LOTOJA 2007 story

While I'm here I thought I'd toss up my story about the 2007 LOTOJA race. LOTOJA is a 206 miler from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming. I love LOTOJA and plan on doing it yearly "till death do us part". Rick Frost and I were the only ones I knew of from Arizona to do the race last year. I did the race solo(no sag) and if it weren't for Rick and his family, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off, they were awesome.

I wanted to go easier than I did that day because I had the HooDoo 500 the very next weekend but got caught up in the racing and didn't preserve myself until later in the race. I was able to finish HooDoo but I believe LOTOJA may have been detrimental to my health.

I can't stop thinking about doing HooDoo again this year but it's the same time line as last year with the races running back-to-back so we'll see. Anyways, here's the brief write-up, take care.

LOTOJA 2007:
Let me start by correcting my result, I finished in 10:57. Not a huge correction from your e-mail, but it's nice to tell people with tongue-in-cheek that Rick and I finished " around 10 hours".
I wasn't going to do this race, the logistics were too stressful with only Rick Frost and myself being entered, and me doing it solo (without a support vehicle). My main problem ( knowing I was going alone and without a sag) was how to get back from Jackson Hole after the finish. I had resigned myself to just finishing and looking for a ride at the finish, or even hitchhiking as Kyle did at Ragbrai this year. Rick came through huge though by asking Jill's father to drive up to Jackson in my car, and he was kind enough to do that for me. I gotta say here that the Frost's were absolutely incredible to help me race, they even drove my bike up and were pretty much my only cheering section.
Weather was perfect at the start, arm warmers maybe. Typical staggered start with the faster groups heading out first, 33 packs in all, around 50 in each pack. I started with the 7th pack and we were flying. We went by the group that started 2nd about 10 miles from Preston. Of course Preston is where it all gets scambled, and it's every rider for themselves. The first big climb at Strawberry Pass is where I started thinking about preserving myself for next week and let some groups go. Overall, I really just wanted to try out the Perpetuem (endurance drink with protein), and not get too pooped for my little race next week.
So, I went easy up the first climb, went down the other side very fast, then got stupid. I came upon three very fast riders, we worked well together and tore it up. We passed most the riders from my original group. We kept pushing until I came to my senses and realized I was just jeopardizing my event next week. At this point I was a bit fried and remorseful about it. One thing that slowed me down was not having a crew to give me stuff. I stopped at the three neutral feed zones to mix the Perpetuem, this took about 5 minutes and I got frustrated watching the sagged riders go by.
I was feeling sick at this point because I believe I had mixed the Perpetuem too thick, and for sure went too hard. I crawled up Snake River Pass ( the steepest part of the race) and rode by myself to Afton. A group caught me after Afton and I was feeling a little better. It was around this time fellow Brumbus Rick pulls up seeking shelter from the head wind. It did get pretty windy along Star Valley, and a paceline was the place to be. We were in the same disorganized pack for awhile but we were slowing him down. He pulled a small group away and off into the sunset. Rick just missed his goal of finishing under ten hours, I think he would have done it, but out of devotion, he waited for his group too much. I heard many a "thank you" after the race from riders in his group thanking him for his long pulls at the front. When I got to Alpine I was feeling sick again not wanting to eat, along with nausea. So, I slowed down to a snail's pace again until the last aid station where I met up with a group that I could stay with and cruised to the finish.

After the race I said my goodbyes to the Frosts and headed down to American Fork where I stayed the rest of the night at a friend's house. Yikes, that was painful in itself.

I'm glad I was able to go up this year and grateful for Rick's family making it possible. One of these years I'll put it together and do better. But, if that never happens, I'll still have fun and enjoy this beautiful race.
Must cry now, Jim