Purple 5k and Downtown Bike Crit

About a month and a half ago I received an email asking for volunteers for the first annual Purple 5k and Downtown bike crit.  I thought 'Purple 5k, that's kind of a weird name but what the heck is a bike crit?'  I found it on Wikipedia.  Its actually short for criterium race, which is a "bike race held on a short course, often run on closed-off city center streets. Race length can be determined by a total time or a number of laps, in which case the number of remaining laps is calculated as the race progresses."  Thanks Wiki. 

Anyway, I was interested and terrified all at the same time.  Sarah and I have never raced before and this one almost sounded like roller derby on bikes.  Although I'd love to participate in a roller derby, the idea of speeding around people at 18 to 20 mph on top of unsteady metal frames and flimsy rubber tires wasn't something I eagerly jumped into.  I decided to volunteer with the planning of both events just to see what they had up there sleeves and to keep count on how many riders we'd be competing against should we decide to race.  When there were only 75 runners and 30 cyclists registered a few days before the event, Sarah and I decided to go for it.  Little did we know that those numbers were to quickly shoot up to 265 runners and about 60-70 cyclists.

It was a chilly morning last Saturday when I sped out on my mountain bike to go help set up for the 5k after party.  Sarah was at home getting the girls ready to go to the baby-sitter's.  She met me in downtown and we took the shuttle up to the start line.  Just minutes before the race began, Sarah and headed over to the start line with surprisingly ample space to spread out.  I looked at the large pack behind us and asked Sarah if she wanted to move back from the line.  Nope, she was rearing to go, and me, a non-runner in all sense of the word, was about to get plowed over.  POW!, the race started and I took off.  I could see the lead pack right in front of me and could hear Sarah right behind me.  WHAT!  Sarah's behind me.  That can't be good.  I slowed down to find my own pace before I completely burned out just a mile into the race.  Sarah quickly passed and I waved and yelled "See you at the finish line!"  As I watched her get smaller and smaller in the distance ahead of me, I realized that I am not nor will ever be a runner.  I had only two goals going into this race, finish in under 30 minutes and don't stop to walk.  Well, I finished in 27 minutes 27 seconds which was good enough for me and, although I really wanted to, I did not stop to walk.  That's a success in my book.  Sarah, full of energy, met me at the finish line and walked me over to a bench to sit down as I regained my breathe.  She'd finished several minutes before at 24:04, 5 seconds from her goal of breaking 24 minutes.

After the 5k, we went home to recover and I spent some time prepping the bikes.  We were nervous about the race so I fixed up the mountain bikes with slick tires.  When we got to the bike crit, they hadn't started yet because they were towing cars off the course, we did several laps to test it out.  Sarah decided to go home and get her road bike.  I stayed with my trusty mountain bike (the gears are still skipping on my road bike).  As we waited for our race, we watched the first heat of beginners fly around the course for 45 minutes.  They looked downright exhausted afterwords after essentially sprinting the whole way.   They were fast though and made the sport look easy.  It was quite impressive to watch.

Our friend Chris cruising around a corner in the expert class

 Shot of the expert class from the Downtown Billings Alliance

 After the expert heat, we were up.  We were mixed with some really experienced riders, some enthusiasts like Sarah and myself, and some true beginners.  I knew this was going to be an interesting race.  The gun went off and we struggled for our positions in the pack as we turned the first u-turn in a single file line.  Then we took off racing again trying to gain positions before the next turn.  In all, there were four U-turns and four 90 degree turns in each lap.  You had to almost stop to get around the U-turns and then sprint it as quick as you could to the next one.  Stop and go, stop and go, stop and go.  Oh, my thighs were starting to burn!  I figure we did 18-20 laps for about 9 miles in 30 minutes.  Honestly, 9 miles in 30 minutes on an open road is pretty good.  That's an 18 mph pace.  We were topping out at over 20 mph on our straight-aways and slowing down to about 5 or 6 mph at the U-turns.  We had such a blast, and although we were exhausted afterwords, we were on a high from the days activities.  I mean, it was fun just watching the crit race.  Riding it was exhilarating.  (Sarah says she kicked my butt, but she didn't lap me)  **Sarah here:  I almost lapped Russ--right at the end.  It was intense but so much fun!**

Russ rounding a corner at the crit

Sarah rounding a corner at the crit

Russ and Sarah after the crit 

 Russ and Sarah after the crit