My first attempt at LOTOJA went well, reaching a great time of 9:59:45 despite working to catch the group much of the morning after a team mate flatted early.
This year I had a season goal of 9:40, a 20 minute improvement on my first year, which I felt was attainable but difficult to reach. I posted this goal in our "gym" so I can be reminded twice a week when we strength trained. I trained quite a bit more and more intelligently this year therefore I was feeling pretty confident about my chances. I wanted to win this race as I do for all my A races.
Thanx to the Spider Bait team for setting a high pace, thanx to favorable winds, and thanx to a nice yet cold day, I obliterated my season goal. I finished 206 miles in 9:05:28. Nine hours and five minutes. Crazy.
What's really crazy is that time only yielded me 5th place. Five of us worked together extremely well from the KOM all the way to the finish, and I didn't favor my chances sprinting so I attacked at 2k to go. It was all I had to get 1st place and wasn't successful so 5th place is what I end up with. I still don't have a win. But it feels pretty good to have 6th overall out of a thousand or more entries. We beat the Cat 1s! One person beat the group of five I was in. One. I am now within 3 minutes 44 seconds of the LOTOJA course record. THAT is pretty awesome.
Garmin data
Timing data
1 comment:
Wow! Amazing time! All of your hard training and mental toughness paid off. Congrats!
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