Firecracker 50 Baby!!!

Nicole kindly invited me up to stay with her parents in Silverthorne on Tues. night before the race... after a great breakfast, we headed up to the race venue, waited in a huge line, and eventually got through about 20 minutes before the races was supposed to start. After a poor excuse for a warmup, I staged up for the race in Open Men 19-29, right behind the Open Pros. No semi-pro, no expert classes in between... Sweet!

The start for the 50 is by far the most exciting way I've ever started a race. Rolling down Main St. right before the start of the town's 4th of July parade was amazing. Riding at a nice slow pace, high-fiving little kids, and almost completely forgetting about the suffering to come... almost!

The race started with a monster climb up a paved road, then up the old Boreas Pass railroad grade, and finally over to some singletrack. The singletrack was great, had plenty of places to pass, and took us back to more dirt road.... followed by a steep, loose, and rock climb up French Creek and back down, up, and down to the finish. My first lap was tons of fun and although I was trying to take it easy, I still managed a laptime of 2hrs, and 16 minutes.

On the second lap, things were still going well, although at a much slower pace.... After about hour number 3, I just didn't have any power left, and couldn't get my HR up over 140 without some major effort.... no cramping, no puking, just no power...

Rolling in to the finish at 4hrs and 57 minutes, I just barely made my sub-5hr finishing goal. I felt reasonably well after the race, ate some tasty BBQ, and rolled back to my car with dreams of a nice cold shower and some non-chamios-havin' clothing. Get back to the car, reach in by the rear tire to get my keys.... and.... they're not there!!! Great, no keys to be found under the car, on top of the car, in the bushes, or even in the storm drain.


So, I snag a passer-by to use their cell, call the cops, and then proceed to sit around and wait... the cops finally show up, tell me that they didn't receive any lost keys, and give me the numbers of a few local locksmiths... more waiting... and finally the locksmith shows up. Now, I didn't think that I had locked my keys in the car, and we proved it after the locksmith opened the car and no keys were inside... oh well, at least I got to put on some regular clothes.

This was bad... and just got worse. I now need to drive back, get my spare key, drive back up to breck, get my car, and drive back to Winter Park for the Super-D on the following day... no big deal... should only take three or 4 hours total! What could go wrong?

After a quick shower, I borrow Nicole's car, and head to Golden to meet my roommate with the spare key. Done... 1 hour saved by having my roommate come down to Golden and $20 for his trouble. Back onto I-70 and on my way back up to Breck right on schedule... Exit at Frisco, fill up Nicole's car with gas, and immediately get stuck in traffic from people leaving the fireworks display... now what did I do to deserve this?

After finally getting to Breck, picking up Amy D. and heading to my car, I notice a piece of paper under my windshield wiper... I found your keys... call me at Xxx... So, I dial her up, get my keys (which I have not idea why she took them in the first place), put the fuses back in, pack everything up, and head to Winter Park after midnight! Just the way to finish the day after a 5 hr race!!!