At 11:15 am Friday morning Mr. [censored] said I could leave the office.
I'd promised to stay until noon but I wanted to leave as soon as he'd
let me. Especially since Mr. Ye (head of our department) had said
that Mr. Q (UCI commissaire) could not go to the race because there
was too much race stuff to do and he is too important in our
department.
I'd been hoping that Mr.Ye would change his mind because, if he did,
Mr.Q is important enough that he'd get a government car sending him
down to Sanya and even if he can't believe I'm crazy enough to enter a
race when I haven't trained in six weeks he'd already said that if
that happened I could ride with him.
No such luck.
With my own freedom secured, albeit no free ride in a government
vehicle I immediately went home and packed before grabbing a quick
lunch at the Sports Academy cafeteria and a taxi to the bus station..
When I arrived in Sanya I had to go to a hotel way out on the beach
road for registration. This took a while because I also had to gab
with everyone else I knew who was at registration. The more races I
go to the longer it takes to complete registration.
Finally I headed towards the bike shop "The Ride Place" intended to
get a bit of work done on it by Hainan's second best mechanic but, on
the way, I was waylaid by four cyclists from Yunnan, kidnapped, and
forcibly treated to dinner. No harm came to me and I was eventually
taken to the bike shop with my only ransom being detailed instructions
to the guy who likes titanium on how to do home-anodizing.
Hung out at the shop for a while, got my front derailleur and left
brake tweaked ... talked shop with the others, looked over the rules
and came to the mutual conclusion that I could not enter the lower
level women's category but had to enter the advanced 60km race.
It was simple. As things stood there were four women in each race. If
there were five or more the first three got prize money. If there
were less than five only first place got money. Since the prize money
in advanced was higher it was decided that someone from the lower
category needed to go up and, in turn, if she did not win any money
herself, that second and third places would chip in and give her
something in return for making sure that _they_ got prize money.
Ah Ling and Xing Chunlei both refused to be the someone. Not capable
of doing 60km.
I wasn't feeling especially capable of doing 60km of racing what with
not having trained in the last 6 weeks and barely having ridden in the
last 3 but, well, someone had to do it. And it looked like that
someone was going to be me.
After I got home I prepared four water bottles. One coca-cola red
bull mix, two electrolyte tablet, orange juice, sprite mix, and one
red bull water mix. Then I went to sleep. So early that I woke up on
my own at 6:30am.
Out the door on a quest for safety pins for my bib-numbers. Found
them at the third shop I tried. Stopped by Wu's Bike Shop to gab and
show off my new frame.
Then to the starting line and sign-on. Didn't have to fight nearly as
hard as I thought I would to get moved up. Didn't let them know my
real reason. Only said that the lower category was me + Ah Ling +
Xing Chunlei + some girl from Hangzhou and I _always_ train with Ah
Ling and Xing Chunlei and always race with them and that it would be
boring. Which is true. It just wasn't the reason.
Mass start. Advanced women and advanced men together. Circuit race,
15km and change per lap. We've got 4 laps. They've got 5. Plus a
kilometer or so at each end to the start and finish. Common women and
common men also start together.
Nathan, the retired real pro I met at the Guangzhou Bikers' Festival,
and Jan from Holland who is perhaps 60 and who is also retired real
pro and their friends from Shenzhen are dismissive of the size of the
field. Lots of people signed up. Not so many people showed up.
"Okay guys," Dahlberg says at the line-up, "I want you to take it
easy, just like a training ride. Not enough people here to be trying
too hard." Of course most of the people he's not with don't speak
English so he can get away with giving out instructions to his
buddies.
I've never been in a pack like this before. Wow doesn't even begin to
describe this being in a pack feeling. I mean I've been in a group of
cyclists riding together but I've never been in a big group (more than
twenty) riding together at around 40kph. And even if our hand signals
aren't all the same everyone gets the idea about moving over for space
and it feels safe, safer than 20kph I've been in.
Home stretch of the first lap we've got a headwind. Nathan is leading
the paceline at 45kph and I just can't keep up. My heartrate is up
over 180bpm and I'm wheezing and things hurt.
Suddenly I've been dropped.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'm not going to make it. I
don't have a chance. But I rode 12 kilometers in a pack at around
40kph and that was really cool. I do neither and just keep riding.
I'm halfway down the backstretch of lap two when the common race
catches up to me. I catch on to their pack and get a good rest for a
while. Nice thing about a pack, it's both easier and faster than
alone at the same time.
At the first water zone one guy at the front manages to knock every
single bottle of water out of the hands of the people holding them
out. I tell him off for being rude. That sort of behavior could be
tactical. He pants that it wasn't on purpose and I give him a pull
off of my bottle before the motorcycles start pulling up alongside of
us and handing out water.
I stay with the common race until most of the way through the
homestretch of lap two when some guys start attacking and not only
manage to form a breakaway but also leave their whole category
scattered in little bunches all along the beach road.
At least I manage to catch up to and pass Ah Ling and Xing Chunlei
before I make the left turn for lap three and they head straight for
their finish line.
For the next five or six kilometers I ride with two of the last guys
in the common race. There is one guy who I spend a fair bit of time
drafting. I rest behind him and then I get in front and sprint as
hard as I can while he drafts me and we try to catch up with the next
closest guy. But I just don't have the energy for it.
Coming into the homestretch on lap three I'm alone again. As I make
the left turn onto the beach road I'm yelling at the top of my lungs
"way way way way way way way" because traffic is being let through and
I don't know if I've got the skill to turn and dodge vehicles even at
my current fairly reduced speed. I rarely take a turn going faster
than 22 or so. I'm coming off of a downhill and a tailwind and even
if I am alone I'm going 35.
I ride alone.
Homestretch lap three.
Backstretch lap four.
All alone.
Really satisfying thunk as I grab a water bottle from an outstretched
hand by the side of the road. Never had the opportunity to do that
before. Didn't know I could. Feels so good. Feels in control.
I do it again.
Most of the water is going over my head. My mouth is feeling a bit
dry but it's hard to drink from this kind of bottle and ride at the
same time and the plain water doesn't really taste right in my mouth.
Doesn't want to go down the way the flavored water I've still got just
a little of in my bottle does.
Homestretch lap four.
I catch up and pass the very last man in the common race. He started
after me (not sure how long after me) and I've just lapped him. Even
if he is kind of old and looks like he had no idea that the race was
going to be this level of race it's another thrill of satisfaction.
15km ahead of a guy on a flat course.
I'm dragging butt as I cross the finish. My energy level is coming in
spurts and bursts and I'll go from suddenly able to spin over 30kph
(in a headwind) to finding myself down at 20 and grunting with effort.
Average speed 30.2kph. Average heartrate over 2 hours and 9 minutes
is 165 beats per minute.
And I'm off my bike and I'm chugging water and it feels good. Another
water bottle over the head. I'm a little dizzy but it's one of those
moments when I just can't figure out how to say it in English let
alone Chinese. Suddenly I'm sitting on the curb. That wasn't exactly
on purpose. But it wasn't falling down either.
Good timing. I get to watch the men's advanced sprinting across the
finish line. I go up to Nathan and this time actually remember to
exchange contact info because he's interested in Tour of Hainan stuff
and I'm interested in some of the other bike stuff he's doing in
China.
More water.
Feng Quan (Hainan cyclist from east side of the island) helps me oh so
slowly walk over to the shade. I'm not feeling right and it shows
that I'm not feeling right. But I'm not feeling real bad either.
Some lady spectator gives up her seat on a wall by the side of a
manicured garden bed for me.
"Can I get you anything?"
"Salt. Get me salt." Have to explain a few times cause salt just
isn't one of those words I use too often and what I'm saying is
"salty" rather than "salt"
He's just gone and I'm drinking the plain water that still feels
better going over my head than it does going down my throat when I
start shivering.
Can't stop shivering.
I'm not c-c-c-cold.
Just chattering.
And shivering.
I think it was Liu's wife who took my gloves off and started massaging
my hands. I know it was Liu (Sanya, executive of something, insanely
wealthy) who gave me the 2-liter bottle of coca cola. He's telling me
to drink slowly but I can't drink slowly. It tastes sooooo good. And
I'm sucking so hard on the bottle that even with the amount of liquid
going down the bottle is compressing cause ain't any air getting in.
Feng Quan and the ambulance guy arrive together.
I'm given a one liter glass bottle of sterile saline solution for
injection. It tastes even better than the coca-cola. I've chugged a
third of it before it starts to taste even the slightest bit
unpleasant. I'm sitting in the back of the ambulance and sipping it
slowly when, at around half the bottle, it suddenly tastes vile.
I'm drinking saline solution.
YUCK.
I spit out the mouthful I've still got and go to water. This time
water tastes right in my mouth. But it still feels better being
poured over my head. Coca cola has gone back to being disgustingly
sweet.
Still not feeling right. Even though we're going to lunch nearby I'm
in no condition to get back on the bike and I ride to the restaurant
with a friend's mom. Walking up the stairs to the second floor is
rough. My leg hasn't hurt this bad since I was learning how to walk.
And my hip is screaming agony.
One of my low blood sugar indicators is raw tomatoes. Under normal
circumstances I loathe raw tomatoes. I'm not even especially fond of
large chunks of cooked tomato and raw tomatoes are just plain
disgusting. If I'm willing to eat tomatoes I'm probably hungry. If I
like raw tomatoes it's a good sign that something is wrong.
They were really yummy tomatoes.
We're having special chicken soup which is very yum. Since it's a
classy restaurant I suspect that the food actually is very good and
it's not just a case of hunger. A few times during the course of the
meal I suddenly feel a lot better. Around halfway through I'm good
enough that I can stretch. Another half hour passes and I've actually
got to pee. By now when I walk down the stairs I don't have to hang
on to the railing and my hip is no longer twanging in agony. By the
time the meal is over my hip has stopped hurting completely.
Then, like any sensible cyclist, I go for a massage.
Regarding bicycle related activities I've now done low blood sugar,
elevation sickness and oxygen deprivation, and low salt. What else
can I do to my body? And why do I like it so much?
-M