A roll of the dice

The Reader's Digest/Cliff Notes version: Winds in Death Valley were reported at 40 mph sustained with gusts to 60 mph as we pedaled through. As luck would have it, we were riding directly into it. The course continued in this direction for the remaining 230 miles of race. Many were walking their bikes, many hunkered down in vehicles hoping for winds to dissipate.
After hours of riding into this wind the Desert Coyote and crew took a gamble at 3:30AM at mile 279 into the Furnace Creek 508 and decided to conserve energy and wait it out.........and lost. The Desert Coyote's dream of finishing the 2009 Furnace Creek 508 ended near Ashford Mills in Death Valley. Lessons learned. Ride to your strength. I knew I was not the strongest racer nor the fastest. My strength was in my endurance. I should have kept riding. I was not broken. I will return. I did achieve an 11 hour "clock time" double century, attained a new maximum speed on my bike with the 60.3 mph descent of Towne's Pass (at night!) and had a respectable 15.1 average speed for the 275 miles covered. Since midnight I had pedaled hard for nearly 3 hours, and had only 27 miles to show for it.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today ............27.....+.........0........=........27
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......614.....+.........0........=.......614
March total.....860.....+.........0........=.......860
April total.....790.....+.........0........=.......790
May total.......901.....+.........0........=.......901
June total......543.....+.........0........=.......543
July total.....1322.....+.........0........=......1322
August total...1603.....+.........0........=......1603
Sept total.....1403.....+.........0........=......1403
October.........283.....+.........0........=.......283
Year to date...8869.....+.........30.......=......8899 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++