Steaming Hot Magm

Hot is the key word. This year’s race was a suffer-fest in the heat as I anticipated. I was originally hoping to finish around 1:30 with a one hour first lap and 30 minute short lap, but as I started to warm up I knew that it was a lost cause.

I had barely finished prepping for my warm up and noticed the sweat beginning to accumulate. After a quick spin up the road I made my way to the start. As the racers began lining up I sought shelter under the Utahmountainbiking tent. Finally we started and bolted out of town.

I was determined to keep the pace slower that normal heading out on the road. I knew that staying in the middle of the pack would be the best way to conserve my energy and that there would be plenty of opportunity to make up lost ground. As the group turned off the pavement and began to thin out I could feel the heat pushing my heart-rate up and more importantly I began to feel the early onset of heat stroke. At this point I decided that there wasn’t much point in running at full race pace with the heat and settled into a high cadence and low resistance spin.



Finally after riding for 1:40 minutes I finished the race, no heat stroke, no major crashes, no bonking, and not much hope of attempting Soldier Hollow in similar conditions. Looks like Sundance might be my next race unless Thanksgiving Point is cool and cloudy but it looks right now to be hot and sunny for Memorial Day weekend.