Bulldog Bike Race Camp Pendleton 27.5 miles

The evening of Friday the 26th it started raining hard so I knew this was going to be my first and wet race ever. I set my alarm clock for 5:50am for saturday morn. I woke up at 4:15am and couldnt go back to sleep. Thinking of my first race and the pouring rain, there was no way i could go back to sleep. Had my coffee and just listened to the rain. It was very windy and I had second thoughts of actually doing this race because of the very harsh conditions. I said to myself, well what the heck its just for a couple hours and getting drenched. I trained hard that week since I was unable to make the group ride the previous sunday which they did a 80 miler. So on Monday I rode 84 on my own just to rack up the mileage and get more training. Wednesday I did some hill training up Newport Coast and coming back home my tire was slashed. I used my spare but then that started going thru the hole of the tire and that blew out too. I rode with Martin that day and we decided to take a taxi back to my place. Wow $33 for taxi fee. That day was one expensive ride. So now I had 2 days to get another tire so on Friday I picked up some rain tires from SCC. I usually ride on 20's but these rubino's were 23's and alot heavier and I only pumped them up to about 110psi just so I can get more of a grip on the wet road. Normally I pump my tires up to 155psi. Yes the warrior's little secret. shhhhh




So now its 6:15am and off to Camp Pendleton. I bought some celophane paper thinking I could wrap my shoes with it to keep the water off. Little did I know that didnt work during the race. More on that later. So I arrived and had about 1hr to warm up but now its pouring and now i just stayed in my car and got dressed im my skinsuit that I bought for the race. I began to wrap my shoes with celophane paper thinking it would be water proof. Haha I should of thought twice on that. I put some icy hot on my legs and tried to stretch a little but had no warmup. So now its about 15 minutes before and its pouring rain and i didnt have a rain jacket so now im standing at the starting line freezing and had my running hat on to keep the water out of my face.

So off we went. Around the 5th mile I could feel my socks getting wet and that celophane paper not working as I had thought. It really started to add weight on my feet. Now my skinsuit became heavy from the rain and now it was like I added like 10 extra lbs just from my drenched shoes and skinsuit. This was going to be hard I thought and it was. I dropped off the lead group around mile 10 and now i could feed my glutes and hamstrings already beginning to tighten. I really didnt see anyone behind me just a couple other riders. I thought I was last but there was actually another group way behind me I didnt know about. Pic of me during the race.








Now were headed south and now the wind picked up. It was blowing from the east offshore and it was near 40mph. I was literally pushed over to the other side of the road from the strong force of the wind. I was battling the rain, wind and being soaked now. At one point I looked down and I was only doing 9mph just because of the wind was so strong. I was really leaning to my right trying to stay upright on my bike. So after several miles of this torture the course headed up some rolling hills but now im out of breath and miserable. I was pratically solo for about 7 miles or so thru the rolling hills. Coming back around the loop headed back to the finish I latched on to this other guys wheel and we pulled eachother for about 4 miles and then several more joined in and there was about 10 of us all pulling eachother. We averaged about 24 mph for the last 8 miles headed up the road to the finish line. The sun started coming out the last 3 miles back. Figures.


Me just finishing the race.








I didnt think i placed 1st for my catagory and I was thinking I was like 15th or so. So little did I realize, I just packed up and headed home. I checked the results online and was suprised. Now I thought I should of stuck around to receive my medal. I finally got in touch with the director of the race and will receive my medal in the mail. Once I get it, Ill bring it on Sunday when I ride again and show the VV family the first medal one from the family group. Now I can say all that training had paid off. Excited to actually win a race. Thanks team for those hard training days.

On a personal note: Id like to dedicate my win to my friend Thomas Wilson who tragically died riding his motorcycle last year in May. He was my first riding partner who took me up Santiago Cyn and I trained with him for 8 months.


No pain no gain!
The Warrior