El Tour de Tucson 2009

Written by Michael McKisson

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 01:05

Last year, when El Tour de Tucson came around, I had only been riding for four months and was still closer to 300 pounds then 200 pounds. Last year my goal was to complete the 35-mile route of El Tour de Tucson. Here is a photo from last year's ride.

This year's El Tour provided its own set of challenges. Two weeks before El Tour I registered for a GABA ride, which was 90 miles. But the night before that ride, I hurt my back and couldn't participate. Up until that point, the longest I had ridden in one day was 70 miles. I had been riding 150 miles a week, but hadn't done a really long day ride.

In addition to my lack of long distance riding, we celebrated the birth of our first child just six days before El Tour de Tucson. We were super excited to welcome Lucilia Quinn McKisson into our life. Needless to say, sleep was hard to come by in the days leading up to El Tour. Luckily, Irene's sister came over the night before, which allowed me to sleep the whole night before the ride.

On the morning of the ride, I drove to my friend Rob's house and we rode to start line. We got there about 10 minutes before the ride was scheduled to start. We didn't want to get their too early because it was cold outside and neither of us were all that concerned with our time for the event. We both just wanted to focus on completing the 108 miles.

Rob and I rode together for the first 50 miles. We tried to work with a few other people in a paceline so that we could go faster without expending as much energy.

At the 50 mile mark, I was feeling really strong. My legs were feeling really fresh, so Rob and I decided to split up. A few miles after we split up, I found a few people who were a little disorganized, but moving at a pretty good clip. I tried to get everyone organized and we started working together for the next 35 miles, which is the hardest part of the route, but we managed a really good pace.

At mile 80 my legs started to cramp when I would coast. I pulled into the next support station to refill my water bottles and let Irene and Luci know they should head to the finish line.

From mile 82-92, I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't find a group to work with, so I was riding alone and it was getting windy. Luckily police officers held up a big group of cyclists to ease some traffic congestion. I was able to join them and ride the last 15 miles with several big groups.

Riding with the group let me conserve some energy and when we got a mile out, I started pushing a little harder. The we made a left into Downtown Tucson and I started sprinting to the finish line.

When all was said and done, I rode 107.69 miles in 5 hours and 53 minutes, which placed me in the gold category. The winners of the race did it in 4 hours and 17 minutes. They were professional racers from Mexico. The last rider finished in 11 hours 53 minutes. I placed in the top 30 percent of riders.

I was really thrilled with my time for the event, especially when I was concerned that I might not even be able to finish. But the pest part was being greeted by the two most important people in my life.