La Ruta Day 0

At this point I'd say my ability to get this computer running and figuring out their old router on the floor is one of the highlights of the day so far.

Everyone seemed to survive the gargantuan burritors at JacoTaco last night, even if 2lbs of burrito weren't exactly what we needed for dinner. Craig and Trish did not eat with the rest of us. Gerry spent some time talking to Diego, and when Gerry asked if Diego thought the course would be "ok" he just made a cringing face and turned around. He said "days 2-4 might be ok". He said "It's been raining hard right up to November 10th, for last year when it was dry, it stopped at the start of November."

This morning we slept in, ate breakfast, and we cheered when we saw Trish with a plate of food. Registration followed and was quick, easy and efficient. Saw Craig at registration looking better but not 100%, said he'd been able to eat a bit in the last while. Based on his appearance there (he's staying at another hotel with Steve so we aren't seem him as frequently) I'd say he'll be at the start line for sure, but maybe not feeling exactly in line with how he'd prefer feeling. After that we grouped up to ride. Andy's got a sweet new Rocky Mountain carbon hard tail which we all spent a few minutes reviewing... then it was off to last year's day one climb again. Pat said Trish had a bit of a relapse and spent a portion of the day napping inside.

Pat and Andy battled it out for a while, with Gerry and Matt Hanford chasing. I managed to catch Gerry when he pulled over to the side to stop... which is evidence of two things: he's climbing strong and on the flipside I'm not feeling all that hot. There must be something performance enhancing in those Imperial Cervezas.After another 10 minutes or so uphill, Matt and I waited for Pat and Andy to return, then we all coasted back down to the hotel. I quickly packed up everything for the race, then went up to the lunch buffet to meet the gang. Tori did a different ride but got back right when we did.

Lunch was uneventful, just a bunch of bike talk and tall tales. Afternoon consisted of sitting around and doing more of the same - just about nothing. Spotted a guy with a Moots YBB with a Rohloff hub, but 26" wheels and no S&S couplers. Made me contemplate mine a bit - in some ways the robust design and lack of maintenance will serve him well, but I couldn't bring myself to bring one here with the severe grades (ie. weight counts, which is why I wish I had a few less dinner at the desk nights in the last month) and the slight internal friction loss. Even today on the pre-ride, my "self cooling" threshold was kicking in in granny or 2nd gear.

When 3pm rolled around, I start feeling my face go white, and lost any interest in chatting. I'm burping a bit too, classic sign the digestive track has set up a roadblock. Trish came by looking more spry, and said I looked pale. Lunch was good, but any doubt that enters your mind starts building on itself... maybe that salad bar? My meat choice was the buffet container labelled (I kid you not) "Mexican Meat" which sounds a bit ominous in retrospect, but it was seeminly well cooked beef.

The other notable 3pm event was the thundershowers that rolled in. Combined with Diego's above comments on it taking a while to dry out (meaning a week or more ideally), heavy thundershowers today don't bode well. Gerry observed "at least we can't see the top of the mountains this way". It's been over an hour of steady, hard rain. It's going to be epic. If I can by luck not have my innards stage a revolt, I'm fully up for a 10+ hour epic jungle/hillclimb/rain trek. On the flip side, I'm not at all up for an epic day on a tile bathroom floor.

I bumped into a nice fellow from Washington named Brett. In making small talk walking across the hotel, he asked what I thought the rain meant. I said "long, tough day tomorrow probably". He's here first time and said he just wanted to finish the day, and asked for tips. I shared my plan for tomorrow - ride the first [pick a number] say 6 hours at a pace that you're covering ground but not stressing yourself out too much, don't worry about the people around you. If you feel peppy after that mark, speed up. If not, just keep the same pace. The second part was love every bit of it that's thrown your way. There'll be the guys cursing their chains and gears and such, but honestly, you can't expect a bike to work perfectly in this. So just exercise the memory banks and fill in all the crazy things that happen to you out there. There's crazy shit that happens to everyone out there, that's why we came.

I hope I can remember that stuff myself tomorrow! I hope to see Brett finish, he seemed both excited at the ride ahead and anxious with the rain thundering down around us.

As of about 4:30pm I'm feelingevenly at 50/50. I'm trying to guage my inner senses, but I can't guess which way this one will go right now. The fact that I don't just feel 100% normal is worrysome enough. Other than that, I feel relaxed and cool as a cucumber. Earlier this month I felt the need to offload all self expectation just to keep my overall life stress load in check, and on that front it seems I've succeeded.