My (First) Vision Quest

I had first heard about the Vision Quest a few years ago. At that time, I thought it was only crazy elite mountain bikers who could pull something like that off - 55 miles on dirt with ~11,000 feet of elevation gain.

Well, 5 years later, 35 pounds lighter, and a couple of unhealthy habits gone, I became one of those crazy mountain bikers (notice how I left the word ‘elite’ out).

Coming into Beek's

With the Counting Coup (aka Baby Vision Quest) under my belt from last year, I kind of knew what to expect, so the nervousness and anxiety from last year was no where to be found. The only thing I was concerned about was making the time cutoffs.

With the cutoffs constantly in the back of my mind, I think it made me push a little harder, and for the first 2.5 hours (Blackstar to Motorway), I went out a little too hard (avg HR 171 bpm). I think because of that, my close friend “The Cramp” came to pay a visit early on. I’ve learned to deal with cramps over the past few races. I can generally still pedal and ride, but I just can’t push very hard.

So slowly but surely, I kept going. I got to the last VQ cutoff point with 20 minutes to spare. There in my aid bag, I had stowed a bottle of Pickle Juice Sport. Like a miracle, my cramps started fading and I continued on my way.

The last leg of VQ has one section called West Horsethief that just plain sucks. It’s about 1.5 miles long, but you end up gaining 1,300 ft, and needless to say, for less than elite riders like myself, it’s mostly hike-a-bike. I think that ordeal lasted a good 50 minutes.

At the top of West Horsethief, there was only about 2 miles more of slight climbing to go to reach the top of Trabuco. That’s where happiness and relief starts to settle in, because from there, it’s a good 10 miles of downhill to the finish.

I cross the finish line in 9:13. Slower than I had wanted, but at least I finished. I got a beaded feather for my efforts and I’m already thinking about next year.

At the finish line


2009 Vision Quest GPX File

Tags: mountain bike, vision quest