Lotoja '08

I did it. I finished my first Lotoja. Sept 6 was an awesome day just cloudy enough and not too hot or cold, no rain. It went great, I feel great after having finished it. The day after I was kind of sore. As far as training for it this summer I went on a few 60 mile bike rides, a few mountain climbs, one century, quite a bit of mountain biking and that's about it. I rented the bike that I used and it worked very good for me, no flats. Honestly I wasn't prepared for the 25 miles of uphill to Strawberry Summit, yeah I had looked at the elevation maps but the enormity of it didn't really sink in. That's what slowed me down the most the other two mountain passes weren't bad compared to Strawberry Summit. I credit the six Clif apple flavored energy gels I had with helping me get over both Geneva Summit and Salt River Pass because I had definitely used up all of my energy reserves by the time I got to them. At Alpine Junction I was really tired that's when I resolved to just go on and finish the race. The course wasn't level again until I got to Jackson Hole, just a bunch of rolling hills through the canyon. I skipped the last rest stop at King's Wave pullout because I wasn't feeling thirsty or anything. I got to Teton Village just as the sun was going down, it was a great sight. Bike riding is all about going faster and farther than you did last time, which is why the Lotoja is such a great course because of the challenging distance and three mountain passes.