Check points=Food and Water
This was my first year competing in the infamous A2A. Notice That I said competing; though it be a long race much longer than I had ever skated I was going in with the intention of winning. I felt that my long legs and natural endurance would be well suited for the 87 mile affair. The race started out very relaxed which I fine with. I planned to race the race of the veteran A2A’ers and not make my own offensive. The pace stayed constant allowing the pack to be filled with a wide variety of skill levels. Somewhere around mile 15 Mejia and Sarmiento attacked. It was an attack that surprised everybody. It took a while for Aarnt and Matzger to realize what was happening and react. My plan was to stay with Arndt so they started to chase I went with them. The 3 of us caught them very quickly skating full power, an effort that seemed too exhausting this early in the game. But I felt that no matter how great the effort I must stay with leaders. I would rather finish 10th place after completely blowing up trying to win than finish 5th place skating at a manageable pace. The race stayed fairly slow for a long time after this with a few strong pulls here and there. It was quite different from environment that exited in a marathon. At mile 38 we watch as the some younger kids raced to the finish with shanacy Sutter coming away victorious. After the 38 mile mark the pack significantly downsized to a pack of 14. That was all soon to change as around mile 50 the Mejia and Sarmiento went again. If it was not clear before it was now Mejia, Ramirez and Sarmiento were all working together. Sarmiento was not wearing a K2 Empire uniform but he might as well have been. Mejia went up the road a bit and Sarmiento gapped up to him. Then they started to pull away and they were working word to make sure this was a successful breakaway attempt. They quickly grew a quarter mile lead. Then Arndt lead the charge assisted by Matzger. Ramirez and I were also in the pack. Ramirez worked to make sure there was no fluid consistency in our chase group latterly standing up every time he got to the front. Arndt chased hard and assisted by Eddy from time to time but I was just barely hanging on. I would have liked to have helped but as Arndt later explained that was the toughest and fastest time of the race. Arndt in my opinion was the favorite to win and I believe that this was the point in which he proved that he was the strong man of the day chasing down a two teammates working together practically by himself while the third tried to disrupt his effort. We chased for around 2 miles or more till we finally caught them. The selection had been made. I felt that this was the defining moment of the race. I made it I thought to myself. The pack consisted of 6 of us: Arndt, Mejia, Sarmiento, Ramirez, Matzger, and me. As soon as the pace slowed down I immediately replenished with a Gu and Gatorade. With the chase pack clearly out of site we rolled fairly easy but consistent into the mile 58 check point. I grabbed my food bag from my support vehicle (my mom) which was invaluable tool to racing at full capacity. After that stop my legs started to cramp, I thought to myself, it is only a marathon from here. I went to stretch my quads but 3 other muscles would cramp. To my surprise I look back to see Doucet closing just a few meters back pulling a pack of 4 with him. An amazing effort, they must have been a mile behind us after we caught the attack. Though it was not long until it was widdled down to 8 of us: Arndt, Mejia, Sarmiento, Ramirez, Matzger, Doucet, Humphrey and me. On the uphill’s Matzger skated strong keeping us all in check. My legs were really starting to cramp. I drank my Gatorade as fast as I could. I took Gu shots every 20 mins. Then with 10 miles to go one of the hardest charges of the day was initiated by Mejia. It was one that eliminated anybody with weakness. I felt like we were moving at over 23 miles an hour which after 78 miles is fast. The damage was starting to happen and Arndt taking note kept it going. My muscles were cramping, I was on the edge but I knew I had to pull to keep the rhythm of the charge going and show that there was a reason for to be here. We kept it strong like this for what seemed to be a 1.5 miles. The selection was down to an elite few: Arndt, Mejia, Sarmiento, Matzger, and me. My muscles were a wreck cramping like crazy. They still had energy but the cramps made simple motions a fight. Our pace was high and we cruised at over 20 mph down the rough city streets, each bump jolting the muscles. We kept rotating through at this strong tempo. I had an idea of how far we were from the finish but I was not quite sure. The pace started to slow as we came into the last 2.5 miles. Then Matzger attacked but only for a short burst of 20 seconds. Everyone reacted, then again, and again. They were each little blows at short enough intervals that rendered my legs uncontrollable because of the cramping. It was not that they did not have the speed or energy, they were just cramping and I had been fighting the cramps for 26 miles. On an uphill, in a confusing spot, where you jump up on a side walk another attack came. With everything a terminal gap opened (3k to go). I dug hard fighting the cramping legs but they were getting away. Redlined I settled into a strong pace hoping I could get back on in between an attacks. I would gain on them, and then they would pull away. Then right at the end they really opened the gap in the final sprint. I skated hard into the finish. As I crossed the line went to stand up and my legs just cramped up like no words could describe. I could not move legs at all, they were frozen. My muscles cramped so bad I felt as if my knee caps were going to pop off. Not being able to move my legs I rolled until I hit a curb and fell to the ground. I yelled with pain. People came over and tried to stretch out my muscles squeezing the heck out of them so they would release. It took like 4 mins for them to finally release. In the sprint Arndt took of with about 800 meters from the line and sprinted full power. Sarmiento and Mejia chased. At the line it was Arndt by a foot over Sarmiento. Third was Mejia who said he timed his sprint wrong and fourth was Matzger who said he took the wrong way around a car hurting his chance a little before they entered the park. The race was really cool. Yes, the course could never make up its mind to whether it wanted to go up or down but the hills were not as bad as everybody made them out to be. The race was a lot different than I expected and it had a lot to do with the Columbians working as a team. Fifth place is not as high as I would have liked to have finished but I feel it was a very valid fifth place considering that I stayed with the lead pack answering every attack all the way to the end, well almost to the end. Good competition, scenic course, time of life at A2A.
