"Quitting is an option."
Who goes into a race with that kind of mentality?! Well, skating Defi last Saturday was a spontaneous decision. As far as I'm concern, racing season was over at NYC100K. However, out of "convenience" reasons, I decided to skate Defi rather than hang out in an empty arena at 6am in Verdun. Sure I heard my share of stories on people getting lost, challenging terrain, and miserable weather condition. However I also naively believed in the notion ignorance is bliss. I fell asleep after reading the first three lines of the lengthy course description. Detours? Yeah, there were mentions of those at registration too. I trusted that having a fully-charged phone with taxi number on speed dial would be enough to bail me out of any trouble.
Purportedly the coldest (but driest) Defi in history, the race started promptly at 6am Saturday morning. I was visibly worried at the start line. Even on a good day, I am not confident dealing with variable terrains involving sharp turns, curbs, street crossing, etc. The fact that I was navigating unfamiliar routes in pitch black just made me all the more nervous than usual. The start felt relaxed but fast and there were over 20 of us in the lead pack. Every time we dove at a sharp turn, I thought I was going to die. What did I get myself into?! I wouldn't do that even in broad daylight with ideal condition!
I gave up on skating kamakaze style after the first 30 minutes and decided I would rather risk getting lost on the course instead. You know, lesser of two evils. I dillydallied on the trail and half-heartedly enjoyed the sunrise. JM passed me on her bike and I later hopped into the draft of a local skater who seemed to know where he was going. That turned out to be the recurring theme of my day. I never skated on my own for long before some skaters caught up...someone who knew the course!
I can deal with rough pavement well enough. I know that as long as I am careful with my setdown, my boots are comfortable and I can stay in them for hours and hours. What I did not expect though was gravel. I'm talking about looooong stretches of gravel pit. At the first detour, the second I laid eyes on the gravel pit, my eyes welled up with tears. Not from pain (yet), I really honestly didn't know what to do. I didn't sign up for that! There was a downhill into a gravel pit at the end of the detour and I just stood there in hesitation. Visions of horrific crash flashed before my eyes. Miraculously, I made it without a scratch.
It was a cold day indeed but I didn't know how cold it was until I discovered my trusty bags of CLIF Shot Bloks melded into one frozen bar despite keeping them in my tummy pocket. I pulled and chewed and fought with the gummies when I saw out of the corner of my eyes, one of the volunteers was taking race pictures of everyone from the side of the road. Argh, so much for cool race photos.
The detours kept on popping up on the course and eventually my fear subsided. Not because I got any better at them...I just stopped thinking about them. My curb jumping ability also returned after I got chased off the road by a police cruiser. The officer was not impressed that I was skating on the road and he made sure that I stayed on the sidewalk with curbs to slow me down at every intersection. Well, that was until a pack of 10 caught up to me. We took up a whole lane and my spirit was instantly lifted. There's safety in numbers! I let whoever at the front worry about traffic and direction. All I needed to do was sit in the pack. I could do that.
Our little pack broke apart when we ran into yet another detour. The signs said broken watermain or something and road was closed. We had a choice between a ravine detour, a highway on ramp, or just barge our way through the closed road. The answer was more obvious to some than others in our group. A few of us did not hesistate to squeeze through the narrow opening between concrete blocks while the rest of us looked at each other helplessly. I was of course in the second group. Since the first group did not return, we followed. It really wasn't so bad. Some of us bridged up to the first group and we regrouped into a pack of 5.
The course took us from streets back onto bike trails canopied with tress. It was really quite beautiful with all the fall colours until I remembered wheels had little grip on a carpet of leaves. There were a few gentle downhills and I was extra cautious (i.e. left lots of room in front of me and accelerated to catch up). My legs were still feeling good so the acceleration was a nice change of pace. Not so much for whoever got stuck behind me. I unintentionally dropped a couple of guys in the process...sorry guys. Our pack was moving along nicely, drafting close. Before I realized what happened, I saw a tree root running across the path within an inch of my front wheels. I jumped instinctively and so did everybody else in the pack. We jammed up but somehow we all stayed on our feet. I thanked my lucky stars.
The skating wasn't too stressful but my joints and stablizing muscles were taking a toll from the challenging terrain. When we reached the 3rd checkpoint at 80km and 4:30 into the race, our pack stopped for a break. I could potentially tough it out for that last 48km but that's another 2+ hours of skating. I knew that my braking abilities were quickly diminishing and the course only gets more technical as we moved into town with busy traffic. I weighed the pros and cons and decided that the much higher risk of crashing just wasn't worth it. It was plenty for a Saturday morning workout...enough that I felt I earned a nice post-race meal with the guys. I took a taxi and returned to Verdun.
True to its name, Defi really is a challenge unlike any other race. The obstacles were everything that I suck at yet my ignorance took me far enough to complete 2/3 of the course. I felt incredibly lucky that I did not get lost even once.
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