One theme of my blog has always been the older athlete. The best stories, though, are usually not about Lance Armstrong, or Dara Torres (even though I love to talk about Dara Torres) but about those of us who compete, and train and try for the joy of it. The Rochester Speed Skating Team is loaded with such master athletes, both current and alumni, and I am very pleased to share this report from Larry Beck:
"Hi folks,
For those of you who remember my Mt. Washington stories from a few years ago, I just wanted to provide an update.
In 2007, the race was canceled (a rare occurrence) due to icing conditions and 90 mph wind gusts at the summit.
In 2008, I came down with an infection 2 weeks before the race and was forced to skip it.
This year, I broke my collarbone in May in a bike crash. I followed that up with kidney stones and another bike crash in July. Having lost several weeks of training, I still managed to get (mostly) ready for the race this past Saturday.
Having qualified for the Top Notch group in 2006, this was my first year lining up with the elite racers in the first wave to start. Among the riders were Ned Overend, the ageless mountain biking great, and several up-and-coming professionals. It was exciting to hear the announcer introduce us as the best climbers in the world.
As always, the race was started with a blast from a (miniature) cannon. After 50 yards of flat surface, the road turns up and doesn't stop until the summit at 6288 feet. The sound of clicking dérailleurs surrounds you and is shortly followed by the sound of cursing as several riders drop their chains. I've learned not to follow too closely at the start to avoid someone stopping suddenly.
My heart rate quickly climbed into the 170's, where it stayed for almost the entire race. The weather was sunny, hot, and humid. The first four miles are tree lined, so there was some respite from the sun. A short time into the race, I realized I was geared too high (probably due to my lost training) which meant a lot of standing on the bike. When we emerged from the trees, the usually raging wind and rain was replaced with only the occasional light breeze and the burning sun.
For most of the race, I held a steady position and found myself grouped with several riders. A couple of fast riders from the 2nd starting wave caught and passed us about 5 miles along the road. My group managed to overtake a few struggling riders as we neared the top. With a mile to go, I was able to drop most of the others in my group. As I approached the finish, I was greeted by a chorus of cheering spectators and ringing cowbells.
The finish line sits atop a short 22% climb lined with people screaming encouragement, a sound that is drowned out by the sound of your heart pounding. My poor gearing choice made the final climb a challenge. One of the riders I had dropped was able to overtake me, but I stood up and managed to turn the pedals over a few more times and crossed the timing mat. A pair of EMT's hold up each rider as they begin to recover from the final effort. After a couple of seconds, I was finally able to unclip and mouth the works "I'm OK" to the EMT's and I moved passed the finish line. Holly quickly found me with some food and liquid.
The final result after missing 2 years: 48th of 519 finishers overall and 6th of 88 in the men's 45-49 age group - over 4 minutes of improvement from 2006. I'm already looking forward to next year.
Hope you are all doing great. I still enjoy reading you various race reports. Happy skating this winter!
Later,
Larry"
Well, the summer is almost over and my dry land training has been less frequent that I would have hoped, but there is still some fun to be had. Three of the older men in the Rochester Speedskating Team, Don Ducharme, Jerry Roberts and I raced a 5k on 8/30 for the Veterans Outreach of Rochester, called Pound the Ground for Vets. A near perfect morning for a race...cool, sunny, no humidity to speak of....and a very nice turnout of perhaps 160-170 for the organization's first race on a nice course in Genesee Valley Park. The good news: finished the race. The bad news: have some conditioning to do before ice season starts in a couple of weeks!
