First, let me say I've never done this ride. I've wanted to do it the last two years in a row, but never managed to be able to. This year, I finally did.

The race starts and ends down at the Douglas County Fairgrounds in Castle Rock. Got up at 4:55 this morning, found out Mom was rather sick. She and Dad are worried it was from dinner last night. Thankfully, I'm fine. Dad made me a light breakfast, I grabbed my gear and headed out.

This race was a first for me. There was no set "start time". I basically needed to be on the course at any point between 6 and 8 am. Given that there's no time tracking, it really isn't a "race", but I decided to treat it as one. Anyhoo, by 6:25, I'm on the course and going strong.

From the get go, there's some climbing. In the first 7 miles, you climb 600 feet, 400 of which is in miles 4-6. Then you drop a bit to the first aid station at mile 8. At this point, I have only 2 complaints:

1. The rules say ride single file for a reason. One lady got pulled over for crossing the yellow line and her excuse was "Well, I didn't know!". This despite numerous signs telling you not to.


2. Mile 8 is a REALLY bad spot to put an aid station. It caused a lot of congestion at the bottom of one of the fastest hills on the course. At mile 8, I had no interest in stopping. Cyclists entering/leaving the road + cyclists doing 50+ = BAD COMBINATION. I'm curious to see if there were any problems there.

After that, there's another climb back up to some flats. The flats lead into a gentle climb to the top of the Palmer Divide at mile 27 or so. I'm doing really good here, cranking along at around 21-22 MPH. Not too shabby. Then, at around mile 19.5, I hear this snap and my left leg goes REALLY loose. Looking down, I see that my left pedal has sheared off. Uh-oh. I pull over to regroup and take a look. At this point, I think my day is shot. Luckily, two of the courtesy patrol come along. They take a look, but luckily think that BikeSource at the next aid station might be able to get me set. So, I dog leg it over to the station, three miles up the road at mile 22.5. Let's say this: going three miles one-legged is quite the challenge. My right leg was awfully sore by the time I got there. Thankfully, they have a set of pedals that they're able to throw on. The guys are REALLY nice and just hand me the barcode, saying I can settle up at their tent back at the expo when I finish. In the end, I lost about 35 minutes to all of this. Thankfully, though, not the entire day.

By comparison, the rest of the ride was very uneventful. At mile 27 or so, we reached the top of the Palmer Divide and got some great speed going down into Monument. After a short jaunt west, we turned back north and climbed the divide, again, from the other side. Also known as Monument Hill. Highest point along 25 between Denver and the Springs at about 7400 feet. At this point, the wind kicks up, and my legs are hurtin just a little bit. Grab some PowerAde (well, VERY watered down PowerAde, at least) at the next aid station and move on. Eventually, we head west of 25 and then turn north. This part of the ride was really nice. Lots of rollers with some short, quick downhills. There was one last nasty climb leading up to mile 57 or so, then it was a fun ride downhill before turning north onto Frontage Road. Riding along 25 there, I'm able to crank out 20-25 MPH all the way back in to Castle Rock. I'm honestly surprised at how strong my legs feel here. After pulling into town, you have to deal with a few traffic lights and a short climb back up to the fairgrounds. This isn't bad, it just sucks having to do some stop and go right at the end. Oh, well. Final numbers:

Final Time: 3:47:25
Final Distance: 66.59 miles

Average Speed: 17.6 MPH
Max Speed: 51.6 MPH

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this. Especially given those 3 miles I had to do one-legged and that I spent most of the ride getting used to new pedals. As for the Gauntlet: 2 down, 2 to go.

Oh, and yes, I did settle up with BikeSource at the Expo. The guy working the tent seemed a little surprised that I came up with the SKU and paid up. The guys at the tent didn't take my ID or anything, since I was leaving the Expo before they'd get back. Given all that was going on, I could have easily just taken off, and they wouldn't have realized until it was time for inventory next month. Not that I would. I just think it was a shame that people would be surprised that I did. I mean, I definitely didn't need to spend the $90 on a set of pedals this month, but they helped me out when I thought my day was done. Only right. Are people really that dishonest? (That was a rhetorical question, for the record.)

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!