Another epic race in the books. Some of these things I feel somewhat decent the next day. This one?

I feel like a train wreck. It was hot, it was rocky, and it was a ton of fun.

The results are up here if you want to cut right to the chase.

The race started at around 7am with a rollout from the Bashas in sedona. There were 12 people in line for the big friggin’ loop upon departure.

I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to take a run off the front early on. I took off on the airport loop and put some time on the rest of the group. The pre-ride helped a lot, and I think I even repeated my single-dab performance.

It was pretty cool being in the lead of the race for a bit (it doesn’t happen often), but I also knew that Max and Randini were hot on my tail and so I kept cranking up towards munds wagon trail. I cruised up the trail, and got caught by Randy just as I was pulling onto cow pies. Max was soon to follow.

At this point, I had a hunch that the three of us were going off the front, as we were keeping a nice clip. Randy and I had the distinct home field advantage, but Max is a strong rider and kept us in view the whole time.

We pulled onto Jim Thompson and Randy picked up the pace a bit. I tried to hang, but he pushed his big gear all the way up the initial climb and I just caught some fleeting glimpses of him as he pulled away.

For the next several hours I was by myself. Unfortunately, the next several hours would also prove to throw me into ‘survival mode’ a bit earlier than I hoped. (it always happens on these races, it’s just a matter of how quick)

You see, the night before I had been very meticulous about mixing up my bottles, getting my clothing in order and getting all the food I wanted packed into my jersey pockets. In all the packing frenzy, I forgot one thing: fill up the camelbak.

I had it about half-full from the previous day, so I didn’t realize it wasn’t full when I picked it up that night. I did notice it when it started getting low as I cruised across the north side of sedona (much earlier than expected). I drained all the cytomax in my bottles, tried to keep food going into my gut and finally finished the last of the water with about 4 miles to go to Red Rock Crossing (which was my first planned water stop).

Luckily, I got some water at the cultural center, cruised down to RR crossing and filled everything back up. Unfortunately, the dehydration was already setting in, and I had started cramping a bit at this point. So, I downed a bunch of cytomax, ate some Gu, drank a bunch of water, and a banana.

After feeling a bit better I crossed the creek and headed up baldwin. Much to my surprise Randy soon cruised up behind me. I must have passed him while he stopped for water somewhere. He cruised past me again, and I started the crank down Verde Valley Road.

At this point, I was still a bit crampy, so I actually stopped at the Bike N Bean on the way past and bought a packet of Enduralytes (I’m glad I threw a Credit Card in the pack) and downed 3 of them right off the bat. I busted out of the shop and cruised onward towards Chicken Point.

I asked a couple people along the way if they saw a big guy in a blue jersey, and all of them assured me he was only 5-10 minutes ahead, so I pushed onwards. All the while I was fighting cramps and calculating how many climbs were left.

I never caught Randy, even though I was pushing pretty hard all the way through the loop and down to Buddha Beach. I dumped the bike when I got down to the river, jumped in, and resumed ticking off the final miles back to the finish.

I crossed the creek and headed back up the road to Ridge Trail. Initially, I had planned on filling up a bit more water here before heading in, but I felt like I still had a decent amount in the camelbak, and I still had a full bottle of cytomax, so I pushed onwards.

I cranked up the road and the first section of ridge and then jumped off the bike for a little hiking. After the short walk, I got back on and took a hard pedal stroke to resume the climbing on my bike.

As I cranked on the pedals, my bike emitted a horrible sound that was obviously metal-on-metal scraping.

I looked down to see the bearing seal from the drive side of my bottom bracket floating around on the spindle. A quick examination revealed that I had somehow completely obliterated all of the bearings on the drive side. No more riding for me.

4 miles to go, and pedaling of any sort was out of the question. I hiked up ridge trail, and proceeded to hike and coast for all of the last 4 miles into the Bashas parking lot.

I was 100% sure that somebody was going to cruise past me at any moment.

When I got to the cars and nobody had passed me, I was absolutely amazed. I knew Randy and I were cranking, but that means I put enough time on 3rd place to hike 3-4 miles and not get passed.

In the end, 5 people finished the full course. I got 58 miles, 8900 feet of climbing, and 8 hours 34 minutes for the totals.

Randy took it with a time of 7:51, and I came in second at 8:34. Lynda was right behind me at 8:51, and Chad and Dave came rolling in just over 9 hours.

It was an epic race, to be sure. Any race which is 60 miles and only 5-7 miles of roads is epic, and when you dump the fact that it’s in the rocky country of sedona into the mix, it takes it to a whole new level. I’m super-glad I finished, and I’m thrilled with how well I did. Congrats to everyone who came out for it, it was definitely a respectable effort, even if you didn’t finish.

Finally, I did a little autopsy of the BB today, and this is all that’s left of the drive side bearing.

If you’re a bit confused, the race which (typically) holds the bearings in place is that thing on the spindle which is broken into 2 pieces. There should also be several ball bearings in there. They are nowhere to be found. Luckily, I saw Brycycle at Pay N Take tonight, and he thinks he has another set of bearings that we can replace them with tomorrow. Should be up and running in no time.