Last night I signed up for my first race of 2012. My first race of 2012 is going to be the CIRREM 100k gravel race. I did this race last year and hated every second of it. It was cold, snowy, freezing rain and I had no water due to it being frozen. Why in the hell do I want to do it again? Simple answer is I can do better!

Here is to being crazy or just plain dumb.

The race went according to plan from the start until the Pipeline climb. I broke, the climb mentally kicked my ass and brought me to my knees. Once over the climb my goal of a sub 9 hour finish was out the window, but I still pushed hard to the finish to set a good time that I can set as a goal to beat in 2012.

I will be posting a full summary of the race from start to finish shortly!

The race started with a nice road climb that lead to a clustered section of single track. My goal was to get with the lead group into the singletrack so I would not have to deal with the traffic. Turns out there was traffic no matter where I started. The first 10 miles went by quick with limited effort of issues. The first test of the day would be the Little French climb. From the stories I have heard, it was going to be tough. Little French started and it was a climb, it was rocky, it was nasty, but overall it was ridable. I felt good so I pushed harder. The effort paid off and I started to pass people.  Towards the end of the lap I caught up with Monte and decided I would ride his wheel and try to keep his pace. Towards the end of the first loop I noticed Monte was no longer there, turns out he had a crash which caused a shifter issue that would hamper him all day.

With the first loop completed it was time to fuel up and get ready for the next loop. I felt good, I was a bit hungry and tired, but legs where still there and I was not cramping. Things were going good, until the first climb on final loop. My legs were tight and seemed to be lacking power. With that in mind I let up a bit to recover and that was a good thing because the climbs where starting to get tough due to mud and water from the afternoon rain that moved in. The loop was pretty much pain until the last climb which was a long 8 mile gradual climb that went up and over the divide at 12k feet. I felt like myself again and I dropped the little hammer that is in my legs and started to pass riders. I passed 20 riders on the last climb and was on pace to finish very strong. I was excited and in the excitement I took a wrong turn, wasting 25 minutes of time and causing me to lose some major time.

The end of the ride was uneventful, but rewarding. I put in a good effort and set a good time that I can use as a benchmark for 2012. I finished 15th out of 50 riders in my 30-39 age group. My time was 7:54 which is good, but if I did not get lost would have been around 7:30.

2012 goal is to do the race under 7 hours!