Thank You!
Another
year, another first place (and also a second place) in the Race to Anyplace!
Thanks to all the team members on both the JV and Race teams who put in a few
extra hours of training to get their legs ready for race day. Another big
thanks to all the other LA Fitness & Rivers Club gym members who put up
with the tortuous training classes we went through while the team trained. It’s
not easy doing 15 minute, light resistance sprints for weeks on end.
Classes are now
back to normal and we’ll be riding a lot more resistance over the next few
months. Stay tuned for the next Space Monkey Mafia event. I’m thinking the
State College MS 150 ride in July. If you haven’t ever rode 150 miles over 2
days, don’t worry, there is plenty of time to get trained up (even if you don’t
have a road bike yet!). More on that to come, but for now, let’s wrap up the
Race to Anyplace with this year’s official race report!
2013 Race Report
Not a year
goes by without some type of early morning disaster. For the past two years we
have scrambled to find clip in pedals for our bikes after assuming we would
have them. This year we even took the extra step of showing up the a day early
to scope out the bikes. All appeared to be fine, the bike with our name on it
had the pedals we needed…until we showed up the next morning to find it had
been swapped out! One of the other teams must have showed up early and decided
it was okay to switch our bikes. Lesson learned…next year we’ll be bringing a
spare set.
After the
pedal fiasco was straightened out the race was ready to begin. Jack clipped in
on the race bike and Eric, a new Race to Anyplace rider, clipped in on the JV
bike. Both rode strong sets with Jack racking up 8.52 miles during his first
ride Eric putting up 8.69 miles. Eric’s friend Scott also joined as a first
time rider and rode just as strong. When it was all said and done, Jack racked
up an impressive 16.74 miles. Eric and Scott both put up 17.25 (they’ll be graduating to the race team next year). I also put up a few
miles, clocking in at 19.53.
While we
were looking pretty good after the first two riders on each bike it was pretty
obvious that the mileage goals we had set were way too high. The new CycleOps
bikes seemed to be much different than the Kaiser models used the year before.
On top of the new model, this year’s CycleOps bikes also had the rear fly wheel
‘locked’ into place (in 2012 it CycleOps bikes were not locked, so a rider
could pedal as fast as possible, stop pedaling, and let wheel continue to move
just as fast). This year, the ‘lock’ added extra resistance so there was no way
to go as far as we had in prior years. The team quickly adjusted and set new
goal distances.
Jim T. was
the first to get a new goal. He easily blew past it with an impressive 17.87
miles. Jim was followed by Janice B. (who Jill completely blindsided by adding
her to the race team roster). Hats off to Janice though, she stepped up with a big
15. 76 miles! At the same time David B & Dave H pushed the pace on the JV
team putting up 16.84 miles & 17.66 miles (both potential race team riders
in 2014).
Former ‘JVer’
Gary H. kicked of the next leg for the race team working to widen the lead between
us and the Westinghouse team. Gary split his two rides with veteran racer Chuck
E. who contributed another 18.64 miles. Gary himself would finish with the 3rd
highest mileage for the race team at 19.04.
While the
race team continued to dominate, two first time JV riders were helping keep theor
team on pace for a solid finish. Mary M. and Kim S. added 14.7 and 14.56 miles.
Strong numbers for first time riders and we’ll be looking for big things from
them next year.
Right after
Mary and Kim finished we hit the half way mark. After a quick check of the
official distance boards, and some hard core sleuthing of the other teams
odometers, it was evident that we were on course to win, though I’d never admit
it to the rest of the team. At the time my line to each new rider was simply “we
need you to put up some big numbers”. Lisa R. took that to heard when she
jumped on the race bike next and Vikki D. moved into place for the JV team.
Lisa crushed her goal and put up another 19.01 miles. Next to her Vikki
continued the JV push with another 15.23 miles.
With the JV
team riding so strong it became apparent that they were on the verge of a
second or third place finish. Because we were a few riders short, a handful of
riders from both teams sucked it up and jumped on a third time for the JV team.
Before that though, Jill G. and Chris T. needed to do their fair share of work.
Both put up extremely impressive numbers for first time riders. Jill came in at
16.1 and Chris at 15.45. That was the fourth and fifth furthest distances on
the JV team. Thanks to their efforts, and those of the other JV riders, the
team finished in second place overall (although we wouldn’t know this until the
official results were posted several days later).
Because we
were unsure of official mileages at the time, no one really knew how well the
JV team was doing, we actually thought that our first place race team might be
in trouble. That pressure lead to a few
BIG rides by the last four race team members. Nate F. put up an impressive 18
miles, followed by Brian R. at 19.26. Brian’s ride was actually the second
furthest on the entire race team. Mia and Candy also both showed up! Mia came
in just under Lisa’s mileage at 18.98 and Candy became our fourth top rider at
19.02 miles. In fact, Candy went so hard on the last leg of the race she needed
an IV bag to rehydrate (that’s the kind of intensity we’re looking for on the
race team!).
At the end
of the day, the Space Monkey Mafia finished in first place with 221.31 miles, while
the JV team came in second at 199.02 miles. This marks the second year in a row
that the Space Monkey Mafia won our division. We received an ‘honorable mention’
in 2011 and placed consistently in the top 5 in 2010 and 2009.
Some may say
we are on track to become a Race to Anyplace dynasty. Others might say we’re
already there. Regardless of our dynasty status, the race was a blast. We
raised some money for a great cause, and hopefully we will see all our riders
return in 2014!
Other Call Outs
Race Team Top 5 Riders
1.
Ken (19.53 miles)
2.
Brian (19.26 miles)
3.
Gary (19.04 miles)
4.
Candy (19.02 miles) & a visit to the ER to
rehydrate!
5.
Lisa (19.01 miles)
JV Team Top 5 Riders
1.
Dave H (17.66 miles)
2.
Eric (17.25 miles)
2.
Scott (17.25 miles)
3.
David B (16.84 miles)
4.
Jill G (16.1 miles)
5.
Chris T (15.45 miles)
Top Fundraisers
·
Chris T ($695) BOOM!
·
Dave H ($190)
·
Scott R ($150)
·
Jack ($125)
·
$100 Club
o
Eric
o
Jancie
o
Jill
o
Kim
o
Mary
All Rider Distances
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