Originally Posted by
adamrice
Yeah. The problem set in near the end of Day 1 when I stopped for dinner—when I got back on the bike, I realized my Achilles' tendons felt really tight. I stayed in the race another three days, but despite a couple of attempted remedies, they just got worse. The first day was cold, rainy, and windy (my bike looked like I'd been in a cyclocross race by the end of Day 1); I was late getting to the starting line and didn't have my leg warmers or booties on for the first 70 miles, and I think that's what did it.
On Day 4, I called my wife and said "This isn't fun. This isn't even Type-2 fun." My first priority was to avoid serious injury. Taking those two things together, scratching was a no-brainer. Luckily, Baker City has a pretty great bike hostel where I could cool my heels (literally and figuratively) with a couple other racers who were having problems.
I just saw your post and realized we had a convo about sleep systems before the race. Sorry it didn’t go well for you. The Achilles was my problem on day 3, but was fortunate in that icing it often worked. My mileage was low for a couple days, but it worked out. I remember wondering why the heck I was having this problem, when My training rides (brevets) were longer and tougher than the first 3 days. Just weird. It sounded like the start conditions weren’t very fun to say the least for this years riders Hope you are able to try it again.