54 degrees doesn't sound too bad, even with shorts on. It's cold, but bearable. That is until you start riding your bike at 20mph with no sun.
At the start of the Tour de St. George it was 54 degrees. My teeth were chattering before I started riding. Even worse, the first couple miles were downhill, which meant two things. First I was going faster than normal and second I wasn't having to work hard, which made it hard to stay warm.
Right before we started, they asked us to follow all traffic rules. If you notice in the picture below there was a green light. The light would stay green for about 15 seconds. Most of the riders, road through this first light. So much for following traffic rules.
I rode the race with Tregaron, a friend from work (aka the one that talked me into doing this). We started the race slow and watched our heart rate, as we knew we had a long day infront of us. Within the first 5 miles there were multiple bike wrecks. I'm certain that one of them the guy broke his collar bone. If I had to guess how many riders there were, I'd guess about 500 or so. Until we hit the first hill, there was a massive group of anxious riders. Because of this, we stayed back and watched all the drama happen in front of us.
There were 2 "older" (probably in their late 40's/early 50's) men riding together. One had a BYU jersey on. I commented to Tregaron within the first few miles of the race that these men were about our pace. Surprisingly enough, we finished within minutes of each other.
Here is a profile of the course. Although I had looked at the profile before signing up, I didn't realize there was this much climbing.
From mile 67 to 74 we climbed up a canyon (hwy 18) towards the turn off to the Top of Snow Canyon. This was a hard climb after riding 67 miles. Had I been fresh, the 7 mile climb wouldn't have been an issue. I rode between 6 and 8 mph up this hill.
At the top, we celebrated with a picture. I survived the climb, it's all down hill from here (well so I thought.)
After reaching the summit of our climb, we showed our wristbands to the park ranger as we rode into Snow Canyon. From there, we had about a 5 mile descent. The warm wind was blowing up snow canyon as we rode down it. By this time it was in the high 80's.
I hit a wall around mile 80. Tregaron lied to me over and over by telling me, "this is the last hill", or "as soon as we get up this hill, it's all down hill from here". Knowing better, but wanting to believe him, I kept peddling, only to see another hill or an endless hill infront of me. However Tregaron talked me up to the next rest stop, which was about mile 84. At that point I was able to fuel and feel a little bit better as we rode the last 16 miles into town.
I'll be honest. This race was one of the hardest things I've even done, but it was enjoyable and I'd do it again, but I'll be a little more prepared next time.
Brett and Tregaron at the finish line.
In other races I've done, I've always been marked with a number. However I knew they weren't marking anyone for this race. Since Deni was unable to attend due to her bike vs car accident, I thought it would be appropriate to mark my legs with "Deni", which Tregaron did willingly. I was surprised I didn't have one person ask me what "Deni" was on my legs until after the race.
A guy came up to me and said, "why do you have
Deny written on your legs?" I said "it's actually
Deni, and it's my wife's name. She was hit by a car last week while training for this race and was unable to attend." He felt like a jerk, but told me he was sorry to hear and hoped she got better.
