There were several firsts for me this training and racing season, beginning with a move to Oakland, CA January 1st. My wife took a leave of absence from University of Idaho in Moscow, ID to teach chemistry at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, CA for a semester. I have always lived in fairly small cities and towns so I was pretty nervous about moving to the small apartment we rented in the big city of Oakland. Our feeling now is that if we could find a way to afford the housing in the East Bay area we would move here.

My first First was at a ride on Jan 3rd to UC Berkeley and up the hill east of there. I had my commuter bike, with a triple, but I stopped, and turned around about half way up the hill. It¹s bad form to have a heart attack on your first training ride of the year. Later I measured the grade at 16%.

My second First was the next Wednesday, Jan 5th, over the Berkeley hills and back for 86 miles. I found myself walking the last mile of the climb on the way back. This road has 20% pitches. Most cyclists I talked to later have only ridden down this road, El Toyonal. By March I was feeling that I had gotten into much better shape and I wanted to ride one of the early California Double Centuries, having never ridden a double this early in the season, my third First.

I also decided to start with the fast group and stay with them as long as I could. Normally I just ride my own pace, even if that means riding by myself for the entire route. I lasted about 15 miles and felt like quitting at 80 miles. I arrived at 10:32, very, very tired. I rode two more doubles before the 3-day race camp, yet another First. One of them, considered the hardest at 206 miles and 19,000ft of climbing, is called the Devil Mountain Double.

I left for the 2005 Race Across Oregon with just under 5,000 miles logged. If I had been training in Idaho it probably would have equaled 6,000 miles. This would be my third RAO and 4th Ultra race. I had experience, gear, bikes and strategies. During the race camp I determined each spot that I wanted to change from the main bike to the climbing bike and marked a GPS waypoint, including the gear ratio for the new bike.

I had been trying to get a semi-custom jersey made for my team, that would be me, named after my main sponsor, (that would be B & L Bikes in Pullman, WA.) The jersey arrived about a week before the race. I had also signed up for sponsorship with Rudy Project for helmet and glasses but I still haven¹t received them. My main bike, a Serotta, needed a lot of maintenance before the race, including a new chain.

Somehow I managed to forget that the cog set that I wanted to use on the race was probably worn. When I rode the bike back from the bike shop, with the new chain, three gears were skipping very badly. I knew that I had to replace the cog set and I had a day and a half to find one. No problem, there are almost as many bike shops as there are restaurants in the East Bay.

Problem; I wanted an 11-23 Campy and I¹m in the East Bay. Nobody in their right mind takes on 10-20% climbs with a 39x23 and further you can¹t find a descent for which you need the 53x11. But with 3 race camps and 2 RAO races I knew that the 53x11 would be very helpful on the racecourse. After calling about 15 shops I found one shop that had an 11x23 on a new bike that they were willing to sell to me.

About a week before that I found out that one of my crew of three (I had set up the crew before I had left Moscow), was not going to make it to the race. This probably caused more stress than anything else. I asked a lot of people, most would have crewed if they hadn¹t had a prior commitment. I made calls, sent e-mails and generally asked everybody I could think of. Then I started calling family and I was able to talk my first cousin Gary Renshaw into crewing his first Ultra, with no bike riding experience. After college we haven¹t spent much time together but I was elated, not worried. Gary is one of the most levelheaded guys I know and has an almost magical relationship with anything mechanical.

I flew to Portland from Oakland and after a little trouble with the rental van I had the gear unpacked, the Serotta together and the van ready for inspection. I was just going to the front desk to make sure that Gary¹s name was on a room reservation when he walked in. The other crewmembers showed up right after that and we spent a little time going over the gear and some basic crewing information. None of the crewmembers had crewed before. John Zakrajsek has extensive biking experience and is completely unflappable. Roger Ames is a very good bike mechanic at B&L and a photographer for a local paper. Roger absolutely insisted that we have a paper backup to the GPS info, a very smart move.

We didn¹t have to worry about changing to rain tires at the start of the race because it was chilly but not raining. My stomach felt a little queasy that morning but I assumed that it was just nerves. I also had a mild headache. I thought that the first 20 miles went really well. The 12% wall at Buxton felt almost easy. The really strange thing was that I was at the front with Tom Jacobson and nobody surged past. About 2 miles from Boring I noticed that the speedometer was very loose and I knew that the very small bolt and nut would continue to loosen. I held onto the speedometer with one finger and slowed down some. A little while later I had to take my finger away and very soon the speedometer fell off and was dangling by the wires. Miraculously the nut and the bolt didn¹t fall off, to be lost forever, and I changed to the Serotta at Boring.

I was riding well but feeling a little off. My plan was to pace the race at about 142bpm, heart rate. Higher on climbs and lower where I felt I needed to recover. I noticed that my breathing was more rapid and perceived exertion seemed higher than it should have been at that time. I was able to drink water, take Endurolytes and drink Perpetuem as per plan but it didn¹t feel like my stomach was emptying as fast as normal. I expected to need up to 40 miles for the nerves and headache to go away at which point I would be warmed-up, meaning at a comfortable race pace.

It took 80 miles, but I hadn¹t reached that stage like on previous races where I should have been feeling good enough that holding back to race pace was hard to do. My rookie crew was doing well, keeping a very tight leapfrog support, but they were very quiet. Turns out they were nervous. I began to suspect that they weren¹t using the GPS for bike exchanges when they tried to give me the climbing bike at the 26/35 intersection while I was doing 40mph. I made the turn onto FR44 with no problems but I felt I needed to rest some on the descent before the turn, which shouldn¹t have been the case.

The summit on 44 is very hard to find with several small false summits. It was somewhere in this area that I asked about the GPS and the crew said that the PDA had a low battery so they had turned it off. I had assumed that the 12v charger for the GPS receiver that the PDA was plugged into would also charge the PDA. Well it should but it doesn¹t. I hope DeLorme has a really good reason for such questionable engineering. We used Roger¹s hand written notes and my dead reckoning for all of the bike exchange points.

By the time I passed Dufur I was mostly by myself except for Wade Baker. Wade passed me on several of the climbs then I would pass him back. I was riding well and making good time without working harder than I should have and I was mostly following my fueling plan. There was still that sensation in the background that I wasn¹t 100%. In the past, before the steep part of the Fossil climb, my legs would feel like they were moving with almost no effort. I didn¹t feel that way this time but I didn¹t feel bad so I decided to just keep as close to my chosen pace as possible and ride through it. I caught Wade at Tygh Valley but he passed me again a few miles later on the next climb.

I told the crew to get gas in Maupin and we would exchange bikes there. This was a change in plans because BakeOven doesn¹t start for 2-3 miles and the stop would be on a fairly fast downhill, but it seemed the least complicated plan. Overall this is the best crew that I¹ve had yet but they were rookies and had never seen the course. The GPS would have been helpful if it had been working. They pulled into the stop at the same time I did, (I was braking from 40mph), and apparently forgot about the bike exchange. I said bike, bike, bike and they scrambled to get the climbing bike out of the van. With a smooth exchange this takes about 15 seconds. This exchange may have taken 45 seconds, so not much time was lost. I was quickly up to 30mph or better and had to thread my way through 4 motorcycles that may have been trying to more closely observe the speed limit. They didn¹t seem to mind me riding through and I stayed in front of them through the next three hairpins. I must have passed Wade somewhere on BakeOven but it might have been later.

I use Red Bull as a race drink. I like the taste, like liquid candy, the sugar gives me an almost immediate boost physically and psychologically and the caffeine kicks in about 30 minutes later. On previous races I needed one after the Fossil climb for energy and around midnight to prevent sleepiness. I asked if they had one on ice somewhere on BakeOven, they didn¹t, so I got it on the rocks, which was nice. But Gary remarked that it was about 12 hours early. I didn¹t notice much an immediate boost, was having trouble drinking it down quickly and I couldn¹t tell any difference 30 minutes later.

As usual I really had no idea where I was in the race at that time. I was pretty sure that Kenneth Philbrick, Graham Pollock and Tom Jacobson were off the front. I suspected that Sandy Whittlesley was also ahead. Around Shaniko Roger said that the next rider was 7 minutes ahead. Shortly after Shaniko about 6 fast sports cars, (one appeared to be a Ferrari), went by us. It was apparently one of those unofficial races like the Cannonball.

The descent into Antelope was fun on the twisty hairpins, with only a little gravel, and no other racers around, that I could see. A few miles up the climb out of Antelope I saw a van parked off the road. Not a color that I had seen in the last several hours so it had to be the rider ahead. It was Sandy Whittlesley and when I got closer I could see a rider in a yellow jersey on all fours throwing up. I heard someone say, ³Go Bruce² but it was after my van had gone by so I was too far away to reply.

I discovered on my first RAO race camp that staying completely liquid works well for me, and I had never thrown up on any ride or race. Every race is different; even if the course is the same and I always learn something each time even if I think that there just can¹t be much left to learn.

The rest of the climb was uneventful, it had warmed up and I thought that I was feeling better. Not 100%, but better. The descent into the John Day River was fast without any bad crosswinds. The short climb after you cross the river was warm but not hot enough to induce heatstroke. I seemed to be making good time up to the part of the Fossil climb where it gets steep. I changed to the climbing bike and started up. After training in the East Bay 10% grades just don¹t seem as steep as they used to. I discovered during training camp this year that I had developed tight hip flexors, which made it hard to climb seated. Consequently I did most of the climbs standing. I have never been able to spend that much time climbing so I guess this is another first.

However it¹s not as efficient for long distances so my speed was down. My hip flexors were pretty much stretched out for the race but I think the strength for seated climbing was still down somewhat. During the race I would stand up while climbing in order to rest. It was working, but my speed would drop some too. I¹m not sure how long it took to ride to the summit above Fossil but during that time I didn¹t take in any water, electrolytes or fuel. This section is continuous 7-10%; it was warm so experience dictated that it would be best to wait until the summit for fuel and water.

I decided to try to make up for some of the fuel and water when I started the descent and I believe I had some Red Bull as well. For several hours I thought that my stomach had finally begun to feel better. I made it through the twisty part of the descent, the van passed me, and I knew something was wrong. I can¹t remember the last time I had a bacterial or viral ³flu² that included vomiting but it¹s probably been decades. I¹ve never thrown up on a bike ride and I tried to prevent it this time, with no luck. I was coasting downhill so I saw no reason to stop and after my stomach emptied and some dry heaves I started pedaling again. Five minutes later I was feeling better.

When I caught up with the crew I asked if they had any 7up. They had Mountain Dew, which they diluted with water. I sipped on a water bottle of that for many miles. They stopped for gas at Spray and got 7up. I would try a little of the regular fuel every so often but only a small sip. I didn¹t feel that bad and I was making pretty good time. I caught Ricky Martin, having forgotten that he was in front of me. When I passed him he said I had just taken over 4th position. The climb out of Monument was also uneventful, but the crew had started asking if I needed more fuel and I usually said no.

I could tell that my stomach could only tolerate the diluted 7up and not very much at a time. Before I got to the top of the Monument climb it felt like I was slowing down. It was about 9pm, 16 hours into the race so it wasn¹t unexpected but I remembered that last year I was passed by a person on a 4-man team after the top and I ended up passing him back, once. I knew that before the last part of the fossil climb was the last point that I had been fueling on a regular basis. I was hoping that my stomach would settle down, I could get some fuel down and my energy levels would surge back to normal. I have experienced that after a bonk, many times in the past. We lost a little time at Long Creek calling in our time. Wade passed me right before Long Creek but I left first.

I wasn¹t looking forward to the climb out of Long Creek because I was down on energy, strength and I knew that a bonk was coming. I stood up a lot on that climb trying to rest. I almost stopped at the rest stop area, about half way up, to try to get some sugar in m while I wasn¹t riding, to prevent a bonk. I really hate stopping before a summit so I just kept riding. When I got to the top I was going to ask for a diluted Red Bull. I knew I needed sugar to prevent or treat a bonk and I hadn¹t kept down anything with caffeine in it for many hours. It would be midnight soon and I wanted to prevent sleepiness rather than treat it.

Normally I would have told the crew to put the bottle on the Serotta and after a quick exchange of bikes I would fuel on the descent. I was standing most of the last part of that climb so I couldn¹t easily radio the crew of my needs. I decided to ask for a Red Bull at the bike exchange, undiluted, because the more fluid I put in my stomach the worse it felt. I drank the Red Bull while adding some clothing, got up to get on the Serotta and threw up everything in my stomach.

The crew hadn¹t seen me throw up the first time and I may not have mentioned it. When I was finished throwing up I got on the bike and started the descent. I must have suspected more than just an irritated stomach because I instinctively started trying to lower my heart rate. For the rest of the race, about 50 miles, I kept my heart rate below 120bpm.

I hit headwinds on the descent into Mt. Vernon and after leaving it as well. It started sprinkling about 15 miles later. I didn¹t know if it was going to rain enough for me to get wet or not but I told the crew to put our rain plan into effect, just in case. They swapped the wheels for the spare set with rain tires and I put on part of my rain gear. My theory on this is that if I can keep my hands and feet from getting wet, or at least keep them dry longer, that I will be a lot less miserable. Once they get wet, putting on the rain gear does a lot less good. I got back on the Serotta and rode into the headwind.

I wasn¹t making very good time my heart rate was very low and I was getting very sleepy. I hadn¹t been able to keep anything down, including water, and I really needed some caffeine to stay awake. I had ridden the last 150 miles on about 500 calories. It started to rain harder, a flash of lightning lit up the area and I decided that I needed to stop. I hoped that I could keep some diluted Red Bull down, recover from the bonk and wake up. I sipped the diluted Red Bull, diluted Perpetuem, water and an Endurolyte while resting and warming up. I couldn¹t tell that it was working. My energy levels were at about 10% and my stomach was not happy. After about 20 minutes of this I threw up everything that was in my stomach. We waited another 1:40 but my stomach still wasn¹t tolerating anything and I hadn¹t even been riding.

It was now 4am. I had ridden 323 mile in 20 hours with 215 miles and 26 hours left to the cutoff time. It would be 12 hours of resting before my stomach would handle food again. I could have rested and got on the bike and maybe made it to the finish. This however was my third RAO and I had hoped to do better than the previous two.

Many people believe that not finishing is almost unacceptable. I don¹t and it¹s pretty unlikely that I¹m going to change my mind about that. I am competitive so winning is a very desirable goal but having fun is just as important. You might guess that having fun on something this extreme is difficult and you would be right. But it¹s not impossible, I¹ve done it, and that¹s why I keep coming back. All the way back to Portland I was trying to figure out what went wrong. I don¹t know for sure and I don¹t believe I can know for sure, but it looks like I had pushed myself into the beginnings of overtraining and/or didn¹t complete a successful taper. The GI distress therefore was a symptom of pushing past a limit.

Last year I accomplished much the same thing only on a short-term basis by going too hard during the race. I was determined not to go too hard on this race, and I don¹t believe that I did. For a short time while I was in the van, after I stopped, I began to believe that I¹m just not cut out for this. I know that isn¹t true, but it seemed true for an hour or so. Recognizing overtraining and tapering successfully aren¹t easy.

I did learn a lot from this race and I definitely had new experiences, although throwing up is an experience that I could have done without. After thinking about it a lot I have decided that I¹m not going to change my game plan or strategy. I¹ll just follow it to the best of my ability and always, always try to have as much fun as possible.

Bruce Almighty Carroll