Iceman Cometh 2010

Iceman 2010: A 27ish mile point to point mountain bike race in northern Michigan from Kalkaska to Traverse City.

Starting temp/conditions: 24 degrees, sunny and a dusting of snow on the ground.

Some of you might know this, but my husband, at times when I am stubborn or impatient, say’s to me, “you’re like a little bull”. And today was one of those days. The little bull showed itself mostly between miles 25 through 28. I was completely spent. My cold medication had worn off, I was dehydrated and starving, but there was no way I wasn’t going to finish what I started. Not even with my mind screaming at me to please, for the love of god, stop. Not even when I’d approach another long climb and my left quad would cramp right above the knee. Nope, I’d just click the gears to where I’d slowly spin to the top. On those climbs I fell in love with my new 29er wheels, which carried me to the top of every single steep climb without slipping out once.

The Iceman 2010 ended up being 28.5 miles and it held true to it’s name this year with not only providing the folks who raced today with ice, but snow, and cold temps. Last year, my first year doing this race, it was 60 degrees at the end. While the course was fast last year, it wasn’t as challenging as this year. And this year destroyed me. Completely. And yet worth every penny of the $65 bucks it cost to register.

The race historically is cruel. For starters it’s in Northern Michigan in November. This could prove challenging just with weather, but there are a few other notable items that make this race hard besides the weather. One, the course has lots of sand, that when you crash, one of the other 4000 participants is surly not too far behind and will ride right over the top of you. (not on purpose, but just because it can’t be helped) This happened to me last year. The guy was super great and the sand was nice and soft, so it all worked out. It also happened early in the race so there was plenty of adrenaline and I was up and back on the bike before he even could finish apologizing.

The course also tests you mostly at the end. It climbs. A lot. Over and over again. Hills, after you’ve gone as hard as you can go, and your low fuel light is on, you come through a flat section to see yet another long, muddy climb. Today I was on one of those climbs with about 5 miles to go and it was messy. Muddy, packed with riders, and only one good line. I was about 10 feet from the top and a guy barked at me that he was coming around on my left. Now, I am a gracious rider, but I was about 5 seconds from cresting, and he was just going to have to deal with it. I was at the top when he came around and shoved me over and I went down hard, and he kept going. I wasn’t even mad, I was so thankful. I just wanted to be lying down anyway. I was clearly bonking. I looked up at the bright blue sky for a moment longer than I should have, got up, brushed off the snow and mud and kept moving forward, going against advice from my body to just continue lying down. I had ignored it for this long, what’s a few more miles.

Aside from the usual meatheads you’ll without doubt experience out of that many riders, generally most of the folks that participate are great. I came through a few miles of tight, mushy single track. It was full of quick turns, lots of trees to avoid bouncing off of, and a tricky descent wet with leaves, ice and snow. I finished that section with a guy right on my wheel that whole time, he came around me when it the trail widened and said ‘you rocked that section.’ That made my day because all day I struggled with over steering my new bike. The bigger wheels make steering a different game.

As I was in the last few miles of this ride, a guy next to me on a climb came unglued. He just stopped, got off his bike, pulled off to the side, and swore out loud, and proclaimed (to no one in particular) that he was wanting to totally quit this race and he was done suffering. As I came up next to him, I saw he was riding a singlespeed, (which considering the climbs, I thought it was impressive) and I just smiled at him. I totally understood. I felt that way on the inside. I just wasn’t going to show it to anyone.

My overall time was slower than last year, partly because I hadn’t trained enough (read: at all). And the conditions were harder for me and where my skills are. But I still loved every hard mile of it and am ready for next year.