Vq/cc

[KeepsWhatHappens]

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[rushak]

Originally Posted by donkey

Actually....yeah....that was my Girlfriend, 2 friends of ours that had just finished racing and 2 small children in the Volkswagen Jetta(the 2nd car that he totalled).

Everyone in the car was fine....but I think they'd all like to tell him that Live Oak is probably not the best place to be driving 80MPH on a busy(really busy?) Saturday afternoon. WTF

Congrats on a solid VQ ride....sounds like you put in a really solid effort.

B

I'm sorry to hear that they were involved. He feels really bad about it and is very sorry. He knows it was a very stupid thing to do. I hope your GF and friends can find it in their hearts to forgive him. All he wanted to do was see me finish the race. I'm just glad everyone is ok. Definitely not so fun news to hear after finishing the VQ.

I can't believe I continued on especially with all the pain I'm in today. Funny thing is all the pain is in my upper body. Legs feel fine. Should be the other way around.

Take care,

J

[BrewMaster]

Originally Posted by KeepsWhatHappens

Sorry I missed you Sam. Guess I had my nose into the back of my camera too much today. Would have loved to trade good beers with you.

It's all good John. We'll have plenty of chances to drink beer together. Your photos look awesome and I think it was time well spent.

[bvader]

A couple more thoughts on reading through the reports...

Originally Posted by Sprockethead

Once on the MD, I was in awe of the sun breaking above the clouds. Ahead of me, I could see riders on the ridge with the fog rolling over them. Below was a blanket of puffy clouds, it was very surreal and the song playing on my iPod was Don't Stop Believing by Journey. I was feeling good. ....

When I was getting pretty tired on a section on the final ascent to the peak my iPod decided to play "Its a Long Way to the Top" (If you Wanna Rock and Roll)" it couldn't have been more perfect and definitely got me there.

Anyone else have some perfectly time music?

Originally Posted by Pho'dUp

RR: It hurt.
I was cracking early on the pavement up Maple Springs. The Perpeteum wasn't doing it for me and it had been chewing up my stomach all morning. I ate a baked potato, and then started slamming GU's instead. I just felt like I had no energy and that the pavement would just never end.

Nice to meet you Pho'dUp. I was hanging out with you guys at the finish line while you were telling the perpetuem and potato story. My stomach wouldn't have been happy either. I was the guy saying I was Having visions of Hash Browns and the "Tomorrow morning I would be seeking out a world class breakfast Burrito" BTW it was pretty good! Anyways had I been thinking I would of mentioned STR ...but of course I wasn't thinking

[Pho'dUp]

Originally Posted by bvader

Nice to meet you Pho'dUp. I was hanging out with you guys at the finish line while you were telling the perpetuem and potato story. My stomach wouldn't have been happy either. I was the guy saying I was Having visions of Hash Browns and the "Tomorrow morning I would be seeking out a world class breakfast Burrito" BTW it was pretty good! Anyways had I been thinking I would of mentioned STR ...but of course I wasn't thinking

Hey nice meeting Bvader! Breakfast Burrito yum, it's not too late for that and Hash browns this morning. Hmmm, I wonder if you were guy whose goodie bag I saw that at aid station #1 that was filled with a Taco Bell Burrito?

[bvader]

Originally Posted by Pho'dUp

Hey nice meeting Bvader! Breakfast Burrito yum, it's not too late for that and Hash browns this morning. Hmmm, I wonder if you were guy whose goodie bag I saw that at aid station #1 that was filled with a Taco Bell Burrito?

Nope not me I like to keep my hash browns down. If ate grease like that on a ride it would be an immediate reject.

[allison]

Originally Posted by donkey

I had a feeling you guys would do great.....and I bet you $10 that you're back next year.

B

$10?!

Besides, not gonna happen I think I want to spectate! And Justin has never had a pressing desire to ride either of them

He did say he'd do the Coup again, since we would not have to worry about cutoffs or WHT

Nice seeing you at Beek's!

[Padre]

I DNFd on my 4th VQ. I felt strong out of the gate and all signs pointed to me being able to better my time by a few minutes. When I began drinking HEED out of my pack I got an odd feeling. Puke. Each time I attempted to drink, I'd get a puke/heave feeling. I tried to make myself puke over and over and couldn't. Tried to suck down gel and would gag also. Getting to Motorway, developed a headache...no big deal...that's ridin'.

Climbing Maple, thing's weren't any better. Heart rate was normal but I couldn't get much fluid down without wanting to puke. Not good. Descending to UHJ my headache was flourishing and my vision was starting to get...weird.

As I hiked down to HJ behind Ned, my hearing started to get funny also...echoes and stuff. I made my decision starting the HJ descent to call it. In the summer of 2006, I almost passed away from heat exhaustion. I lost 14lbs in one ride and wound up with a near hospital/death experience. No thanks.

Pulled in to Aid #2 in just under 5 hours I think and reported my DNF. Grabbed a moving blanket out of Hugh's monster truck and stood there to wait for my wife to finish the Quest. After an hour of standing there, my heart rate was still over 100bpm. Uh oh.

When my wife blasted through, I threw the blanket back in the truck, jumped on my bike and rode after her. When I caught up, she gave me the most crazy stare. She always finished at least 45m -3 hours faster than me....so she didn't know what to think! After 5 seconds of silence...she said..."Wow, you're having a good day!" Haha...I filled her in on the situation.

Her day kept getting crappy as her chain would eject every 500 yards or so. Eventually she finished and still bested her time of last year by 10 min or so.

Beautiful day though!

Madre cleaned out my Camelback last night. Turns out, I drank only 20oz over the 5 hours. Yikes!

Great riding to all the STR folks out there!

[queenwilhelmina]

After a nice 12 hour sleep, I'm ready to post my RR!

First, a quick timeline of events. A year ago, as a MTB newb of 3 months, I was pedaling around O'Neil and Trabuco with a couple friend. We rode Trabuco to the HJ trailhead and learned about some event going on called the "Vision Quest." We chatted with a guy up there and he told us about the distance, climbing, etc. and we just sat for a while just watching all the excitement. I thought to myself, "wow, I wonder if I'll EVER be able to do something like that."

About 6 months later, at the newbie ride at Whiting Ranch, Gene was telling me about the Counting Coup. After describing it, he said, "you could do it."

Knowing that someone had that kind of confidence in me really got me thinking about it. So when it came time to sign up, I registered as soon as I could. At that time, I KNEW I was not ready for something like this. But I also knew that if I worked hard for the next few months, I WOULD be ready.

So the next few months I did my best to train for this event. There were definitely some discouraging times, but I stuck with it. I actually enjoyed all the training rides I did, because I got to meet and ride with some really great people.

March 1st. 3:45am. I woke up feeling AWESOME. I thought getting up at that hour would be difficult, but as soon as my alarm went off, I was wide awake. We left the house at about 4:30 and arrived at B-star a little before 5am. I was happy that it wasn't as freezing as I thought it would be. It was drizzling lightly, but it wasn't too much of an issue.

Waiting at the starting "line," I gulped down a chocolate Hammer gel (yum!) and half a banana. I was ready to go.

The first 20 minutes of the ride was frustrating, because my little commuter light wasn't clamped on tight enough. I had to hold it in place which prevented me from shifting. Regardless, I was still happy to finally be doing the CC.

There were lots of familiar faces along Blackstar, and it was cool to see you all pass me on your way to Beeks.
I rode alongside Vickie for a short time, but when we got to Beeks I stopped to shed a layer and she kept truckin'. It was great seeing Hugh up there btw.

All the way up Blackstar and throughout the Main Divide, I felt GREAT. The weather was good, and the views from the Main Divide above the clouds was absolutely beautiful. I was so happy to be out there riding and seeing the sun rise. I was smiling, a lot.

Finally I reached the Motorway and got some words of encouragement from a smiling OMR and continued on my way. Coming down the Motorway wasn't as rewarding as I thought it would be (very loose and rocky), so I was glad when that part was over.

Pulling up to Aid Station #1, I was so happy to see Andy and Heather. Andy was so nice and helpful and even filled up my CamelBak for me. Heather made sure I was Clif Bar'ed up before heading up Maple Springs. Thanks you guys!

Going up Maple Springs, I was starting to feel the pain. Thankfully, it was mostly just my ass and knee hurting. I thought my back and shoulders would be hurting, but I've been working on strengthening those and I think that actually paid off. Probably the worst part about MS was that I was starting to feel bloated from my plethora of Hammer products I'd been consuming. I set my Garmin to chirp every 20 minutes to take a couple sips of my super juice, but I decided to go a couple chirps without slurping because I didn't feel like I needed any more.

I rode with a nice little group up to 4 corners. One guy was named Hector, and another guy stopped every once in a while just to take pictures. He was just there to enjoy the ride, and I thought that was cool.

I made the cutoff at 4-corners by about a half hour, so I took a short break to stretch and give my butt a rest. Heading up to the peak, I actually felt pretty good. The most memorable part for me was that fast section about half way up where you get a quick break from climbing. It was sunny and beautiful, the air felt good, and pushing in a hard gear through that section was AWESOME! I had a HUGE grin and felt great.

I was so happy when I reached the peak. I took another quick break and stretched, then headed down.

UHJ sort of did me in. I tumbled once, and walked a lot of the sections. My technical skills are OK, but my confidence on that part wasn't great. So I just tried to keep it cool and walked what I didn't feel comfortable riding.

Lower HJ was pretty fun. The dirt was in great condition, and although I walked a couple sections, it didn't take me too long to get to the bottom.

The stream crossings were probably my least favorite part. I managed to get my feet soaking wet on 2 of the crossings and was only able to ride through 1 of them.

After the stream crossings, and ALMOST to the trailhead, I took a pretty good digger. I sort of endo-ed on some random rock and fell on my knee. It took me a couple minutes to recollect myself, stop being teary-eyed, and tell myself just to finish the ride already. So I got back on my bike, darted towards the trailhead, and pedaled hard all the way to the finish line.

Crossing that finish line felt soooo good. I'll never forget all the cheers and hearing my name and seeing so many familiar faces. My mom was even there! She came all the way from La Habra just to see me finish. I think that's what made me all teary-eyed when I finished.

I think Jason was also relieved since he was seeing so many injuries and mechanical issues. Thankfully, I had no mechanicals, and only a couple scrapes/cuts.

I was really looking forward to hanging out with everyone after the event, but I was so cold from getting my feet wet at the stream crossings that I couldn't stop shivering. I just wanted to get home and take a hot shower and relax.

Today, I am happy and thankful for many reasons. Not just for finishing the CC, but for all the good times and people who have helped me reach this goal. I especially want to thank Gene, who had confidence in me from the start - even before I was ready for something like this. Gene, I just want you to know that I probably wouldn't have done this if it weren't for you.

I also want to thank Jason, my husband, for building me an awesome bike, helping to maintain it and fix all my issues, and for understanding when I had to do all these training rides. I love you.

Thanks again to everyone who helped out at this event, and for everyone's encouragement. I can't wait do it all again next year!

[ThinkFast]

Originally Posted by Jordansrealm

I had to post this one of Justin coming in to the finish... pure pleasure or pure pain... the choice is yours This image truly says "and I'm spent".

What a great picture. Certainly how most of us felt when we finished. Thanks.

[Impy]

Originally Posted by queenwilhelmina

All the way up Blackstar and throughout the Main Divide, I felt GREAT. The weather was good, and the views from the Main Divide above the clouds was absolutely beautiful. I was so happy to be out there riding and seeing the sun rise. I was smiling, a lot.

Coolest thing ever.

Great ride report and write up.

[CC]

Great to read everyones RR. Sounds like everyone did what they came out to accomplish. Really really awesome to hear the voices inside overcoming the obstacles...whether they were mental for physical.

I had to pull out this year, but I hope to do it next year! Terrific job everyone!