Hotter 'N Hell Triple Threat

Hotter 'N Hell Hundred is one of the largest and longest running road rallies in the nation and has to be the largest one in Texas. The number that I heard on Sunday afternoon was 14,200 riders on either 10K (6.2 miles), 25 mile, 50 mile, 100K (62 miles) or 100 mile routes. This is the most known event of the weekend but what is lesser known is that there are two other events during this weekend that are open to the public to compete in, one being the 12 mile mountain bike race on Friday night and the other being either a 5K, 10K or half marathon trail run on Sunday morning. For the few special souls there is the Triple Threat Challenge, which comprises riding in the 12 mile mountain bike race on Friday, riding 100 miles on Saturday and running the half marathon trail run on Sunday. I'm not sure how many people actually participated in the TTC but of the 14,200 total riders it has to be less than 150 racers.

This isn't our first rodeo. Kati, Jonathan and I did the 100 mile ride last year and I must say that we learned a lot that day. So this year we decided to up the ante and go for the TTC. I have been training pretty hard for this event ever since the Lone Star Half Ironman by slowly increasing the distance of my rides on Saturday and getting up early on Sunday mornings to run so that my legs got used to how it felt to run the day after a long ride as well as trying to get used to long workouts in the heat. My plan was working well until I was on what was suppose to be an 80 mile ride and started getting knee pain to the point that I was unable to push down on the pedal any more and had to call Kati to come pick me up at mile 70. I went to the chiropractor with no results and finally went to a sports medicine doctor who ordered an MRI. The MRI concluded that I had a bruise on the top of my tibia and that I shouldn't run for at least 6 weeks, but the race was 5 weeks away. This ended up presenting two problems, one being that I wouldn't be able to participate at all and the other being if I was able to participate how much mental and physical strength would I lose with 5 weeks of little training. Normally I wouldn't start tapering down my workouts until about 2 weeks before race day but now I was forced into starting my recovery 5 weeks out. Stay tuned to find out how this worked out for me.

12 Mile Mountain Bike Race (1:05:49)
This was a great trail to ride. It offered every different possibility that a trail can have. It started out really easy and then changed to tight hairpin turns with close perimeter trees that just begged to catch a handle bar and send you flying off your bike. Then the dirtiness started at about 5 miles in with what seems like endless short and very steep drop offs followed by just as steep climbs. Some of these drop offs were so steep that if they had been much longer there was potential there to send you over your handle bars. After about 8 miles of pushing the pace pretty hard I pulled of the reigns knowing that this was only the first event of the weekend and the shortest so there was no rush. I loved this ride because it had so much to offer the rider. As far as the knee goes, there was very little pain but a little discomfort so it was a good start to the weekend.

pre race picture

100 mile road ride (5:43:48)

Last year was the first time that I road 100 miles at one go and I might have gone into it a bit naive. I didn't stop for the first time until 70 miles in and by that time I was running pretty low on nutrition which I never really recovered from. But this year having trained and raced the half ironman I had my nutrition down pat and used it in this race. So I had a plan set out to stop at miles 30, 60 and 90 to refill cold water because I over heat rather easily. When I got to 30 miles I was still good and pressed on to mile 40 where someone met me at my bike to refill my bottles. I also grabbed a Luna Bar (yes, I realize that these are suppose to be "women's" nutrition bars) out of my bag to eat. This is when I realized the age old adage to never try anything new on race day because I had stomach cramps from mile 50 all the way to 70 while that thing digested. After the refill, the route turned to the east and into a slight head wind that we rode into for about 25 miles which got a bit daunting at times. The mile 80 stop was the first time that I got off the bike a took a few minutes to enjoy not being on a hard saddle. This is when it started to get hard. I tried turning to a mental strategy that I have used on long runs to help through the last 20 miles, that being to tell myself how many times I have ridden 20 miles before and that I can do it again. This really didn't work because all the other times that I have ridden 20 miles it wasn't at a time that my legs were hurting so bad already. Luckily there was a lady that I ended up leap frogging with for the last 15 miles to the point that it became a game to us and we would say "Tag you're it" or "Now it's your turn to chase me." In the end I don't remember whether I got ahead of her or she beat me but I know that we didn't cross the line together. It was so nice to cross the line and get off the bike for the day. The other nice thing is that they have a fire hydrant blasting out cold water. While it kills Kati to see so much water being wasted it feels too good to be wrong. I finished just in time to see to see the Killdares start their set which was nice because the bagpiper in the band is my music teacher so it's always nice to see them. That night was a struggle to stay awake and we ended up treating ourselves to Sonic ice cream because I think we earned it.

post 100 mile ride

Ah yes the cycling tan lines.

Half Marathon Trail Run (2:05:43)
The third day was supposed to start at 5:00am but none of our alarms went off so Jonathan came in and woke Kati and I up at 5:30 so we were already a little behind schedule but not too bad. Luckily we still got to the race start in plenty of time to sort through the chaos that was race morning. None of the race officials or volunteers knew what was going on. The packet pick up was that morning, which is generally a bad idea, it was also outside and the volunteers didn't have flashlights to be able to read the names on the lists. It was a bit ridiculous. The race was supposed to start at 7:00 but didn't start until 7:30 due to the disorganization so I took a little jog around to see how the legs were feeling and how stiff my knee was. I must admit that I was a little concerned with how stiff it felt. The race organizer gave an instructions speech before the start that went something like this "5K runners you will turn around at point such and such, there is supposed to be someone there directing you but I wouldn't guarantee that there is. 10K runners will turn around at the second water stop which may or may not be there and half marathon runners will just keep running". I'm not exaggerating. Finally we got started and the first 8 miles felt great, volunteers were where they were supposed to be and water stops were located in their positions as well. Over all the run was quite uneventful until about mile 10 when I really started to hurt and by 11 I just wanted to stop and walk, I was done. Luckily I talked myself into continuing running and was so very thankful to cross the finish line and end this difficult weekend.

Finally done (the trophies say "I Survive the Triple Threat")

By Sunday night I was already getting stiff and sore. By Monday morning I was starting to waddle to get around because I couldn't walk right. As Kati said "This was a fun weekend in a sick & twisted kind of way" and I can't agree more with her on that sentiment. This weekend offered challenges like I have never faced before. With a triathlon you have one race day and you're done. But with this your body had time to get tired and stiffen up before it was expected to perform another grueling task. There were many times during the weekend where I wanted to call it quits but pressed on knowing that I would regret it later if I did. Even with the knee problems that I had coming into this weekend I believe that I was still able to race to the best of my ability. I must say that this is one of my prouder accomplishments.

You can see pictures from the race here. All you have to do it select the 2009 Hotter 'N Hell Hundred events under "Select Race" enter my last name and enter the bib number below. The pictures for the hundred mile ride and trail run have been posted but not the mountain bike race yet.

12 Mile Mountain Bike Race (#141)
100 Mile Road Ride (#837)
Half Marathon Trail Run (#622)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Rarely ever do I look for recipes and from those rare times it's ever more rare that I find something that actually makes me want to don an apron and bust out the wisk. But in the August edition of Triathlete Magazine there is a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from Andy Potts. I have no idea what the nutritional informaton is for these but they are so stinkin' good who cares.

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
14 ounces pumpkin pie filling
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Each batch makes about 30 muffins.

I have cooked this with the oil and am cooking them right now with the oil substituted with sugar-free apple sauce (yes, this was a request from Kati). I also find that miniture chocolate chips work best.

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin pie filling. In a seperate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and baking power. Add the flour mixture to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray Spoon the batter into the muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes.

I find that these are much better warm, so I throw them in the microwave for 15 seconds per muffin to melt the chocolate. Delicious.

Look At The Bones!

Last night marked the annual Glutton-Fest that coincides with my birthday each year. Glutton-Fest is a grotesque display of manhood, one might even say a right of passage to be accepted into the Stoddard household. The way that it works is Jonathan, Darin and I see how many teriyaki chicken wings we can eat. This annual event started out innocent enough many years ago, I simply just loved the chicken wings that mom made. So each year mom would purchase one family size package of chicken wings (I'm not sure how many pounds in one package). Now it has turned into her buying 12lbs each years just for the three of us. You would think that 12lbs would be enough that we ate until everyone said "Uncle" and the last person standing was the winner for the year, but no, the 12lbs don't last long and the whole charade turns into a display of a speed race rather than endurance.

There are a few rules to this madness though.

1. You can't fill your plate with all the chicken wings right off the bat.
   
2. You can only take a reasonable number of wings with each refill.
3. You cannot refill your plate until you have eaten everything that is already there.
4. When we start getting low on wings you can only take one at a time.

Each person has their own strategy. Jonathan likes to start out with the wing and not the drumstick. There is less meat on the wing but it is a more precarious piece that takes more effort to get all the meat off. The drumstick is easier to eat but there is more meat to get off before you can move onto the next one. So it ends up being six of one and a half dozen of the other. You have to come in with a plan and stick to it.

My plan this year was to come in with more speed. The problem with this plan is that there is a fine line between a good speed and just being rude and disgusting, there are other people around the table trying to eat after all.

(The carnage begins)

After the dust had cleared and the tray was empty, the counting began. Darin was done first and called out 36 wings consumed. I went next and to my dismay had come up two wings short at 34. Jonathan didn't bring his A game this year and came in a distant third with 25 wings.

(I look forward to this day more than any other each year)

There are a few people that without them this event would never go down. So let's thanks our sponsors.

• Mom - she does the brunt of the work, she has to buy the wings, skin them and make the marinade. There were 95 wings this year that had to be skinned.
• Dad - he mans the grill and makes sure that no wings slip through the cracks
• Kati - I'm just surprised that she even comes to Sunday dinner on this night, that's gotta be worth something.

Long live Darin the King of Glutton-Fest!