5012 Oregon Haus: High Cascades 100

Last weekend I headed to Bend for the High Cascades 100 - with no idea whether or not I was going to finish the race. I knew that I wanted to finish, but I also really wanted to be smart about my arm and not potentially re-injure it. After a really good talk with my PT earlier that week I felt much better about my ability to assess my arm and make a solid decision about whether or not I needed to pull out at any point during the race (cliff notes version: sore/irritated/achey = okay to keep riding. sharp/painful = need to stop).

We left for Bend first thing in the morning on Friday - and I literally mean first thing! We were giving our friend's Beth and Matt a ride and needed to pick them up around 7 in order to get to Bend in time for the volunteer shift during registration. Mom was driving with us too so she had a really early start! We packed into the truck, loaded up the back with 5 mountain bikes (always a beautiful sight!), and hit the road. Once in Bend we took care of registration and then spent the rest of the day puttering around, getting last minute food items at the grocery store, setting up our tent in Beth and Matt's yard (Matt's parent's live in Bend and let us camp in their yard each year for the race - SO nice), and prepping all our gear/coolers for the race the next day.

4:15 the next morning the alarm went off and it was go time! I had most of my stuff pre-sorted and laid out already, so it was just a matter of getting dressed, eating a full breakfast (which is harder than it sounds at 4:15 a.m. - I wasn't hungry at all!), and making sure one last time that I had my bike, shoes, helmet and gloves to head for the start line. Thor generously got up and drove us to the start area (even though he didn't need to show up for his sweep leg until almost 6-hours later) - and we arrived in just enough time to drop our coolers, hit the bathroom one last time, and line up for the start (this was fine for me for a 100-miler - I figure the first 10-miles are the warm up)!

Beth Ann, me, and Margi (missing Laurie!) at the start - we look pretty good for 5:15am!

My plan was to take the first part of the race easy to test out my arm - and I did just that! I think I was 4th to last (out of about 260 riders) onto the course once we were done with the paved start (~2-3 miles). No problem! I am a slow starter - like a big semi-truck. It takes me some time to grind my way through my gears, but I know eventually I'll start passing people again (like around mile 60) - so I don't let it bother me. I rode mostly by myself until the first aid station (mile 18 - Wanoga Snow Park) - then I caught up with Beth's boyfriend, Matt, and we rode/chatted for awhile until we hit the first big hill and I let him pull away - no sense blowing up on the first hill!

On the lower Funner trails during the first 18-miles of the race.

From that point (~mile 21) on until I got to the South Fork climb (~mile 44) I rode by myself, with one good chunk in the middle where I rode with Roger from the NW Epic Series - he's great! It was fun getting to know him - but at one point he crashed going downhill and then we were separated (I didn't hear it!!! terrible! I think I must have been a turn or so ahead of him because all of a sudden I realized he wasn't there anymore, but I just assumed he stopped to go to the bathroom or eat or something).

Thor caught up with me on the South Fork climb (he had my mom drop him off earlier in the morning so he could get an extra ride in before his sweep leg) - and it was a real treat to see him (~mile 46)! He was also a life-saver because he gave me some water out of his camelback to dilute one of my bottles. I had an energy drink in there that I tried to make a multi-hour bottle out of (but I'd never tested it pre-race. bad, i know - but they were out of stock for, like, 4-months and my shipment only arrived the day before the race. what's a girl to do?) - and it was waaaaaay too sweet. I was sort of choking it down because I knew I needed the calories, but Thor's extra water made a big difference. Thanks sweetie! Thor took off eventually so I could ride the last 5 miles or so by myself into aid station #2 at Dutchman (mile 56). Yes, that's right - mile 56!!! That's 38-miles in between the first and second aid stations - and it was a STRETCH on 3 water bottles and only the food I had in my jersey pockets (I didn't want to carry a backpack for 100 miles). I was very, very thankful it was cooler than last year (about 15 degrees cooler, I think. ~78 instead of ~93) or that long stretch would have been much more painful!

When I got into Dutchman I had to remind myself what my 'promise' to myself had been at the beginning of the race - which was that I was going to sit down and ice my arm for 15-20 minutes and stretch it really well. This was quite difficult because as I came in I saw the first other women riders since mile 18, and they were leaving!!! Oof - it was tough to make myself sit down and ice instead of just streamlining my stop so I could chase them. Fortunately I had the best pit crew ever in the form of Thor and Scott (my friend Margi's husband) who were there at the aid station and lubed my chain, brought me snacks, cracked a mini-Coke for me, and re-filled my pockets with goodies while I iced. I would have been at aid #2 at least 10 minutes longer if those guys hadn't run around helping to get me ready while I sat and babied my arm.

Icing at Dutchman while Thor fills my pockets. Proof that I was good! Thanks NW Epic Series for the picture.

I took out from Dutchman with confidence that I was going to be able to finish the ride because my forearm was feeling so good - and I began the most FUN section of the entire course - the single track around the base of Bachelor that ran along Lava Lake. The trail was twisty, just a little bit technical, and flowy. In other words my favorite! I was able to build up a lot of speed, was passing a lot of people, and was really in a groove when I came over the top of a little rock-rise on a blind corner and promptly found myself sprawled on the ground. Ouch! I was like 'WTF?!', turned around, and saw a large snag (dead tree) overhanging the trail with a bunch of yellow tape tied to it. Too bad it was on a blind corner and I never had a chance to see the tape. Then I looked at my arm. Oooo -almost wished I hadn't looked at my arm. Suffice it to say there was LOTS of blood, and inside bits poking out that definitely should not have been showing. I've been describing it by saying it looked like someone was pushing a hardboiled egg out a hole in my arm. Ick! (***NOTE*** There is a picture of my arm wound at the bottom of this post. If you're squeamish and don't want to see it don't scroll all the way to the bottom!)

I had dropped my arm and leg warmers at the first aid station - so I didn't have anything on me to stop the bleeding. I had to wait a few seconds for the next rider to catch up to me, and he very kindly stopped and surrendered one of his arm warmers to the cause of putting a nice snug tourniquet over my wound. I took a few deep breaths and made sure I wasn't feeling light headed, and took off again - I had probably another 5-6 miles to go before getting to the next aid station (Lava Lakes at mile 70). When I rolled into Lava Lakes Mom was sitting there at her volunteer station recording plate numbers for everyone who came through - and I tried to dance my way through and said I just 'poked' my arm (of course my arm/jersey were covered in dried blood and she wasn't born yesterday - so I'm pretty sure she saw through that act immediately!) - but being a good mom (and seeing that I was coherent enough to try and fib my way through the aid station!) she let me keep going without too much fuss, and I rolled down to the aid tent where they poured some water over the wound, gave it a spray with antiseptic, applied a nice piece of gauze, and then tied the arm warmer back on. I decided to keep going. Painful to ride? Yes. But better than sitting at the darn aid station for another 5-hours waiting for them to shut it down? Also yes (and definitely more fun too)!

Riding the single track on the edge of Lava Lake - POST crash (you can see the arm warmer tied on my arm).

Coming out of Lava Lake was the steepest climb on the course (like +30% in one place) - obviously I couldn't ride that, but I think it was actually a really good thing for me. I spent about 10-15 minutes at least at the Lava aid station while they doctored my arm up - so by the time I hit the trail again a lot of my adrenaline from the crash was wearing off, and I had a bit of a bonk. It was really convenient that it happened at the same time that it was too steep to ride - so I got a good break where I was able to hike, stand up straight and stretch my neck/shoulders, and eat easily while pushing my bike with my other hand (without the danger of crashing). I kept going at a nice steady pace, but didn't push it at all - and I think that mellow period of hiking uphill was a good break for me. The riding was relatively uneventful until I got into Aid #4 (Edison Park) - where I stuffed some more food in my mouth, said hi to Scott (who was there again and sooo helpful!) - and hopped on my bike and took off again. I knew I had one more good climb left and then the final 15-miles would be relatively downhill.

Weeelllll - that one more climb was more than I was expecting! There was just a lot of gradual climbing leading up to it, and then when I hit the hill I was feeling kind of hungry, but I decided not to stop to eat because I just wanted it to be over. Le sigh - that is always a mistake! Anyhow - fortunately at the top of the hill I ran into a guy who needed help changing a flat. Now, normally I would not be that excited about spending 5 minutes stopped helping someone who had not brought their own spare tube and air, BUT in this instance I had to pull a melted Snickers out of my back pocket to get at my air cannister, and then I was too tired to get the snickers back in my pocket because it was all bendy....so I just ate it....aaaannnd guess what? About 10 minutes later I felt great. Surprise! (not) So stopping to give the guy my tube/air turned out to be a good thing.

With my extra jolt of energy, and the knowledge that I only had downhill left to go I really let it go - we got to wind down Tiddlywinks and Funner - what a blast! I caught up with Margi somewhere around Stormking - and was really cranking along until I hit the paved road back into town. Then all of a sudden I started to doubt where I was - I was pretty sure in the pre-race meeting Mike had said we would come back in on the road, but as I rode along and there were no 'confirmation markings' along the road I began to get nervous in my delirium....so I turned around! Yes - it's true! In my exhausted fog I got so worried that I had somehow missed a turnoff that I did a 180 and headed back out the course to retrace my steps. About 5-minutes back up trail I ran into a couple of guys again and they confirmed that the road WAS correct - so I turned around again and headed back down the road. Hrmph. Stupid mistake. But I maintain my position that they should err on the side of more course markings in the final 5-10 miles - because everyone is SO tired then!

***Sidenote: I'm going to admit I'm getting tired of writing here! I've been working on this dang post in little bits for over a week now - who knew it took so long to write an entire post up! I might start paraphrasing the whole finish/ER bit.

Okay - then I finished the race - yay! I did it in 11 hrs, 10 min. Good enough for 9th place in the women's category! Of course, competitive Sarah came out after the fact and got momentarily cranky that I didn't go under 11 hours, and that if I hadn't stopped to ice/impale my arm/fix the flat I probably would have been at least 40 minutes faster - but then I had to remind myself that 12 hours earlier I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to ride the whole race. So overall I was really, really pleased with how the day went!

Crossing the finish line.

Buuut - then I had to deal with my arm. Basically I knew I needed to go to urgent care - which the promoters at the end confidently told me was right around the corner to attend to any medical emergencies they might have at the end of the race. So I puttered about, ate half a banana, rinsed all the dirt off in the sun shower, changed, chatted with some people....and walked up to the urgent care door at about 5:05. Five minutes after they closed! Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. So my $20 urgent care visit turned into a $200 (at least) freakin' ER visit. LAME. And to add insult to injury they wouldn't let me eat or drink anything while at the ER. Double lame (remember i had only eaten half a banana post race). AND they didn't have anything to read except for old copies of Web MD. TRIPLE LAME!!! If you can't tell I didn't have a great experience in the Bend ER. The only nice thing I have to say is that when the dr. did show up at my little ER cubicle from hell he was incredibly nice, quick, and very friendly. And his nurse, John, was also great. BUT - I was still at the dang ER for almost 4-hours, missed all the awards and friends post-race, and almost went Hannibal Lecter on the ER staff. Fortunately my good friends bought a chicken-falafel sandwich for me on their way home so there was food waiting for me at the house when I finally got discharged around 10pm.

All in all a GREAT weekend - with great friends (and family!) - and I was so excited that I was able to do the race. Here are a few more pictures of the weekend: