Levi Gran Fondo - Another Century on the Books

Another bike century on the books! The Levis Gran Fondo was in town, I had missed registration, and it was 4 hours before the transfer deadline was up.

this race has cool shirts!

I scoured facebook and saw a Gran ticket (103 miles) and was thinking I would go for the Medio (60 mile) race option.

But I signed up for the full....and thought I'd decide in the week....when my bike trainer coach at M2 revolution sad "you are a sponge and under trained...you should get as many of those under your belt as you can before Arizona"

So I guess decision made at that point...I was thinking...take it easy, don't wear the body out....and I guess I was just taken the easy route!

Levis Gran Fondo route

Turned up and found it was a BIG race with over 7,000 people involved, all with a mass start. So that was fun to take 15 minutes to get over the start.

7000 biker mass start

Not that I was going for a "goal time" on this race. Let's just look at the elevation....holy cow!! race map says 9,000 and my garmin says 10,000 elevation. Either way, a lot more than my biggest ride at ~4,000.

Goal = finish with out being road kill


Had the usual hub-ba-ba-loo getting to the start line. Had 3 flat tires last week, so cleaned out my tire rims. Then checked it all the nigh before and another flat tire??? Changed t up and the tube had a hole...so 5 flats in 7 days. Jeez! One more change and good to go....

The morning of went to pedal around the parking lot and my gears would not change? My chain just kept falling off. I know how to fix that one, but not the gear change?? Found a helpful van quick pronto and he looked at me like I'm stupid and said "blah blah isn't connected, no wonder!" To which I smiled and said "can you fix it?" Some cable thing tightened and off I go....

Race Start
Started off strong, first 20 miles were nice and easy cadence to warm things up. Chain came off from my bad gearing change, but a quick 1...2 and back on again.

Then comes the tough part...7 miles of non-stop uphill. Good for a couple but then had to stop and breathe.

hills that never stopped

I noticed everyone was looking at me with a weird face....so I asked why..."cause you are crazy doing this hill race on a time trial bike." Hmmm...agreed...Christmas pressies people...need a road bike for hills

getting my breath back on the hills

My standard pattern in biking is 20% feels great. 20%-40% is my mindset funky junkyard. When I get to 50% I always cheer up saying "if I got halfway then I can certainly finish" and after that just keep counting the % with a happy face on me. Last 20% I try and push it with all I have left.

This race was no different...the added fun was the weather. In my 20-40% funky town mood the weather decided to get horrible! I mean fog you could not see more than 10 feet in front of, rain that spat at your face with, and cold that made my legs so cold I had no warmth in the muscle to move them with....uuurgggh!

the weather was not my friend....see the fog and rain

I nearly quit at the Mile 45 rest stop....so many people looked like they did...and shouts of "roads are slick and dangerous and steep....watch out" just made me scared that I was gonna die.  I don't know why I kept going...just seemed like I thought "1 more mile and then you can stop" and then a "get to the lunch stop for a sandwich then you can stop"...."just get to the ocean"....

Well soon it was the Mile 75 stop at the ocean and there was no rain, just wind and cold, and 1 more kick-ass hill (that I walked for a good section of). Good at least to have a nice view for a minute.....whilst I crouched behind a truck and liberally applied some chamois cream (party in the pants returned for a happy biker!)

some ocean views to ride along...but that weather! uurggh

carried on and after mile 85 knew it was time to bring it and took advantage of have a time trial bike...aero position, hammering it on the bike in a great gear and cadence...thinking "i could soo run after this"

Wasn't exactly in the top group for this. I think the top finishers are in a 5 hour range and I was like 9 hours + (it could even be as bad as 10 hours!) but again my goal was to finish and feel strong. And I did. Eating all that food and resting at each stop made a big difference to how I felt at the end...a big note for me to consider as I would be doing a marathon at this point...

the results from my watch

at the end...loving this hair...looks great after a 103 miles!

Goal = finish without being road kill (ACHIEVED - See Sunday!)