Man it’s a hot one, like seven inches from the midday sun. Rob Thomas – Smooth
I love competition, I always have. It was easy when I was a kid because there was always team sports. Sometimes I played so many sports that they would cross over each other. Once I graduated form college, it seemed to come to an abrupt end. I quickly found myself doing any 5 or 10k race I could find. In the early 80’s I also found this newfangled sport called triathlon which I never thought would stick. Boy, was I wrong! Somewhere around 1985 cycling had become my true love and I quickly learned about a sport called ultracycling. As I read about the great Pete Penseyres and Jonathan Boyer in a cycling magazine, and how they went from coast to coast in the Race Across America in under nine days, sometimes sleeping less than 2 hours out of 24, I was instantly hooked. I would dream of one day becoming wealthy enough to be able to take the time off to train for such an event. In the early 90’s I realized that that amount of wealth may never be achieved, and I couldn’t put my dreams of doing ultracycling events on hold. I began competing in 12 and 24 hour Mountain Bike races, but by 2002, could no longer do it based on a shoulder injury that continued to erode. In short, the downhills were so brutally painful that sometimes I would black out and find myself upside down in trees wondering how I got there. After taking time off, I decided to take to the road and do some ultra-events. This has gone very well for me in the past few years, but, for more reasons that I care not to mention here, I had to take this year off. By the end of April I had already had just under 6,000 miles of hard work and I decided to walk away from the only race that I had signed up for, and paid for at that point, the Furnace Creek 508, a race owned by my friend Chris Kostman and his company, Adventure Corps. I had announced to a few friends that I would not be racing this year, and that’s when a couple of old buddies of mine asked me if we could do it as a team. After all, I wouldn’t have to train so hard, and they would only have to train a little harder just to get to the event. It would be a win-win for everyone. The team would be my buddy Jonathan Goldhill, who is a good rider. The problem is, I’ve ridden with Johnny for 19 years. He’s complained about something on every single ride we’ve been on. The second rider is Steve Gruman, who has been riding on and off with us for about the last 10 years. The problem with Steve is that he cramps on almost all of the rides. The third player of the foursome is one of my favorite clients of all time, Christina DeRonde. In my opinion, she is a shining star on this four man team, and she’s a woman.
Jonathan, Steve, and me climbing in Malibu. Photo: Paul Herold
I told you that to tell you this: I was on a training ride with Steve and Jonathan this past Saturday. The temperatures in the valley were hitting 105 in areas. We started a climb about 50 miles into our ride with grades as shallow as 9% and as high as 15%. This went on for the first 3 miles. Then for the next 8 miles, it was more of a realistic climb, averaging between 7% and 9%. We all suffered that day, but we made it through. I think we would all agree that Jonathan suffered the most because he always chooses to ride in the early morning; cooler weather and his body just wasn’t used to it. The important thing is two regular guys who are weekend warriors that just love to ride their bikes are doing what it takes to get the job done. As for Christina, we ran into her that day going in the opposite direction leading a group of trialthletes. Do I think we have a chance of winning the four man team group division in the 508 this year? Absolutely not. Do I think we are going to have fun more than any other team? And have the experience of a lifetime? Absolutely. I’ll be talking more about this race as the date nears in early October, but I want to thank my friends for stepping up and getting me to the starting line in Santa Clarita once again.
Great lungs for climbing!
