. I couldn't stay with the two race leaders and was sitting in third place for a while before three other ladies caught me. I tried to get them to work with me to form a chase group, but each of them wanted to solo to close the gap, and no one would work together. Two of them finally managed to bridge the gap and the other one slowly pulled away from me. We stayed this way for most of the rest of the race: four leaders up front with one (or was it two? My memory is about as foggy as my sunglasses were) chasing them, then me and whoever was behind me.

After turning onto Ranch Road, I was pleasantly surprised to see the finish line. I knew that all I had left was to make it to the turn around spot and come back. Little did I realize how far out the turn around was. (Note to promoter: a map of the course with mile marker cues would have been mighty helpful for us to know what to expect.) It seemed like forever before I finally made it to the turnaround. I wasn't racing with a bike computer, but I've been told it was 10-12 miles out to the turnaround. The winds had really picked up and were driving the pouring rain hard into my right side. Up the road I could see the wheel car following the race leaders, and I kept thinking that at any time I would see them turn around and head back. At least I knew what to expect - a long road back - on the return to the finish.

I slowed way too much on the turn around (I need to work on U-turns), and started my way back. I could see Melanie coming up the climb to the turnaround like a beast. She was out of saddle and working it. I knew if I didn't keep my pace up, I would get caught by her. I've raced enough with her to know that she is strong enough to catch the pack if she gets dropped. So far, I was impressed with myself that I was still ahead of her. But I couldn't let myself think for a minute that I had her beat. I needed to keep focusing on what I needed to do to stay ahead.

Focus. Once I turned around, I kinda forgot that I was racing. It was taking a lot of self talk to get myself to focus on racing. I thought about how cold I was getting. After I turned around and started heading north again the winds were hitting me on my left side. I felt even colder because my left side had been protected from the wind up to this point. I thought about what I would write in my blog: "Stop blogging and race!". I thought about how well nourished the dark brown worms I kept running over looked. I started trying to dodge the worms. "Stop looking at the worms and race!" Then I noticed that one of the race leaders was on the side of the road with a flat. Where had the wheel car gone? Why hadn't it stopped for her? "Stop worrying about HER and race!" Soon, I was caught by Melanie and another girl in a light turquoise jacket. The girl who flatted pulled up along side of us and asked if anyone had a hand pump. Then she dropped us all. She continued to pull over, use her CO2 cartridge, and drop us. (I think she ended up taking 2nd place regardless of the flat...wow!) I focused on holding a wheel and grumbled about having to have road water sprayed in my face again. The three of us worked together for a while before the turquoise girl attacked. I tried to stay with her, but she had lit the afterburners, and I couldn't keep up. She slowed on the last big climb to the finish, and I was motivated to try to catch her. I managed to pick up the pace and I was gaining on her. If the race had been just a little longer, I think I could have beat her. Melanie came in right behind me.

After I crossed the finish line, I kept riding. It was 9-10 miles back to my car. As I headed back, I was surprised to see Dawn just coming onto Ranch Road. She smiled and waved. In my mind I was thinking about how far she still had to go. Little did I know at the time, but she had "decided" that 32 miles wasn't studly enough for a race, and did three extra laps on the 4-mile loop. She ended up with 54 miles of racing.

With the race over, I backed off on my effort, and on the way back to my car I started shivering and my muscles were tensed up from the cold. I wasn't putting in enough effort anymore to keep myself warm. The winds were even worse by then, adding to the misery. I didn't think I would ever make it to my car. I could see the end of the causeway, but it seemed like I was on a treadmill, and I wasn't going anywhere. By the time I got to my car I was so shaky that I could hardly get my key in the lock. I got in the car and looked in the mirror to see an unfamiliar face with blue lips. I hurried as fast as I could to change into dry clothes and warm up with the car heater blasting. My legs were still cold three hours later as I was driving home.

The Results
My race had been over for an hour and a half before the results were finally posted. Melanie had gotten tired of waiting and had left. She had asked me to make sure that her results looked good. So when I saw that they had given her a DNS (did not start) I questioned it. Dirk from SBO had posted the results, so I asked about the DNS. He got right in my face, told me to shut up and said that if I can't register my chip properly it was my own fault. I told him that I was asking for someone else, and told him that I had witnessed her racing and finishing. Once again right in my face, he told me that I wasn't allowed to protest for someone else, and that if I wanted to know more about the rules I should talk to an official. I reminded him that I was an official. Then he skulked off. I wish I would have added that: 1) I wasn't protesting, I was asking a question. 2) People are allowed to ask questions, and as humans deserve to be treated with respect. 3) As an official I was giving him information about what I had seen happen during the race. 4) If he can't get chip registration right, that's his problem, not mine. Apparently he's too busy and important to spend time making corrections for any of us "insignificant" racers who pay his living.

Conclusion
I got home and hauled in all my wet clothes. I'm guessing that the bag weighed 30 to 40 pounds! That doesn't include my shoes. Yep, I hauled around at least 30 extra pounds of weight during the race.

Another interesting fact I noted was that I didn't take one drink from my water bottle the entire race. I didn't need it. I was breathing water and licking it off my lips as it constantly ran into my mouth.

I'm happy with the way the race turned out for me. I'm still trying to figure out what made this race a "good" race. It certainly wasn't the weather. It may be that I felt strong and capable and was able to hold onto the lead pack longer and finish shortly behind them. I still finished mid-pack, but I feel good about it this time.