I traveled to Albuquerque the the other weekend for what turned out to be a pretty brutal, but awesome bike race at the Sandia Peak ski area. As you can see from the shot to the left I managed to put my knee into the ground pretty well. I actually lost some flesh on that one, but that was the least of my problems. Continuing the theme: 'Racing at Altitude Hurts' it was a high altitude suffer fest. The race consists of two loops of a 16 mile course. 8.5 miles up and 7.5 miles down. The climbs took me 1.25 hours and the descent takes about 20 minutes. Serious climbing. It starts at about 7,500 feet of elevation and goes to 10,678 feet. That is high, and the air is notably thin to the likes of me. It was awesome to race on the green, but man it hurt.
The course climbs between grassy ski runs and pine tree forests. Completely gorgeous and luckily cooler in the trees and higher up. Basically it was awesome, but really, really hurt. The altitude put some serious pain on me. To give persepective, it took me 3.5 hours to cover the 32 miles. A similar distance at an Arizona race takes me around 2:10 or 2:15. Wow, that is a big time diferential, so it gives a sense of the immensity of the climb and how steep and tough it is.
Awesomely, I came in 6th which I think was me best finish of the season.
There are a few more New Mexico races coming up next month. Hope I can improve on my finish.
One last shot taken just after the race. It sums up pretty well how I felt.........
