Tour of the White Mountains AKA Tour of Hell

Many of you may know that I used to be an avid cyclist, racing for Arizona State and various grass roots teams, I was especially talented at endurance events and have several 24 hour races under my belt, well here I am at it again although I pedal a little slower these days...Well a little about the event a "tour" of the white mountains right...well above is a very small and crude map of the course which was 67.1 miles and included just under 6000 feet of vertical climbing up to an altitude of over 9000 feet.



OK so the race starts at 8 am here is the starting/finishing line and yes there is a reason why there are no pictures of the finish and not because I didn't finish yes I did finish more explanation belowAll smiles here little do I know what I am in for...

Ohh this isn't so bad...my butt doesn't even hurt here....but here is the rest of the story. What the pics don't show you is that the wind is blowing at about 20-25 miles per hour and that a major storm is moving in, temp is about 55 degrees...so I do just fine I get to the "top" of the climb or the furthest point at about mile 30 in about 3:30 hours and I am feeling good I am on track to make it back in my goal time of about 7 hours, so any way I am cold and tired but press on, at about 7 hours in I am about 62 miles into the race, my butt hurts, my skin hurts and I am soo cold you wouldn't believe and this is when the fun starts...yes you guessed it the rain starts, not bad right it is always fun to ride in the rain and hey what is an other challenge after 62 miles of mountain biking...wrong...if anyone knows the dirt of the white mountains it is almost all clay and we know that more than any one...the clay stuck to my tires so bad it was like building a snowman, layer after layer until...yep you guessed it, you couldn't pedal any more and the bike was as heavy as wet concrete...5 miles from the finish and out of reach of the aid station we had to leave the bike and walk in the rain (temp about 45 degrees now) completely soaked and mud packed cycling shoes...2:20 hours later I cross the finish line with a total time of 9 hours and 20 minutes...Andrea was so worried she forgot to take pictures...in fact the phx news stations were there because the city had to send out search and rescue to find some of the younger riders...it was fun hearing helicopters looking for you over head, notice I was wearing all black...anyway several riders had hypothermia and other ailments, luckily I was able to recover my bike a couple of days later once the mud dried up and no riders were seriously injured...below are some stats...

Total Distance 67.1 - 62 riding and 5.1 walking in peanut butter
Time started: 8:00 am
Time Ended: 5:20 pm
Time elapsed: 9 hours 20 minutes
Vertical elevation climbed ~5,800
Max Heart Rate 189
Total Calories burned 9,102
Energy consumed: 6 energy gel shots, 80 oz of sports drink, 120 oz water, 1/2 banana
Total Rain with the storm: 2 in
Value of Experience: Priceless