Team Mango

BREAKING NEWS: Mango Johnny Methane single-handedly completes this year’s Flat Tire Festival, er uh, I mean the Inland Empire Century, without the use of pace lines, supplemental oxygen, or EPO. Read the full account HERE

Having languished all summer due to a nagging hip problem, I gave up mountain biking racing this year. I became sort of an armchair athlete, hearing the stories of my fellow Mangos — John T. competing in his second Ironman triathlon, John M. completing his second STP double-century ride, and Scott and Susana doing a three month bike tour of Europe. I maintained a limited training regimen, though, and started going to a physical therapist, which improved my hip’s range of motion greatly. I decided to try and get back into shape and picked a sprint triathlon (my second ever) as my goal — the Black Diamond Triathlon.

My road bike was out of commission until I could fix the seat post, so my core training consisted of (almost) daily bike commutes on my mountain bike with John M. He would ride his road bike, so I managed to build up a sort of competitive advantage trying to keep up with him on my heavier mountain bike with knobby tires (to John’s credit, 9 times out of 10 I would end up drafting him as he pulled me into downtown).

After arriving at Nolte State Park, I set up in the transition area, neatly organizing my gear for the various race legs. The race was to begin at 9:00a, so I got my wetsuit on 20 minutes beforehand and headed to the lake to warm up. “Warm up” turned out to be a figurative term, as the water was about 60 degrees. Even with the wetsuit, that was mighty brisk for a morning swim. The bulk of the racers were in the water awaiting the start, but the race official didn’t show up until much later. We all stood around in the water muttering about how freakin’ cold it was.

At 9:20, they finally counted down to the start, and we were off. I let the bulk of the swimmers by me before I leapt into the churning water. I kept my head up and did the breaststroke and sidestroke until the pack thinned out. As had happened at my first tri in 2003, I soon started hyperventilating. But unlike my panic that time, I knew that this might happen and was mentally prepared for it. I eased things way down as much as I could and stuck to the sidestroke and paddling on my back for the first 1/4 mile. I noticed that a fair number of other swimmers were doing the same thing, so I didn’t feel so bad.

Rounding the far buoy, I started to feel more at ease and started a slow crawl — lifting my head every 5th or 6th stroke to sight the next buoy. The shoreline never seemed to get closer, but sure enough I continued my barge-like swimming and reached terra firma. I had hoped to do the swim in 18:00 (factoring in the expected hyperventilation), but completed this leg in 19:21 (solidly in the mid-pack of 230 competitors).

From the shore, T1 consisted of a run up a steep hill to the transition area, where I stripped off my wetsuit, and donned my cycling shoes, shirt and helmet, and ran off with my bike. My T1 time was listed as 3:00 — curiously the exact same time as half of the others. I’m guessing that there was a problem with the timing chip reading at either the entry or exit of T1, so they gave everyone an average time until the problem was fixed. (In a follow-up conversation with the race organizer, they did in fact have a temporary malfunction with the timing equipment at the entry into T1, so they simply assigned an average time for T1 and then calculated swim times accordingly).

Having trained exclusively on my mountain bike, I felt quite nimble on my road bike. The bike course was an out-and-back on fairly flat county roads with a few short, rolling hills. I cranked it up to about 25mph and passed a huge number of riders throughout the 11-mile ride, and was only passed once. After flailing across the lake, it was refreshing to be on my no-name, steel road bike passing one of these. My bike time was 33:14 (the 26th fastest time out of the entire pack, or the top 10%!), meeting my goal to average 20mph.

T2 went slightly quicker, as I simply had to drop off my bike and helmet and change into running shoes (in 1:57).

The 2.8 mile run consisted of two laps of trail running around Deep Lake. It was mostly flat, but had a couple short ups and downs. Half a mile into the run, the need to urinate was overpowering. Since I’m not a seasoned enough triathlete, I opted not to piss myself, and simply picked the nearest tree on which to relieve myself. I must have been way over hydrated, as it seemed like I’d never stop peeing. I’m guessing I lost a good 45 second watering that tree. As I started running again, a woman ran up behind me and asked “are you 5 pounds lighter now?”. I kept up a respectable 8:45 pace for the run, completing it in 25:00 and turning in a finishing time of 1:22:33 — 2:30 short of my goal of 1:20:00.

Overall I placed 68th out of 230 (see results here) — almost the top quarter! But in my age group (35-40), I placed a pitiful 12th out of 15. Even given my recurring swim problems, I have to say that the sprint triathlon has become a favorite goal of mine — a nice departure from all of the biking I do. I’d like to work up to doing an Olympic-length tri sometime soon, but for now, it’s the start of cyclocross season!

road biker extraordinaire, johnny methane completes his second one-day STP ride in stellar fashion (especially compared to last year). read the latest HERE.

(the following includes photos i took of the race after mine just to give a flavor of what the races are like).

this past sunday i entered my first ever cyclocross race. although i had never done any cyclocross riding, per se, it wasn’t too distant from the mountain bike racing i’ve done in the past. a few weeks ago, milkshake and i had gone out to a cyclocross race near auburn to see first hand what they were like (neither of us had ever seen such a race in person). we were both instantly intrigued.

the first time my schedule cleared up, i decided to give it a shot. sunday’s race (the 7th race in an 8-race series) was out at south seatac park, where i had done several mountain bike races, so i knew the terrain quite well.

i haven’t gone out and spent a couple grand on a new cyclocross bike (yet), so i rode my mountain bike — which is allowed at the races as long as one removes the bar ends from the handlebars. i was definitely in the minority, but for my race category, about a third of the riders were on mountain bikes (even less so for the more advanced categories).

i raced in the men’s master C 35+ category, which is essentially the beginner category. there were 34 riders in my category. the riders who had been competing in the previous races in the series (about 20 of them) staged at the start line in order of their current point standings. the rest of us were virgins and relinquished to the back of the pack from the get-go.

at the gun, we all sprinted uphill on a paved road, then a long straight-away for about a quarter mile before entering into the singletrack. i was about mid-pack at this point. there had been a lot of rain the past week. it was sunny but still very cold, and the trail was still quite moist, with a lot of standing water. just after the start of the singletrack was the first hill. it was covered in deep sand and we all dismounted and hoofed up the short rise. the trail twisted around pretty tamely, with the occasional slippery patch of mud on a turn.

later there were two long flat patches of deep sand. most of the guys on cyclocross bikes with their skinny tires dismounted and ran through the sand. however, with the fat tires on my mountain bike, i was able to power through the sand and make some good progress (saving time by not having to dismount and then remount). i got to wondering if this was some sort of cyclocross faux pas, as these obstacles are purposely set up to force the riders to dismount.

halfway through the lap was another hill, this time about 20 feet up. the pack was still pretty dense, so the key was to avoiding being smacked by the guy next you when he picked up his bike and slung it over his shoulder. up we went, then curved around to a long descent back down.

at this point on the first lap, a rider was in front of me was slowing down a bit. i decided to make my move and pass him, so i stood up on the pedals to power past him. unbeknownst to me was the fact that the first set of plank barriers was just ahead. i saw a guy dismount just ahead, saw the barriers, and slammed on the brakes just in time to dismount and hop over. (i wonder if anyone ever misses these planks completely and barrels right through them?).

more twisting around, another gradual but sandy climb on the back side of the course, and within ten minutes was back at the start/finish line and ready to go through all the obstacles again. the race was three laps, so i was going to be doing this for about 30 minutes. this is (or should have been) a sprint for the entire race, but i am used to 1-1/2 to 2 hour mountain bike races that are based more on endurance. so, at my weenie mountain biker pace, i found that i was almost well-rested by the end of the race.

i placed 22 out of 34, and since my expectations were quite low for this my first race, i was pleased with the results. in the end, it was quite a lot of fun, very muddy, and i’ll definitely do it again. i need to work on getting comfortable revving my heart rate up sooner and pushing myself harder for the shorter time period, but i’ve got until next season to do that.

a few weeks ago, suzy diesen was going to lead a climb of mount thompson, which i had attempted the week prior. i signed up, only to be thwarted by the weather again. so last week, the four of us on the climb regrouped and talked about climbing the beckey route on liberty bell. the weather was looking very cold with possible snow, so on john mackey’s suggestion, we opted for the more pleasant weather of icicle canyon near leavenworth. forecasts were called for partly cloudy and 60’s. chris kirsten, who was in our original group, had to bow out of the climb, but we picked up yves arrouye at the last minute.

unfortunately, because of schedules and logistics, we weren’t able to carpool to the climb, so we drove four gas guzzlers to leavenworth. suzy, john and i arrived at different times, but all camped at eightmile campground. i woke up at 6:00a and quickly found john walking past my campsite. he discovered that morning that he had forgotten to pack his helmet, possibly jeapordizing his chances of joining us on the climb.

the three of us convened at the snow creek trailhead. we went through our options for the helmet predicament. climbing with an odd number would be inconvenient but do-able. so, while we were still waiting for yves to show up, john drove into town to check out when the climbing shop would open. we returned shortly and said it would open at 9:00a. so we devised a plan where the three of us would start up the trail with both rope and both racks, and john would wait in town for the shop to open, buy a helmet, then zip back to the trailhead and sprint up the route with his light pack. no prob.

suzy, yves and i left the trailhead about 7:15a. we weren’t in a huge rush, so we took our time, doddling up the trail, and stopping every so often to scope out the route whenever snow creek wall came into view. we found the climber’s trail about 2 miles in. shortly after fording snow creek via a slippery log crossing, we entered into a boulder field. there were a few cairns to follow, but we lost sight of those and continued navigating on our own. it turned into a bit of a bushwack, but it was still fairly tame. halfway up the boulder field, john radioed us to say he got a new helmet and was heading up the trail.

at the base of the climb, we geared up, still taking our sweet time while waiting for john to arrive. suzy and yves paired up on one rope and would start the climb first, and i would pair up with john when he arrived and follow them. indeed, john did fly up the trail in no time at all, aided by the fact that he was able to stay on the real climber’s trail and avoid the bushwacking.

yves led pitch #1, which started as a 4th class scramble, then transitioned to a short 5.0 section up to a scraggly tree anchor. i led this pitch following those two. by the time i reached the tree, suzy was leading pitch #2 — a sustained 5.7 — and complaining loudly about some water that was trickling down the rock, making for slippery climbing. because of this, she placed copius pro along the way. i belayed john up and he, yves and i crowded at the belay station. as she was reaching the top of #2, suzy started yelling “ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!” from above. the three of us saw something hurtling down towards us, so we all ducked as it went sailing past. suzy yelled “shit, i just lost my radio”. i looked down to spot the radio still careening down the rock face. i followed it with my eyes and managed to spot its final resting place. we guessed that it was toast, but i made a note of its location so we could at least check it out when we got back down.

suzy belayed yves up pitch #2, and john led up immediately after him. the section of wet rock was enough to keep john from catching up to yves at the next belay station. eventually it was my turn to follow, and face the slippery rock. the water occured at the crux of #2, and upon arriving at yet another crowded belay station, i exclaimed to john how glad i was that he had to lead that one.

pitch #3 was more sustained 5.7 climbing, starting with a lieback dihedral, then an unprotectable ramp, then another dihedral. many of the moves involved slabs which were highly polished and not very grippy. yves led #3, followed by suzy, then i led. at the crux of this pitch, where the first dihedral transitioned to ramp, i couldn’t find any place for pro. instead of hanging out and getting psyched out, i ended up getting through the crux, then running the rope out about 25’ before placeing the next piece. also, suzy — now on pitch #4 — managed to dislodge a couple rocks above us, and we all yelled “ROCK!” repeatedly to john below us. john radioed up to us “what the hell was that?!”, to which i responded dryly, “a rock”. john reported hearing the softball-size rock jet past his head as he ducked for cover. good thing he had that shiny new helmet!

pitch #4 was yet more sustained 5.7 climbing on more slabby dihedrals. suzy led, followed by yves, then john led, followed by me. the crux of this pitch — and i would argue of the whole climb — happened right at the top. again, i thanked john for leading this pitch, as the last move was a slightly overhanging, off-balance crack involving a foot-jamb, some slippery slabs, and some rounded handholds above. after trying to figure it out for a couple minutes, i finally found a small lip for my foot that enable me to step up far enough to find a decent handhold, and voila, we were all at the top…

…of the route anyway. the route ends at the “country club ramp” which runs across the face of snow creek wall. earlier in the day, we had talked about following the “white slabs” route with a climb of “umbrella tree” — a 2-pitch 5.7 route that would take us to the top of the wall. but as it was now 4:30p, we were running out of daylight and decided to rappel back down the climbing route. one single rope rappel, and two *full* double rope rappels got us to the base of the climb.

we packed up, and headed out. i directed suzy to her fallen radio. we found one battery on the way, then the body of the radio, still looking in good shape, but missing the other two batteries and the plastic battery compartment cover.

we all found the climbers trail on the way out which made our exit much more enjoyable then our entry, and we were back to the trailhead just as it was getting dark at 6:30p.

all in all, an excellent climb given the level of challenge and the wonderful weather. on route, there were numerous small problems that with a little thought and perserverance, we all managed to figure out and overcome. for more photos of the climb, click here.

thanks to suzy for leading this climb and helping me get one step closer to graduation! only one ice climb to go…

UPDATE: suzy reported that with a little duct tape in place of the battery cover, her radio, which fell probably 150 feet, is working fine!