Going fast & having fun

Written by: Craig Zimmerman

This was my first ultra event.  I’ve never done anything over 6 hours so I signed up for P2P as it covers a bunch of terrain I’m familiar with as I ride in Park City a bunch.  What I wasn’t prepared for was how long 77 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing and descending would take when 90% plus is on single track.

The start was pretty mellow as everyone knew they had a long day ahead of them.  The first 25 miles took about 2:45 and was the easiest terrain.  My motto for the day was pacing and nutrition and I stuck to my plan in that first third.  At the first feed zone my wife was there with a fresh camelback and food.

The second leg of 25 miles is brutal.  It climbs to over 9,500 feet of elevation and has several miles of black diamond descents.  I was climbing pretty well and I ended up in a pretty fast group.  Big mistake.  When we hit the descent I was in way over my head with that speed and crashed pretty hard at mile 40.  I had a huge gash on my left calf.  It was that moment where the race became clear to me.  It’s an event of perseverance and will.  You learn a lot about yourself in an event like this.

I finished the 2nd leg and felt I had left a lot of gas in the tank and my wife gave me another perfect feed and I was off for the final 25 miles.  On a climb I have done a hundred times a tree branch snagged my Boa on my shoe and ripped it clear off and it threw me over the edge of the trail down about 5 feet.  After scurrying up to the trail I had to decide if I try to fix my Boa or just ride with a loose shoe.  I chose just to move forward as that is the spirit of this kind of racing.  Relentless.

Crossing the finish line after the most technical, rocky descent for the last 2 miles was incredibly sweet.

Final statistics – 9 hours 2 minutes of riding – 9 hours 22 minutes total time.

In the 50-59 category there were 65 starters and 34 finishers.  I placed 8th and was the oldest finisher in the category at 59.

Of the 375 starters, 100 people DNF’ed.  Only 6 people older than me finished.

My takeaway is that I love riding and racing but I have to consider if this type of thing is age appropriate!  I will definitely do another one of these but it doesn’t necessarily have to be one that is termed, “Harder than Leadville”!