I wrote this in a e-mail to a buddy who had asked "How did it go at the Iceman?", I think it should live here...
Warning: Long read
(this is a "seeded" race, your start is determined by your finish the previous year, the faster finishers go first)
Almost 4,000 racers taking off in waves 3 minutes apart. Bryce was gone at 9:06am, me off at 9.18 in waves of maybe 100. This is a 29.5 mile point to point sprint on mostly double track, or one single ribbon of single track, not technical at all (actually there was less than 3k of "real" single track)
The temperature was +1c. Snow covered at the finish line, no snow at the start.
This is an adrenalin fest, from the get go (as usual, I was the last man out, starting in the back of my wave) bang! Flying at 40km/h down a back street of the town of Kalkaska, thousands cheering you on, bumping elbows and trying not to crash, getting boxed in you work your way to the outside left of the pack, and sprint ahead, gaining maybe 20 spots before you have to pull back in to avoid some barrier or fence, you see a left turn approaching, cut the corner and sprint again, grabbing maybe 10 more spots, then I second guess myself, am I going to blow up? Glance at the Garmin shows HR is over 170, and you are less than 2 minutes in - but I'm feeling good, do these guys know something I don't? Should I save myself for later? Fuck it, the single track is coming up and I want a good position - sprint again and I have 5th spot, we open a gap on the rest of the riders. Now I think, hold them off, if we gaped them this early, we must be stronger. I'm now in 2nd/3/4th - and the lead rider is just staying maybe 100 feet in front of us - but the group I am with isn't really working, we are maybe 6 or 7km into it now, and they have settled in, I have recovered somewhat (HR is sitting somewhere around 162, legs are feeling good, fingers are frozen though) so I pull out and drop the hammer, chasing down the lead guy, one rider comes with me, and at this point we are already pulling in straggling riders from the earlier wave.
I think great, there is really no one with us now - the main pack is not even in view, just the 3 of us. Adrenalin doesn't stop though, as you see slower riders ahead, and you reel them in, maybe draft behind them for a bit, recover, pull out and pass (this is mostly that double track, with one side of the track worked in very well and the other side rougher).
We drop rider number three and continue, I take the lead and now we are practically gobbling other riders up, this is maybe at the 24k mark (nice thing is a big sign on trees counting down the KM's), everything is covered with snow, just a brown path of sand and leaves infront. Me an the other rider from my wave work together (we realize that we are in different age categories, so, we are not directly competing with each other), he has too back off around the 30k mark as he is begining to cramp, I head off alone, continuing to pick off other riders - at many many places along the route, there are people -thousands in total cheering you on, what a rush.
My drivetrain sounds like crap - sand in it, I get some chain suck and back off on the gear changes.
Maybe 10km to go now, and they throw in a few climbs -- nothing like at Durham, just short punchy climbs, but after 90 minutes of racing they hurt, hop off the bike on the biggest climb (traffic jam) and I'm back on the bike at the top, legs are screaming, just about through the one waterbottle I have brought (plus 2 cups of water from the volunteers along the way), manage the cramp - can feel them coming on, back off to 95%, and the rider from my wave that had dropped off, climbs back on, passes me - and I can't catch him - 100, 200 300 feet out until I don't see him any more. Now we are down to the final 3 or 4 km - single track , damn slow riders in front of me, one goes off the trail, see that he's alright and pick up the pace through some greasy single track, then mud, back wheel spinning out, sprint for the line and come in at 2:05:27, good for 372 of 3880 finishers (I am really happy with this finish).
Soaking wet from sweat, splash and snow, in about 5 minutes I am freezing. I run into Bryce, we head for the food tent, get some chicken chili (mmh) and park ourselves in front of a propane blasting heater.
Dry out, get feeling back into the toes and go drink beer with thousands of other happy happy people, Alexa joins us, Ross as well, hang out at a fire try to stay warm, share stories of how your race went, feeling good, Go back to the hotel for a nap, get up, go out to eat and see a band, yeah love it.
(Outside the race itself, Traverse city is great, very cool town, lots of restaurants, bars, shops, and the whole town becomes a party with all the racers, good people, good times, a fun bike expo - so much)
peace.
