Prairie Punisher

Alright folks, now I know that it's been a while. June was the Ride for Diabetes and was rather uneventful, so I didn't write about it. Okay here's a summary It was long, frigging hard and it took me 7 hrs. By the time I got to mile 80 I wanted off so bad I bumped up my pace just to get done!

But now for the race that we all came here to read about, The Prairie Punisher! The race was held at Celebration Park in Gardner Kansas. It is a newly renovated park in West Gardner and was very nice, small, but nice. Anyways, The Punisher is a Duathlon that consists of a 5k run to a 29.5k bike ride (18 miles) and then a 5k run to the finish. I signed up for the team with my friend's boyfriend Kyle. Kyle is a marathoner and so I figured running two measly 5ks wouldn't be too difficult for him to pull off on such short notice. I was glad to find Kyle very excited for a competition race and knew that I had me a good team mate for the day!

The night before the race it had stormed pretty good so I was a bit apprehensive about the condition of the roads. I was racing on country roads, which were in relatively good shape but not a whole lot of cars travel down them so they tend to dry a little slower than most city roads. We arrived at the event and went through the normal formalities of getting numbers' checking in and getting the race chip. Kyle and I were a bit tired, neither of us had slept well at all. I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and Kyle hadn't had much more. We were trying to formulate the stratigy for the race before we started. Kyle was estimating a 20 min 5k and I was estimating possibly an hour to get done with the 18 miler. After driving the course the night before I found a TON of hills on this course and with the lack of sleep I felt that I could loose a lot of my energy on any of these hills at any given time. The plan of attack was to conserve and then attack on the last 3 miles, and when Marcos says attack, I mean unleash the beast all over that course! So after Kyle and I had the game plan settled, we moved over to the staging area to figure out how the hand off works.

6:55...five minutes to race time

Kyle moves to the 5k start and I go and stand in the "pass box" and wait for my team mate to come streaming in there like a silver bullet. I take the time to size up my competition....yeah I'm out biked....man that's a sweet time-trial bike....whatever chump change!!

10...9...8 Here it goes

7...6...5 man chipotle sounds good for after the race

4...3...2...1 GO! GO! GO get'em KYLE!!!

The pack launches off and they disappear over the hill and off to the right. The staging grounds become quiet and all that can be heard is idle chatter of spectators and cows waking up in the distance. I keep stretching, excitement beginning to build inside. 15 mins pass. I jump in place and attempt to stay warm. 16.5 mins. Holy crap! someone is actually burning up the home stretch towards the staging grounds the first couple of solo contestants hit the grounds along with the first place team runner. Holy crap that guy's fast! 17.38 minutes for his first 5k! He comes in and passes the race chip and his rider takes off running to the dismount/mount line. Crap okay not first, that's cool, that's cool. 19 mins. Kira gets excited so I know Kyle's coming. Where is he, where is he....there! crap he's almost on me! 20.1 mins. He rips the chip bracelet of his wrist and hands it too me. Heart is starting to pound with excitement. I slap the bracelet around my ankle and tear off with my bike for the line. 40 yards...darn cycling shoes, don't make it easy on me to run or anything! I get to the line. Mount Mount! Clip Clip! GO GO GO GO!!!! Heart racing, legs quaking with excitement, lungs sucking down air like a Dyson vacume! Alright Alright, calm it down, remember the pace we decided on. The start is a down hill for a mile, and I'm in second just stay out in front of the third place guy and hopefully I can pull in the first place! Sliding down the front mile I turn right and begin my first climb. I hear what sounds like a car behind me and realize it's a solo rider on his tri bike with a really goofy time trail helmet. That's fine I'm not racing him let him go. First climb in the bag, fast right coming! The pavments a bit wet, Careful! Alright hit it. I climb slowly south and get swallowed up by a couple more solo riders. I know you want to chace Marcos, but you have to keep the pace so you've got something left to unleash at the end. Almost half way to the finish now. That familiar sound is at my wheel again. Glancing over my shoulder I see a blue blur coming up fast, it's the women's champion and she is hauling! I know you don't want to get beat by a girl but the monster hill is coming up, so just let her go maybe you can catch her later. No sign of the first place guy. Left turn...there it is...bofore me was a looming hill. I couldn't see straight accross to the top. It was actually above where I was and I still had to go down first. I might as well have been the Materhorn itself because my climbing legs felt as though I left them in bed. It hurt, quads burning, sweat starting to flow down my face now....man am I glad I saved up for this...

Cleared...

crap there's still another small climb and then we turn left...

We turn left from 143rd street and now it's a bunch of up and down rolling hills to 175th street. I'm feeling a bit fatigued from the hill but not bad....that noise...is it a car? DAMN! it's third place! and he's moving like he stole that bike! step it up Marcos! No no! hold him in your sites and wait for the attack! The rider in third place wearing the gray and gold flies by me like a man possesed. I give short chace but decide to let him go and hope he'll burn up on the steep hills to come. Dang it. 12 miles down, we make a left on 175th towards the flats, but we still have two decent climbs before I get to the easy downs. A couple more solo riders pass and I don't give chace. I just have to hold on to 3rd for now. The second of the climbs was a bit steep and I get swallowed by one more rider. Alright baby, mile 14, let's start going down hill! I amp up the pace and fly past the sleepy airport. No one flying over head yet and nothing but me and the sound of my wheels. As all down hills go, they don't last long and I still can't see the 2nd place man. I can't loose third, Kyle's depending on me.

I make the last turn through a slippery puddle and start to head home. 15 miles, 3 to go lets get this going boy! I slap the gears down and begin to hammer a bit harder, but my confidence and cool collectiveness is shattered by a quick pain in my left calf. As though bit out of blue by a dog, my left calf is on the verge of cramping, a feeling I know all to well. This couldn't come at a worse time because the finish is up hill and I need all off my climbing stregth! THAT SOUND! quick glance over my shoulder. It's FOUTH PLACE team. He must have been working his ass off to catch me! That's fine he hangs a bit behind me and we make the last left turn towards the finish. He makes his move. Calf begining to calm down, okay keep him close. I let him get about 20 ft out as my calf comes back around. Last right turn up to the finish.....All or nothing baby bring out the Red Bull within!!!!! I slam carelessly around the corner and click down a gear. My body knows it's time and my calf lets go, as if to say "go get him boy"... There's a solo rider in between us now. He know's I'm coming. I slam hard and demand everything my bike has to give me.

Get back here goofy helmet boy!

I swallow up the solo rider and am pounding down the pavement after third place. He looks over his shoulder with half a mile to go....big mistake... I know I've got you now! All the reserves dumped, energy coming out of thin air...I can tell the hill is breaking him and I'm eating up space like a hungry hungry hippo. So close now! left turn coming up! I sweep fast to his inside and slide just ahead, we've got 30 yards to the dismount line. I reach the line fist and get off of my bike like it was covered in hornets. I sprint down towards Kyle in the box...Now if you've never run in cycling shoes right after a hard ride, your legs feel like you are running with scuba diving flippers on. The box is down hill and I shortly realize that stopping is going to be a trick :) I yell for Kyle to rip that blasted braslet off of my ankle! "Kyle forth is right there get to it!!!" he waistes no time slapping the bracelet on and tears off.

I'm done....it's all up to him now...

I'm greated by Kira and my dad with the usual good jobs and you guys are doing awesome! I begin to phase out a bit and use the bike rack as a brace to hold myself up. I've never raced so hard in my life and my body was telling me. After I get some water in me and change out of my shoes we all move over to the Finish. The first soloist has finished before we get there. Straight amazing is all I can say about these duathletes. The first place team runner crosses the line and is followed closely by the women's champ. Where's Kyle I hope he can beat the second place guy. A few more soloists finish and then...here comes second place and Kyle still isn't in sight. Dang. I hope he stayed away from fourth place. A couple more solos trickle in. There he is! come on Kyle! Moving like he's pooring everything he's got left in, you can see the pain on his face. "They're right behind you!" I lied :) but it kept him moving fast. Kyle pulls over the line and looks absolutley exhausted. We did it...we clenched third.

Resolution:
Well Kyle and I did better than we had anticipated. We were shooting for 1hour and 40 mins and we rolled in at 1hour and 36 mins. To top it all off, we found out that the 4th place team finished 2 mins back from us was a co-ed team so they actually were not directly competing with us. The men's 4th place team finished 3 mins back so we didn't do so bad. The second place rider actually came in with the best cycling time out of all the cyclists so at least I can't feel too bad about that getting passed by him.

In conclusion, I had a blast. I look forward to doing the punisher next year and hopefully next year I'll get more sleep before the race!!! what was i thinking!!! First place is in the bag!

Thanks for reading!

Tune in next time to see what crazy race the Titanium Rider takes on!