Moab Leg 8 Details
| Distance: | 36.1 Miles |
| Start Elevation: | 5,983 Feet |
| Finish Elevation: | 6,632 Feet |
| Total Ascent: | 1,998 Feet |
| Total Descent: | -1,345 Feet |
| Net Elevation: | 649 Feet |
| High Point | 7,838 Feet |
| Low Point: | 5,809 Feet |
Leg 8 Notes
Shortly after leaving Henrieville you will pass through the small towns of Cannonville and Tropic. In Cannonville at mileage 3.4 you can find a visitors center for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. After Tropic enjoy the views to the west of Bryce Canyon National Park from below. At mileage 10.9 you will enter the Park. The road winds up the canyon with spectacular red hoodoos all around. Yes, the official name is a hoodoo. Reach the summit at mileage 14.4 and stay on top the plateau for about 9 miles, then begin the decent into Red Canyon. Again more hoodoos in every direction and pass though the 2 red rock tunnels at mileage 24.4 and 24.5. At the bottom of Red Canyon take a right in UT-89 and finish the leg into Panguitch.
Like I said earlier, Thad covers* the Boulder to Henrieville midnight run like a Japanese bullet train in express mode, arriving in 3hrs 20min. We know he's coming in hot so when we get to the exchange we park and scatter to battle stations. Kim heads into the church bathroom that the denizens of Henrieville (population 159, though on the second Saturday in June that number increases almost exponentially) are kind enough to loan us, Jenn hydration and lights: helmet and handlebars (Thad gave us complex instructions on how to get said light set charged which I probably would have promptly forgotten even with a full night's sleep and a clear head but which Kim and Jenn,who at the time was bombing down boulder mtn's** south slope must have figured out cause lights are on and blazin') and I get bento box, saddle bag and tail light duty and working together we manage to get Kim and her bike to the exchange chute just after Thad arrives. We do give back a couple of those hard earned minutes, but only a couple. And really, Thad has only himself to blame (why so fast Cap'n Engar?)
*Upon further review, only 20 cyclists did that leg faster than him this year, not 33 like originally reported. Crazy. I'm still trying to process that.
** (also, from previous blog entry) Post race addendum. A male cyclist's time was listed along with the QOM finishers as the second fastest. This has since been amended and Jennifer actually took the third spot (podium finish) on the Boulder KOM/QOM climb (woot-woot). In the awards ceremony they only recognized the King & Queen respectively which is a good thing because otherwise we would have to call up the Rockwell Riders and organizers and hold a post hoc podium ceremony and photo op, I would insist upon it. That said, it was a brilliant performance on her first time doing Rockwell against veteran riders.
 |
| "There were breakfast burritos? Where? When?" -Kim |
Kim's first leg featured her longest climb, this one is the steepest, but shorter. Lots shorter (I thought) but in actuality it's more than a dozen miles of climb. Some gorgeous scenery as you move into Bryce Canyon National Park but the big effort Kim and team Taking Turns' gave on day one that got us to Capitol Reef in the light of day is now costing her the majestic views of Bryce Canyon's hoodoos as she climbs the 15 miles from Cannonville to the high desert plains outside Panguitch in darkness. I wish I could say we were right there with her, that our collective 'off the bike' energy propelled her to the heights but that would be less than accurate. What I can recall are at least three separate roadside conversations that were variations of:
Jenn: (startling herself awake) "wha, wha, did she pass us already?"
Thad: (twitch, snore, mutter something like 'stupid burrito' then pass out again)
Me: "I don't know, I was asleep."
Jenn "You're supposed to be watching, you've slept more than any of us."
Which, true, but at this point that's like being the member of a leper colony with the most remaining digits, possibly noteworthy but hardly helpful. None of us are in any shape to offer more than the most cursory assistance to our rider. We've always said a dedicated driver (really two) would be ideal but have never actively pursued it but probably should. We needn't have worried though, If Kim's battle with the desert roads from Lake Powell to Hanksville left any scars, physical or psychological she's showing no signs of it now. She handles the solitude, the cold, the dark, the hill, the washed out and reduced to one pot holed-gravel lane near the summit of the Bryce Canyon climb with aplomb. Meanwhile we are are waging our own personal wars with fatigue, cramped quarters, even more cramped muscles and the after effects of roadside breakfast burritos. Thad, after a valiant effort, loses said battle and returns his Bountiful Bike blue plate special to its mother earth. The incident has Jenn (who has tossed her cookies exactly twice in the last 35 years, the second time resulting in a trip to the emergency department) worrying that he will be unable to finish his last leg and she begins doing the inevitable arithmetic in her head, mentally dividing Thad's remaining miles among us. I know better however. 'Juice has got strong legs and an even stronger heart and lungs but he has a semi-weak stomach and is prone to motion sickness. He's done some serious spinning on twisty roads at speed and elevation. He just needs to puke a little. Give him a breath mint and a nap and he'll right as rain, I'm confident. Jenn isn't so sure but goes along, because what else can she do?
 |
| Tradition holds that I make a hash of capturing this idyllic race moment as our rider tucks through the double arches in Red Canyon as I screw up the photo. This year it's still semi dark when Kim gets here and by this time she has already sent us ahead to the exchange, so you get this perfect rendering lifted from Google images (sans cyclist) |
Within a few minutes of 'the Burrito Incident' Kim blows past our roadside pitstop, yell's "Team!" startles us to activity and when we chase her down for a 'last call!' and she cuts us loose to make the final run into Panguitch. It's lighter now, though the sun has yet to show itself on the horizon. It's cold but has been colder, even later in the day in years past. Again, these conditions will be hard to improve upon, ever but those same idyllic conditions leave me standing in front of my duffel bag like Jenn in our closet on Sunday morning, wondering what will be the right thing to wear. I'm still debating as Kim rolls in to the exchange at 6:50 AM, logging a more than respectable 2 hr 48 minute finish arriving exactly 12 hours (almost to the minute) since she and I did this same thing in Hanksville. These last 4 legs are bound to be covered in far less time.
|
 |
| Legs 9 and 10 have changed several times due to the conditions that can exist when your anticipated route includes mountain roads that climb above 10,000 feet. The online race bible has not been updated so we will use this screen shot provided by the ever resourceful Jenn. |
Just past Panguitch lake I see my first cyclist and work on reeling him in, it takes a bit but I do so and am just beginning to congratulate myself when I realize he's not wearing a bib number on his jersey or bike, just a guy out on an early Saturday morning ride and probably wondering why I look so pleased with myself for passing him. I do catch the lead* rider of team Daisy Chain (eventual women's competitive champs) just before Mammoth Creek Road and I tell her about our upcoming reprieve from the constant climbing. It was welcome news for both of us. As I climbed out of the Duck Creek Depression (both geographical and emotional, dropping a thousand feet just to climb those same thousand before you even turn a crank on level ground will get you down in the mouth) we began encountering runners of a Zion-based Ragnar race whose route coincided for about thirty miles with that of our Relay (and yeah, I caught and dropped dozens of them).
*yeah I'm congratulating myself for beating a girl. If nothing else this ride completely erases any antiquated notions like being 'chicked' on a ride or inequality of gender. If you're still on your bike and pedaling at this point, you are an athlete and a strong one, simple as that
About a mile from the exchange, not certain because there were no helpful and encouraging two miles and one mile left, blinking road signs like there have been on previous legs (I'm not implying the Ragnar runners stole them, but they are the only other people up here and if I were running at this altitude, encountered a sign that told me I was done in a mile and then later found out it was lying, well I would at the very least go back and find that sign and throw it in the bushes, just sayin') I get passed by Jared and another rider he is working with. He gives me a friendly pat on the shoulder and a 'good job, keep it going' and pedals off, like he has a special arrangement with gravity that I don't. Which of course he does and if said arrangement were expressed as another Rockwell Relay math equation it would go something like this:
Where X=the weight of the climber from Team Taking Turns With Spouses:
Jared = 2/3X
Which yields the predictable result in split times. If you remove all the teams who don't post a split time for this leg (and there were about a dozen which means teams are getting too tired to remember how to ride through a timing chute or more likely are skipping legs, taking a nap and driving to the next exchange) I'm about the same for this leg as the others. Faster than some, but slower than a lot more. Bottom line is, to be competitive in this race you need a true climber, not just a guy who doesn't mind riding up hills. It also means that while we were sleeping and having disagreements with each other and the food we ate in Henrieville, Kim was busy catching and dropping (again) cyclist 4 from Jared's team.
I make the Duck Creek exchange in just over two and a half hours, and at ~9:30 am I unstrap and deliver the time chip to Jennifer one final time and though this race will go on for us well into the afternoon, my part of it is O-ver! It's about this time that cyclist 3&4 start thinking "You know those hills really aren't that bad and there aren't that many of them. It would be totally worth it to climb them if I could be done right now." And, to an extent (and that extent may or may not involve having your will broken and your soul bruised) they are right. It feels great to be done.
 |
| Still working off Jenn's resourceful screen shots |
Each cyclist gains at least a passing knowledge of the terrain with which his/her other three teammates will have to contend but you study your pages in the race bible like it truly is Holy Writ and your cycling salvation depends on it. So Jenn knows what she has coming or at least believes she does. The theme of this leg is descent, almost 5k worth of descent from close to ten thousand feet near Cedar Breaks down to main street in Cedar city. Lots of things can happen to roads at this elevation and from a cyclists' standpoint, most of them are bad. One year the planned route had not been opened yet because snow hadn't melted, another year a massive mudslide closed down the canyon for six months. Even on the best years, like the one we are currently experiencing, the roads at this elevation pitch and wind dramatically. It keeps things visually engaging and on any other day would be the sort of adventure you love to have on a bike but today is not any other day. Jenn is confronting the limits of how well prepared you can be basing your knowledge on what the race bible and first hand accounts from past riders can tell you. It's easy to dismiss this leg when you compare it to what you had to do by yourself, in the dark of night on Boulder Mountain. And it's a valid point, the two are far from comparable but this leg still has climb, 1500 feet worth and now at altitudes above nine thousand feet on muscles that instead of being allowed to recover have been used harshly and badly mistreated and are now struggling with the limited oxygen they are being supplied.
In short (as previously stated) Rockwell Relay gives no free passes and Jenn is receiving a personal witness of that fact. I tried to warn her this leg will fool you. There is climbing, a ride over Suncrest worth of climb. Those vertical feet are stretched over 14 miles as opposed to the 4.5 of Suncrest but it's steep at times and you will be tired. Very tired. In every way you can be tired. Only Jenn knows if she took that advice to heart and to what extent she was unpleasantly surprised by leg 10. By her own admission she could have done it faster but I feel that way after almost every ride, training or racing, that I do. It's that selective memory, universal to all endurance athletes that clouds out the pain and misery and keeps you coming back for more. Keeps you believing you can improve on a result because when you are reviewing your numbers on Strava you are filtering out the recent burning of your lungs, cramping of your muscles the pounding of your heart, and the throbbing in your head.
 |
| Support at this point in the race dwindles, inevitably. First day we are all standing roadside giddy with cowbells in hand. Now we are down to two in the truck (generally asleep) and the driver awake only because she has to be to drive sticking a head out the window and shouting "You OK?" |
So whether or not Jenn could have climbed harder or faster is a matter for personal debate one that has brought all of us back to this race, year after year. The descent (and again, that's 2/3 of this leg but less than half resulting time) is another story altogether. Even if you are confident and skilled at going down hills (check and check for Jennifer), Cedar Canyon is a terrible place to ride your bike. Lots of traffic, not much shoulder to work with, crappy roads (this is mudslide territory and the slides that don't wipe out the road still leave plenty of gravel, rocks and boulders to contend with) and the ever present crosswinds that threaten to push you into a guardrail or oncoming traffic at any moment. Jenn handles it all without difficulty. Perhaps not as fast as she may have liked but you're really not going to make up or lose a lot of time here. They do move the exchange point away from the convenient park at the mouth of Cedar Canyon to a less convenient and far less inviting middle school parking lot near downtown. The route forces riders to stop at lights and cross busy roads, delaying Jenn's arrival just enough to make me worry that something untoward may have occurred up the canyon but just before I tell Thad and Kim that I'm heading back to check on her, our rider pedals into the exchange smiling the smile of one who has met the Rockwell Relay head on and defeated the portion allotted to her. Done and done, Larsen half of Team Taking Turns' anyway. Time to relax in the truck.
Moab Leg 11 Details
| Distance: | 41.5 Miles |
| Start Elevation: | 5,871 Feet |
| Finish Elevation: | 5,362 Feet |
| Total Ascent: | 1,224 Feet |
| Total Descent: | -1,654 Feet |
| Net Elevation: | -509 Feet |
| High Point: | 6,467 Feet |
| Low Point: | 5,295 Feet |
Leg Notes
After leaving Cedar City make the 1,000 foot climb to the Iron Mountain Pass where early Utahn’s settled in 1850 as part of the “iron mission.” After the pass at mile 30.0 arrive to the quaint town of Newcastle and follow the Bench Road through the ranchlands until you arrive to Enterprise.
Leg Nicknames: Forty Miles of Charmless Road, I expected more from town called Enterprise, Hit the Showers and simply Merde!*
*Thad insisted on that last one and bases it on his experience riding through the thoroughly visually and olfactorally unpleasant, wind swept farm roads of east Iron County and for my Francophone readers I looked it up. It means dung.
Another nickname for this leg could be "Are we seriously still doing this? Still? Seriously?" The answer in triplicate rhetorical form is "Yes, we are.". Thad is geared up, water bottles full, tires pumped and legs ready to churn and he has to sit on that simmering pot as he watches one team after another meet their rider and send them off. Having done this before he knows how long, hot, windy not to mention bleak this leg can be. He could use some company, if for no other reason than to break up the monotony. He chats up every rider* that mounts up and sidles next to him in the chute gauging their level of fitness, confidence and suitability as a much envied and rarely available at this point in the race, ride partner. He's generally encouraged with his responses and prospects and then equally saddened as they pedal off, leaving him like a refugee waiting in camp for his visa to be approved.
*possible exception (again, still) his soon to be the stuff of Rockwell Legend midnight run through the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument
 |
| the penultimate bottle exchange. good thing we went back for one more |
*Arby's, which like a lot of things we do this weekend is only OK within the 'normal rules of demeanor and decorum, sensibility and sanity don't necessarily apply here' bubble that is the Rockwell Relay
The decision to go back turns out to be the right one, a game saver even. Thad is still 10 miles out (turns out there was still one more hill, this should come as no surprise to any of us at this point, there is always one more hill) when we get to him, pedaling into the hottest hours of the day with maybe a swallow of water left in his bottle and another 35 minutes of hard riding ahead of him. As soon as he sees us he looks absolutely relieved, rescued even. He promptly swigs the last of his liquid and reaches out graciously for the last bottle we brought. We speed back to the exchange (again at a new locale, not in the parking lot of the Truck Stop/Convenience Store (with bathing facilities where it usually is) which is actually half a mile closer than the old spot which turned out to be exactly where Thad was willing to ride, and not a meter more. Kim mounts up and heads south, into the heat to brave the steep hills and violent crosswinds of Veyo. I rack Thad's bike and drive him to the Truckstop/YMCA so he can shower up. He has done this every year and swears it is the best five-buck Truck Stop shower on the planet. Which, like me claiming that the parking lot in Escalante High School the best pavement for sleeping seems to be damning with the faintest of praise but Thad swears by it and we won't be leaving until he gets his shower so we leave him to it.
Moab Leg 12 Details
| Distance: | 39.6 Miles |
| Start Elevation: | 5,362 Feet |
| Finish Elevation: | 2,687 Feet |
| Total Ascent: | 1,020 Feet |
| Total Descent: | -3,658 Feet |
| Net Elevation: | -2,675 Feet |
| High Point: | 6,175 Feet |
| Low Point: | 2,687 Feet |
Leg 12 Notes
What better way to finish the Rockwell Relay than with a 3,000 foot plus decent into St. George. Pass through the cedar and juniper rich mountains south of Enterprise and then descend down through the ancient volcanoes near Veyo. The route follows the St. George Marathon route into downtown. Obey all traffic rules and stoplights in St. George. If desired the 3 team members can meet up with Cyclist #4 at the north end of Diagonal St. to finish the last mile of the course together. Follow Diagonal St and follow the signs flags to Bluff Street park. Victory! You have made it and deserve a good rest and time to relax. The Bluff Street Park is the ideal place to sit, lay down, or nap in the shade and get the rest you need. Congratulations!
Gauging from Kim's mood, she has been looking forward to leg 12 for some time now, and not just because it means this race against sleep deprivation and the elements is almost and finally coming to an end, rather it's because she will at last be riding on roads with which she is familiar. The final 20 miles or so follow the St George marathon, which she has run before, almost exactly. Also, she and Thad have ridden these roads on training rides so unlike the previous two legs she knows exactly what she is up against. That knowledge is a knife that cuts both ways however. On the one hand she knows the hills, when they come and how long they last but she also knows how violently the wind can blow through Veyo and all along Highway 18 leading into St George. In fact, on one of the aforementioned rides she had her helmet practically blown off her head, blown to pieces in fact, by a particularly violent gust that coincided with the passing of a semi truck. So she knows a little something about how bad it can get. It's not that bad today but it is windy and it is hot. St George-summer hot (the calendar and the farmer's almanac are finally paying attention to each other again). I said it before and I'll say it again now, we all did our part to help move the team along from Moab to SG, but Kim got more than her share of weather extremes. So we keep an eye on her for the first fifteen miles of her leg. We swap out a bottle and stay close until the lion-share of her climbing is in the books.  |
| Before I can get the camera locked and loaded Kim is across the line and ready to dismount for the last time |
 |
| Kim get's a well and hard earned congratulations from race organizer Dan Stewart |
The numbers don't lie, across the board, leg by leg, split by split, our wives have equaled the best efforts of their predecessors, and if you match them against total time on the bike for cyclists 2 and 4 as an aggregate year by year they beat them, hands down. It's a game performance on their parts. They have done themselves and the Relay proud and it has been an honour to ride with them.
