Park City to Snowbird, UT
Saturday, August 16, 2008
I signed up for this ride in May after I got an email from Blackbottoms Cycle about it. I'm not entirely sure how I got on their mailing list, but I was excited to hear about this ride. When I found that over 200 people had already signed up within a day of the email being sent, I quickly signed up so I wouldn't miss out on this opportunity. I was #229 of 300. It sold out that weekend. Jimmy was rather excited to be my "SAG support," as this was a self-supported ride. He was even trying to find someone who had a Subaru Outback so that he could look as official as possible. heehee! As time went by, I was a little nervous about doing it all by myself though. Even though Jimmy would be stopped along the way to give me snacks and water, I was hoping to find someone who would ride along with me and push me along. Well, as I was going on rides around town with Becca (my friend and neighbor), she was getting excited about trying to get into the ride. Long story short, just a week before the ride, another girl got injured and wasn't able to do the 300 Warriors, so Becca was able to purchase her spot. Woohoo! I was SO happy!
August 16th arrived and we left the house, dark and early, at 4:45 am so we could make it up to Park City and be ready at the starting line by 6 am. It was FREEZING cold. As we were getting all geared up, I realized that I had forgotten my Garmin (bike computer) at the house....NOOO!!! That fancy little device records speed, distance, heart rate, time, elevation, route, etc. I was so bummed. But, life goes on.
The big group rolled out of the parking lot just after 6 am. It was still dark, and very, very cold. As we headed out of town towards Kamas, Becca and I had to stay close to people with headlamps, since we didn't have any lighting of our own (doh!). Plus, we knew that it was going to warm up before too long, so we just had shorts and windbreakers on, and short-fingered gloves. I don't think my fingers have ever been so cold!! I'm definitely going to dress warmer next year and then peel off layers as needed.
There was a pretty good climb and descent before Kamas, then it was smooth sailing through Francis and back to the main road at Jordanelle Reservoir. The hill from the dam to highway 40 was awesome. I bet I got up to almost 50 mph. (I'd know exactly what speed I got up to if I hadn't forgotten my Garmin. grrrr!) We met up with Jimmy for our first rest stop just after we crossed hwy 40 and were headed to Midway. After grabbing a quick snack, we were back on our bikes for the next leg. By then we were about 30 miles into the ride.
Going through Midway and out towards hwy 189 wasn't bad. We were a little warmer by then, but not much. As we cruised along Deer Creek Reservoir, there were a few rolling hills, but all in all it was alright. The only problem we encountered was a particular group of riders who had a sag driver who had NO CLUE what they were doing. The roads weren't closed for us or anything, so we were out in traffic just like any other day. The ride coordinator had sent out several emails about telling your sag driver to leapfrog you and only stop in places that would be safe for everyone and not cause traffic problems. And, if nothing else, DON'T drive behind your riders at 10-15 mph on the roads. You think that would just be common sense... but not for these folks. Their big white truck was blocking the road the whole time. I was happy to see them pass and get away from me!
Things were much better once the road opened up to the two lanes of Provo Canyon. We coasted down most of the way and made pretty good time. We met up with Jimmy again at the turnoff to Sundance / Alpine Loop. Becca and I had done the loop before, so we knew what we were in for. Which may not have been a good thing. :) We loaded up on water, Gatorade, and ate peanut butter & jelly sandwich to fuel up for the climb. I left my windbreaker with Jimmy since I knew I'd be working up a sweat and then we headed up the road. As we were grunting up the hills, a few skinny little dudes would pass by like they weren't even trying. It was so depressing! I was tempted to run into them or something, just to slow them down. ;)~ Just kidding! I just wish I could climb that well!
We made it to Aspen Grove and met Jimmy one last time on the Alpine Loop segment. They asked sag drivers to not go past Aspen Grove because the road narrowed so much, and the descent down American Fork canyon would be easy. I thought we made good time heading up to the summit. It was especially fun because people were already sitting out, saving spots to watch the pros come by later on, so they would clap and cheer as we pedaled by. By that point, I needed that enouragement! We made it to the top at about mile 55 and then zoomed down the other side into American Fork. Traffic was pretty busy as we came out of the canyon, so that was a little scary at times.
At about mile 70 we turned onto the road that leads to Suncrest (aka Traverse Mountain) and met Jimmy for another recharge before climbing over Suncrest. The route map says that it's only about 5 miles to the top of Suncrest... but it felt like 20. By then the sun was beating down on us and we were beat. We had started up this climb on a ride that we did a couple of months earlier, but we didn't go all the way to the top that time. We turned around at a point where we thought we could see the summit... well, we learned the hard way that it wasn't the summit at all. We reached our faux summit and were very disappointed to see it curve around and up to another hill. Ugh!! After what seemed like hours, we made it to the actual summit of Suncrest. Woohoo!! Then we had another descent into Draper where we took the surface roads to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.When we got into Draper, Jimmy was a sweetheart and stopped at each place that we needed to turn so we didn't have to look at our maps or worry about getting lost. By now we had the pros hot on our tails, so we didn't want to waste any time. (I'm amazed at how fast those guys can ride!) We wanted to get as far as we could before they made us stop to let the pros go by. As we rode through town, I was somewhat familiar with the route because it was the same way that Christine (my sister) and I used to go when we were driving to Snowbird to go snowboarding back in the day. ;) But I have to say, I remember it being a lot shorter! And I don't remember it being so dang hilly!! It was like a rollercoaster going along Wasatch Blvd!
We made it to the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon just before the pros caught us. I was pretty please that we made it that far! So we stopped and waited to watch them zoom by. I'd never seen a professional race in person before, so it was really cool to see them go by in their peleton with the support cars right behind. There were a couple groups that went by, then a few stragglers. We ended up waiting there for about an hour, so that really helped the lactic acid build up in our legs. ;) By then it was boiling hot and we were ready to be done. But, we pressed on. After all, there were only 8 little miles left! haha!
We crawled up the canyon, getting cheered along by all the people who were there to see the pros. About a couple miles up the canyon, I looked in my little helmet mirror and saw another group of pros coming up behind us. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to stop or what, but I knew that if I stopped I would have a hard time starting again, so we just got as far to the right as we could and kept pedaling. The riders enveloped us and slowly passed by. It was actually pretty cool! That was exciting for a minute, but then reality set back in and I was back to feeling miserable. We were about 3 miles from the top and we stopped for another rest. By this point, Becca was having bad stomach cramps and couldn't go on. She'd been sick for the last few weeks and wasn't feeling great when we started out anyway, so I was proud that she made it as far as she did. So she said she was going to wait for Jimmy, but I had to keep going. :) (Jimmy was somewhere behind us--he hadn't eaten lunch all day so he went to grab something--so we knew he would be coming eventually.) So I trudged on...
Those last few miles were the hardest by far. I have never been so tired, hot, sore, or weak, in my life. As I was making my way up, spectators from the finish line were already heading down the canyon and would honk and cheer as they passed by. It was encouraging, but at the same time disappointing because that meant the party at the top was already over. I think it took me well over an hour just to go that last bit. It was horrible!! But at the same time, rewarding. My legs were so weak I could hardly pedal. I even gave Becca's bike a try (because it has a few more gears) but, sadly, it wasn't much different than my bike. I kept leap-frogging a few old guys that were battling along like I was, so that gave me something to shoot for. "I gotta beat the old guy!" I kept telling myself. :D
Finally... I made it to the first entrance of Snowbird. Hallelujah!!!! It was rather anticlimactic because everyone had already left and the clean up crew was already in action. But we took pictures anyway to prove that we made it. :) All in all it was a great ride and I would do it again -- I'm just going to train a LOT more next time!
