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 Just over a week has passed since The Iceman Cometh Race of 2008. I had my best time yet and had one heck of a great weekend. My cousin Cam was able to make the long trip up from North Carolina to complete the race. It was nice to have both friends and family make the trip up to Kalkaska for the race. I am still scrounging the internet for pictures of the event and will hopefully be posting some of my own up within the next few days. The entire weekend was a blast and I am now going to be taking every Pre-Iceman Friday off of work so I will be able to ride the course and enjoy the event. As far as the results are concerned, I finished with a Personal Best 2:04.22, I was 12th in my age group, 514/1956 men and 533rd overall. I can enjoy that and seeing that my yearly mileage is WAY down and I am not in the best shape for riding that length of race, I feel awesome with my results. I am definitely looking forward to the race next year and will again be racing the Blue NRS - Shaky Jake. Click below for the entire weekend re-cap.
My race weekend started on Thursday night as I left for the unusually warm temperatures of Northern Michigan. I took Friday off so that I could enjoy the entire weekend instead of the whirlwind craziness of the past few years. When I left home, the temperatures were around 68 and it was sunny! The weatherman was calling for falling temps and a good chance of precipitation. When I arrived in Kalkaska, it was 63 and very comfortable. I was glad to be up visiting Uncle Rik, Aunt Kathy and Kara and especially glad that they have a couple of extra rooms. They all had things to do in the morning and I was planning on getting a few extra minutes of sleep before starting my day. When I was finally up and around, I had breakfast and then saw that I had missed a few phone calls from some TSB’ers and found out that they were planning a preride for 10 and that we would be riding the course backwards. I loaded up the bike and dressed for some potentially wet conditions and drove to Timber Ridge Campground just south of Acme. 
When I got there, the finish venue was just being set up and there were trucks and people around making chutes and tents for the big finish line extravaganza. I immediately noticed the TSB logo on the side of the trailer and made a beeline over to get ready to ride. As I was getting the bike down, I realized that the dirt on the bike was still from last year and that I was returning some of the sand back to its home! That’s how bad I have been on the Giant…I haven’t touched it since last November 11! (post note - I actually began the Dragon MTB race last February but that doesn't count) Anyway, as I was getting things around, I realized that I had left my cycling shoes in my duffle back in Kalkaska and that I didn’t bring my flat pedals with me this weekend. So I was forced to ride with my running shoes on the small Egg-Beater pedals and pray that I wouldn’t slip off and catch a pedal in the shin. It has happened before and it does not feel good at all. Everyone was ready so we rode backwards to the 22 mile mark. This is just after “Anita’s Hill” and we got a good view of how the race course would be tomorrow morning. 
Usually at this point in the race, I am so far into a bonk and in such great oxygen debt, that I my only goal is to keep pedaling and hopefully cross the finish line in one piece. The past few years, I have reached mile 21 with no problems. It has been that final 6.5 miles that totally crush me and I rarely have any recollection of the last few miles. So that being the case, it was very cool to see the ending section with a clear head and also to know when this section was coming up so that if I did have any strength left, I could put that into finishing rather than worrying about how much farther I had to go. 
We finished our pre-ride with a quick talk with Jeremiah Bishop (Trek/VW), Marko LaLonde (Gary Fisher/Subaru) and another Trek Rider who where just arriving to do their pre rides of the same course. Little did we know, but Jeremiah would finish First on Saturday with a record setting time. The funny thing was that he was attempting to fix the fork for his bike because the star nut had come loose. I didn’t know who it was at first except that they had the Trek jerseys on so I snapped a picture of him wrenching on a multi-thousand dollar carbon fiber Trek race bike with a crappy set of Allen wrenches. I don’t think Trek would see the humor in that though…not a good PR tool! Anyway, it is that closeness with the pro riders that attracts me to Cyclocross and Mountain bike races. What other sport could you walk up to the Pro athlete and strike up a conversation about whatever and have them actually talk with you? In fact, at what other pro sport would you be able to not only practice on the same field as the professionals but also compete on the same field? I don’t think the guys at the Joe Louis Arena would be as forgiving if we were to walk up with our crappy hockey gear and expect to skate a few periods. Man I love this sport! 
After the pre-ride, we headed on over to the expo to get some free swag and also get our numbers and timing chips for the race. This is the first time that I have been to the expo and been able to get free stuff. I ended up with a ton of stickers, a bottle opener, a belt buckle, a Gary Fisher Stocking Hat, some gels and other food. The Iceman shirt was bright orange with the Blue Iceman Logo. There were a bunch of bike companies set up showing off their rides as well as a handful of local shops selling anything extra that they have in the store. I finally met Cam, his dad and my Uncle Phil at the expo. They headed back to Williamsburg road to pre-ride from there. The current and past TSB group headed over to TC to the Michigan Brewing Company for lunch. It was delicious and I wish that I could have tried a couple of their beers but I didn’t want to put the race in jeopardy. After lunch, I stopped back at the finish line for a few hours to wait for Cam and Steve as they finished up their pre-ride of the course. After that we went back for some dinner and relaxing as we prepared for the big race. 
Saturday morning I was up by 6:45 and got my duffle bag packed for after the race. I had some warm stuff in there as well as a few rain jackets and a rain suit just in case it started raining. I had my typical race-day breakfast of oatmeal, honey and coffee and then packed up the car. As I was just climbing in to the driver’s seat, Cam said, “Ben, aren’t you forgetting something?” I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until he pointed at my bike which was patiently sitting in the garage! Disaster averted! I arrived at the start line around 8:30 and got ready to go for a run to warm up. I have been parking in the exact same spot for 3 years now and I really like it because I am able to see most of the start. Last year I began my run at 8:45 but this year I was earlier and starting to get cold. My warm up took me out on the course just over a mile and by the time I got back, the first wave of experts were just preparing to leave. I rang the cowbell for the first few groups as I was putting together my bike and getting my water bottles filled for the race. Around 9:30, I started to make my way up towards the corral of racers and was able to find most of the TSB crew that I would be racing with. This year, John, Jason, maybe one or two other Sandbaggers and I were all racing in the same category. The three of us lined up in the front and made sure that we would, at the very least, get a great start! The start line was packed and it looked to be about 8-9 people wide and 7-8 rows deep. I didn’t get my usual spot of an edge or During the final 15-20 minutes of standing in 27 degree windy air in my bike uniform, I began to get very cold. This is one reason to hold off on the warm up until 9ish. My whole body was shivering and my hands and feet were beginning to go numb. I was glad that I decided against the long sleeve jersey and instead went with 2 short sleeve jerseys, arm warmers and my cycling jacket. This turned out to be the magical combination as I was comfortable during the entire race! I joked with John (he is WAY faster than I am) that I would start slow and then block until he could build a lead! We counted down the seconds and finally the time had arrived. It was RACE TIME!!!! So the starter says GO! And I shoot off the line hoping to hang on to John and some of the other fast guys as they race for the finish. After 10 yards, I was in the front! Laughing the whole time because I didn’t hear anyone else around me and I was still pulling away! I made the first turn and then realized that I had the hole shot (leader of the race) for the first time ever. I made it to the single track and could hear the guys charging up behind me. John passed and I asked him where he had been. The rest of the race was some of the most exciting and fun racing that I had ever done! I honestly had a smile on my face the whole time and was having a blast. I think that my nutrition was dead on this race and I was still strong all the way through the finish line. There were times during the race that I would think about where I was and not too push too hard so that I didn’t bonk but then I would laugh and cheer and keep on pedaling. 
If I never race again, I will always remember the awesome feeling I had during this race and how much I enjoyed EVERY single minute of this race. I can only hope that I feel this good during races in the future. I am so glad that I am a Sandbagger, and that I was able to hang out with my team for a great celebration! Let’s Go TSB-09! 
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