Lotoja

This was a great race. I have been road biking for about 5 years and have only done virtual races with Tiff. LOTOJA was my first official bike race. I had trained for it for just under a year. Lots of miles were put on all over the valley to get to where I needed to be. 

I did the relay with 6 of my co-workers from the Fire Department. Chief Brad Hannig, Assistant Chief Doug Fullmer, Russell O'Donnell, Luke Brannon, and Cannon Parry. The ride started at 7:30 am on 100 East 200 North in Logan and finished at the Jackson Hole Wyoming High School. We each had one or two legs to ride during the relay. My leg was from Afton to Alpine Wyoming. It was a 34 mile leg. 

Here I am getting ready to start my leg.  I was wanting to get some personal best goals during this ride and I made the 34 miles in 1 hour and 30 minutes. My usual time is just under an hour. I also wanted to ride in to the finish line for the last leg.

Chief Hannig and I did this third leg together for about 6 miles and then Hannig was gone way ahead of me. He is an animal when it comes to riding. I thought for sure I could keep up with him. I had a goal to stay above 20 mph during the ride and I did that and I impressed myself. I should have stayed in the pelotons to help me not gas out as fast, but I wanted to punch through it. I passed a few groups and I was laughed at by my co-workers who were watching me pass them in the car. I was in the back of one group and one guy got behind and sprinted to catch up. He did this multiple times and I said heck with this I am not going to sprint like this and I passed them. 

Ii was an awesome ride with an amazing view. I got to the exchange point in Alpine with a surprise because my watch was off by two miles. I got to the feed zone with Hannig. I was gassed but I still had to go further and make it to the finished line. After eating and filling up with more water, off we went again. The last leg was an amazing ride along the river and canyon. 

Here I am zooming through the transition point in Alpine going on to Jackson Hole.  I made it about 15 more miles until I went to stand up to start a climb and my leg cramped up. I was not happy. I decided to take a break and stretch for a minute. That was a bad idea. As soon as I got off my bike and straighten my legs and they cramped again. I tried to bend them and they still cramped. I had to crouch down to make it stop. I was not happy with this knowing that I had 25 miles to go. I convinced myself to get back on and just keep peddling. I did that until I was about 50 miles in and I started to cramp in all my muscles. I was trying to push it but I was gassed out. 

Thank goodness it was not to long after the guys came driving by and I flagged them down to switch. I was bummed but relieved. Cannon took my bike and I dropped to my knee to stop the cramping. Cannon said lay down but when I tried this, my groin cramped and every muscle tightened up. I knew I was finished. So much for the finished line...

We did it together and made it to the finish line. Cannon, Doug and Hannig crossed the finish line for our team.  

After all was said and done, Russ did the first leg and got ran off the road getting really bad road rash. Luke did 80 miles then gassed out on the fourth leg. Doug and Luke did an awesome job doing the climbing in the race. Cannon did the first leg with Russ and Cannon took over for me to the finished line with Doug.  Hannig did a great job with 4th and 5th leg and made it to the finish line at 7:30 pm. It was a great day full of fun memories with some great friends. I plan on doing it again next year with some different ideas to make it to the finish line.