Patterson Pass RR- Mark Foster - 35+ Cat 5 Report

Race: Patterson Pass 8-8-10
Course: 2 Loops for a total of 46 miles and 4400 ft of climbing
Conditions: Windy and around 70 degrees F
Class: Masters 35+ Cat 5
Coretechs racer: Mark C. Foster

Patterson Pass Road Race is not one you do for fun….it’s not fun. If you’re not a good climber you probably won’t do very well, but you’ll suffer either way. My first ever bicycle race was Patterson in 09’ and I swore I’d never race a bicycle again for the rest of my life. Meeting Andrew and joining the Coretechs team made me break my promise. He convinced me racing can be fun and after Copper Town, I will agree that he’s right. I felt I had to ride Patterson again though, to redeem myself after last year’s miserably painful failure. Last year I made a lot of mistakes, but basically suffered in the battle for fifth place for two hours and then cramped up so profusely with only four miles to go that I was reduced to first gear and eight miles per hour on the flat. People were passing me at the end like I was chained to a post. I finished 15th in 09’. It took me a long time to fully recover because obviously I twisted myself completely inside out.

Now here I was a year later, smarter and better trained. The weather was twenty-five degrees cooler this year and you could tell by the windmills that the wind was howling over the top of the first climb….Yipee! I needed to be able to keep up with the leaders over the pass and try to recover and have something for the finish. The fear of cramping was etched into my brain so I bought “enduralites” to try to get through this miserable race without locking up somewhere before the finish. I also carried other food which I was going to force myself to ingest. Water was critical last year, so I was going to force myself to drink both bottles before the neutral feed zone so I could grab two more and be hydrated for a strong finish…I didn’t do that last year…to my demise.

I’m not a great climber by any stretch, but would classify myself as pretty good for a Cat 5 guy my age(48). To put it in perspective for you bay area riders, I can break 19 minutes up Old La Honda but not back to back. I’d been trying to climb recently, but seemed to have worked too hard the week before Patterson, ‘cause I was feeling kind of blown out and “bonky”. So I rode super easy Thursday, nothing Friday, and an easy spin Saturday before the race. By Sunday morning I felt OK, not great, but not bad either. I spent the night in Livermore at a friends house, Craig Ayers, who I shamefully convinced should ride the race with me…he did. It was his first race and I did warn him that he would feel more pain than he’s ever experienced cycling and might in fact cramp up. He said that he had done plenty of centuries and has never cramped, so seriously doubted my premonition of him cramping… he put a bunch of my “enduralites” in his jersey just in case. Yea, OK, we’ll see.

I was running late and didn’t get much warm up before the start and unfortunately knew the pace was going to hurt, seeing as the race starts with a 1500 foot climb in five miles. I’d be warmed up soon enough. The race started and didn’t seem too bad. It was super windy so I tried to hide in about forth or fifth up the hill. The pain level was tolerable, I looked at my Garmin as the front group crested the first hill, we had been racing for 25 minutes, with a long way to go. I led the fast decent down to north Flynn Rd and was wishing there were some technical sections so to use my twenty years of motorcycle racing experience. Unfortunately it’s basically just a straight shot until it flattens out. I soft pedaled hoping I’d get passed so I wouldn’t lead into the next section. Sure enough, I dropped back and was in a great place to endure the next small climb. It seemed the pace quickened up the short 500 foot climb on N. Flynn or maybe I was feeling fatigue, either way my pulse was climbing and I was slipping back in the pack of what was now 15 or so riders. I couldn’t believe there were so many guys that hung on during those ascents…damn! The grade leveled out and the wind seemed to back off a bit and I was able to hide in the pack and force myself to eat and drink. I got through one bottle by the time we crossed over 580 at Altamont Pass and was actually starting to feel a little better. I was near the rear feeling pretty good and we came into a fast chicane(right – left) through a stop sign that the cops were controlling to allow the racers to bomb through it. The guy I was following checked up and parked it through the corner so a ten to fifteen bike length gap formed in front of him as the pack started to hammer. Damn it! So I had to sprint to close the gap and it took way too long to catch back up. By the time we caught back my pulse had nearly redlined again as I expended way too much energy for following a strong rider afraid to go fast through the corner. We dropped three guys in that little mishap. The pace was brisk all the way to the right turn on to Midway where the pace slowed. It remained slow all the way back to the start/finish area, so it was at this point that I finished my second bottle of water and forced down some more food. I felt really full but was going to grab more water at the neutral feed zone anyway to prepare for the final loop from hell.

After grabbing two full water bottles at the feed zone, I got in front to try and slow the pace. The wind was horrendous. I don’t like leading, especially on a climb in a headwind! That worked for a couple of minutes but then the climbers decided to have none of that tactic…the pace quickened and I dropped to the back of the pack. I was still OK, but my pulse was reaching the high 160’s and I thought about tossing my water to lighten the load. Then came Satan and his band of devils… The young leaders of a different race caught and passed us about halfway up the climb. The climbers from our group wanted none of that humiliation, so our pace picked up to match theirs. I tossed one of my waters as my pulse passed 175 and climbing. The pain worsened…180. Do I toss my last water? I stood up and hung on for another few minutes, but then it happened…a gap. S**T! The wind started howling again…the gap widened…pulse 183. I pushed harder. The pain was more than I could handle, I just couldn’t get it out of my mind, I couldn’t hang on any further, If only I felt better…I CAN”T TAKE IT ANYMORE!! I was suddenly alone in the raging wind….alone watching the pack pull away. I can’t catch up. So the wheels basically came off the cart right then…I got dropped and there was no way to get back on because I still had over a mile to go of climbing with a 20% grade at the end. So at that point I pretty much knew that as far as getting a good finish, it was over. For the rest of the hill I passed other suffering loners from other classes who long ago lost their race as well. We were racing against the demons in our mind now. I finally reach the top…too tired to be angry. The decent wasn’t technical enough for me to catch up and there were too many guys to reel them in on the flat….game over. So I decided not to blow myself out for this week and just finish. I slowed and let my pulse drop to a less painful level. A couple of other guys got dropped on the next hill and I kept them in sight the entire rest of the lap until the finish. No one else caught me and I caught and passed a few solo riders from other classes who were also blown up, dejected and just trying to get home. Yes, we were all doing the ride of shame. At least I wasn’t reduced to pile of drooling goo, cringing in pain, going eight miles an hour on the flat like last year. This year was different…still lonely, but different. I had recovered from my climbing debacle and there was power left in the motor, but no sprint finish. No chatting after the race. I ended up five minutes behind the leaders at the finish. 2:19:00 according to my Garmin. 11th place. I felt like I had a bad day, but life has a lot of those and this was just another one. No big deal. I rode Patterson because I knew it’d be really hard for me. As we all know, pain seems to be a big part of this sport and there are times when you can break through and keep going and times when you can’t. If one of those insecure thoughts hit you at the wrong time, it’s over…you get dropped. Unfortunately I couldn’t push through the pain. I still like the sport, but it is very humbling for an old novice like me.

Oh, I almost forgot. My buddy, Craig, finished the race…barely. He started cramping on the big climb of the second lap and suffered through the entire lap…but finished. He had never cramped at all before and couldn’t believe it and how brutal it is. It took him three hours to finish, but I was proud of him for not giving up! Apparently we all face our own demons at Patterson Pass.
-Mark F.