Sunday was the American Zofingen in the Mohonk region of the Catskills. The Zofingen name is taken from Zofingen, Switzerland. Supposedly there is a series in which the distances are a common competition length and yearly they hold world duathlon competitions over there.
Saturday before Bob/Dad and I/Randy headed down to pick up the packet info, and scope out the course. We drove the loop which would make up the 84 mile bike leg of the long course when ridden 3 laps. It was amazing. Picturesque views, tour de france style hairpin turns, adventuresome down hills, and some serious long climbs. Upon getting a good look at the surfaces, turns and terrain, we took to the hotel to prep the bicycles and hunt down some dinner.
The ol’ Anvil TT bike was selected as the weapon of choice, cleaned up tweaked and readied. After a brief spin we asked the front desk the whereabouts of recommendable Italian food may be and were directed to either Rocco’s which reported had excellent spaghetti and meatballs or Rino’s which was reasonably priced and had nice full meals with homemade sauce etc. We opted for Rino’s, it was very good, quite healthy tasting.
To bed early and up and out at about 6am. The beautiful vistas and views were gone and replaced by heavy fog and drizzle “at least it won’t be too hot”. Which turned out to be a good thing because in the 7 hours and 19 minutes I had to consume a lot of heed, water, gels, powerbars, some of an apple, I can’t imagine how much more liquid would have been necessary if it were hotter.
It was only super rainy for one lap of the bike. The first 5 mile trail run went by pretty quickly, it had some tough hills, 2 main ones and then you loop down deceptively near the transition area and then the trail whisks you away for one more hill. I came out of the run 2nd into transition, and apparently Josh Beck is infamous for hanging out in the transition zone as I was the first out on the bike, though he rode past shortly after I got out on the road. The bike course was wet and hilly with some wild descents, I took the first loop easy not wanting to go sliding out of control on any of those descents and got a decent feel for it. I came through the first loop in third, Josh Beck was up 9minutes, the man in the pink kit was up 4min. The next loop I decided to have some fun with it, hammering the downhills and flats a bit more and getting better approaches for the hills and overall better maintenance of momentum.
The ride concluded with a gravel/mud trail from the road back into the park which was gloriously muddy. It felt like cyclocross but had the added awesomeness of the disc wheel woosh! I got back into the transition in second overall, grabbed my pile of powerbar snacks, half a bagel and quickly headed out for the run. The race director announced that I was second over all and in it for the money ($300 for second). So for the next 15miles I had to hold off the man in the pink kit whom I felt was closing in on me. The run was pretty brutal, although I tried to convince myself otherwise. I soon found didn’t quite have the saliva to swallow anything larger than basically crumbs of the bagel but I tried anyhow just to get something a little more solid to soak up all the gels and liquids in the stomach and got a decent bite with some help from a cup at the water stop. I walked a couple steps here and there on some of the monster inclines but mostly kept trying to keep momentum going in my favor.
I widened the gap on third and was having a lot of fun on the down hills, it had become my strategy to just make it up the hills and run as straight as possible and then use the downhills. The final bit was a welcome end and I finished strong, could faintly pick out the sound of music in the fog and as I neared the outline of the finish pavilion became visible and that was that! Phew!
There was a solid spread of burgers, turkey burgers (best turkey burgers I’ve ever had) toppings, cookies, brownies, beet beer and other from the Rhinebeck Brewing Company, water, heed, and an excellent massage therapist.
So all and all it was a very fun challenging day. Finishing up 2nd in the long course.
Next up: Tour de Syracuse!
– also – Sunday after the Road Race Mello Velo / Middle Ages / BTB post race party!
