Race Report Julian Death March 2012 - Iceman Edition

Discussion in 'Racing and Training' started by jeff^d, Apr 16, 2012.

  1. jeff^d

    jeff^d Active Member

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    I was sitting on the couch on Sunday evening, drinking a beer and nursing my Vision Quest-abused legs, when my buddy Robert sent a simple text: "Julian Death March?".

    Robert had recently been bitten by the endurance bug, and amongst our inner friends we now call him the Martha Stewart of mountain biking, because he's always hatching up these crazy ideas for VQ training rides. In fact, he was even spotted with Martha on a recent climb up Sawpit/Rincon Truck Trail:

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    And then again when planning a Malibu Creek ride, that unfortunately never panned out:

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    Another text from Robert: "Middle of nowhere. Minimal support. Good chance for failure. What are we waiting for?"

    As the work week passed, plans continued to develop. We watched the weather forecast and noted winter storm warnings, high wind warnings, while at the same time continuing to make plans to ride the Death March. It was almost as if there were two separate story lines being played out... that of, 1) common sense, noting the horrendous weather conditions and remarking that we should just stay home, and 2) making hotel reservations, prepping our gear, and sending an RSVP for the Friday night dinner in Julian, with presentation by local endurance superstar Mary Metcalf-Collier (though she would never say so herself).

    Fast forward to Friday night, we're rolling into Julian and it's 34F with freezing rain coming down. Is it freezing rain, or sleet? I can never remember the difference... all I know, is that I'm thankful for all wheel drive at this point. We have a large hotel room with two queen beds and cinder block walls, at a cute little place called the Apple Tree Inn. The wind howls outside and we turn on the tiny wall heater to full blast, not impressed by the heater's BTU capabilities. Robert makes a comment about how cold the beds look, and that in the morning, the beds will seem so warm and we won't want to get up.

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    5:00 am comes pretty early Saturday. Robert is right -- the two queen beds that seemed so cold the night before are now the coziest you could imagine, and my cell phone alarm won't shut up. We're up and finishing the final pack of our bags, filling our bottles, checking air in the tires. We load up in the car and roll over to the Julian Coffee House for breakfast. Robert enjoys some Irish Oatmeal and I go for a traditional bacon and eggs dish. We make some side comments and jokes about the weather being horrible, neither one of us realizing what lay ahead.

    The start is delayed an hour due to weather. Snow seems to be flying horizontally through the air. After mingling around the small town of Julian, drinking a few too many coffees and getting my front brake bled by Enrico with Seki's Cycles (thanks man!), we're gathered around listening to Rich give the final start line speech. The roads are slushy and I'm cold, still thinking of my cozy queen bed at the Apple Tree Inn.

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    The course had been re-routed to drop us down S2 into Anza Borrego, with hopes that the desert weather will treat us better than the crap mountain hand we'd been dealt that morning. Imagine: 5 miles of curvy, paved mountain road descent, slush on the roads, temps in the mid-30s. Sounds fantastic, right? Then, about a mile into the descent, it starts to sleet. When you read the word, "sleet", don't picture freezing rain. Instead, picture tiny little razor blades slicing into your face while you try to control your bike at 30 mph. Yes, "sleet" takes on a different meaning when you think of it like that.

    We hit the dirt and start climbing Rodriguez. It's muddy and nasty, but hot damn! it starts to warm up and the rain/sleet combo has ceased. It's not hard to forget how painful climbing is after a descent like that. Pretty soon the climbing ended and we descended back down to S2... a descent that was muddy and nasty, but hot damn! oh so fun. Splashing through mud puddles, carving the desert fire road and pumping through the ruts and potholes put a giant grin on my face.

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    At S2, we cruised some pavement before hitting Pinyon Mountain Rd. Gusty winds still blew us around, but blue skies took the place of hail and sleet, a weather change I was none-too-thankful for.

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    Pinyon Mountain Rd was uneventful. I didn't stop and take any pictures, just suffered the 4 mile, 1500' climb with a grin on my face and numb feet. Yes, at this point I realized I couldn't feel my feet. Although my Garmin said 58F, the winds were still on the stronger side of the spectrum and we'd realize that on our descent back down Pinyon Mountain Rd. Contrary to popular belief, just because the Garmin says -6% grade doesn't mean you don't have to pedal.

    After Pinyon, we did a little desert fireroad cruising out to Ghost Mountain. By "little desert fireroad cruise" I mean -- try to ride a false flat on loose sand while your feet are numb, in the howling wind. Sounds like a grand time, eh? You can see how happy Robert is in this photo.

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    At least it was pretty out there. I mean, really pretty. Like, really.

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    After the Ghost Mountain tour, we met back up with S2 and cruised the pavement back to our old friend, Oriflamme Canyon. Oriflamme is a pleasant little Jeep road that climbs 1600' in a bit short of 3.5 miles. Sounds like a sweet little gem of a road, except that the winds kept knocking you off your bike and there were various rivers of water flowing down through the rutted soil, because of the rain and sleet (or hail) that never ceased to fall from the sky. In fact, Oriflamme more appropriately resembled a creek bed at this point, and not a fireroad. I took no pictures during this period, because I couldn't feel my hands and I also wasn't confident my camera would survive if I pulled it out of my pack. I also realized again at this point that my feet were numb, something I had forgotten on the Ghost Mountain desert joy ride. Continually I punched my shifter hoping for a lower gear, only to find no cogs left and wondering how in the hell anyone could climb this on a singlespeed. I made it to the very top before the clay forced me to walking my bike... three spins of the cranks without moving and I executed a nonchalant dismount into hike-a-bike mode. I may have fallen over in the mud and screamed an obscenity, but nobody noticed, so I probably didn't fall over. Exactly.

    Again: descending and smiles! A few short punch climbs and we found ourselves at the base of S2, ready to begin the paved climb back up to Julian. I saw the race director Rich, and he said we'd be climbing back up the pavement because of the poor condition/snow/slush of the dirt climb Banner Rd. Thank the maker! This oil bath is going to feel so good. I've got such a bad case of dust contamination, I can barely move!

    The paved climb felt like a cake walk, and despite some annoying winds in Julian, I rolled into the muddy field almost 7 hours after I started, and drank a Coke. It was the most delicious Coke I've had in my entire life. My bike was a mess, making new noises that told me it had just as much fun as me that day. And hey, I still couldn't feel my feet.

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    All in all, a fun/painful day of enjoyment/suffering on the bike, and something I'd definitely come back for again!

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  2. GP_pilot

    GP_pilot Epic Builder

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    It's too bad the weather didn't cooperate to ride the original route, as you'd really enjoy this area. But you know who to look up for your own personalized death march, oh, and bring a tent...
     
  3. GeoRob

    GeoRob Member

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    Good times Jeff! Great report!
     
  4. ericfoltz

    ericfoltz Active Member

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    Good times. Made my top 5 hardest days on a bike list.

    That headwind from Blair all the way back to Julian really increased the suck factor.
     
  5. onlyontwo

    onlyontwo Not smart enough to shift

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    Jethro, maybe you are still burfly.

    Cheers.
     
  6. shudder

    shudder no big deal

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    I just noticed my feet are numb now... Great report, Jeff!

    - shud
     
  7. kdinger

    kdinger New Member

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    Nice ride and report!

    My camera is waterproof, but I also only have pictures from the start and the Pinyon Mtn. section because those were the only times my fingers were capable of operating a camera. As to climbing Oriflamme on a singlespeed into a 40 mph headwind: don't know about others but I really didn't - I must have walked 1/2 to 2/3 of the main part of the climb both times.

    -Keith
     

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