Stage 7- Cold Miserable and a DNF

Stage 7-

So woke up today to rain and cold weather. I tried my darnest to bundle up. I wrapped my knees in plastic wrap, my shoes in plastic wrap along with shoe covers, had plastic gloves on then warm winter gloves. I then had on Under Armour Cold top, a jersey, a long sleeve jersey, and a jacket, all covered up by a rain jacket. The first climb started at about 15K into the race. It was a steep hill with a bunch of switch backs, the picture is below. I made it to the top and my legs felt great, it was still part of the neutral zone (all the riders have to stay behind a pace car). They made us wait at the top to descend until everyone made it up. Once everyone was at the top we started to head down. It was a steep downhill and then once to the bottom it was gradual until the next climb. Well about 30K into the 100K ride I did a self check to see how the body was doing, it wasn't in a good state. My feet were really cold and wet, my fingers were numb and my legs were cold. My upper body was in good condition and warm. I decided to call it a day and get in the van. The TDK isn't my "A" race of the year and I figured packing it in was the best choice I could make to stay healthy and not get sick. We still have two more stages left so I figured I can come back strong tomorrow. The biggest disappointment was coming up to the top of the climb in the van to find out that they stopped the race at the top of the mountain, 50K in. All I would of had to do was make it another 20K, which I believe I could of done, as climbing would of warmed the body and the wind chill wouldn't of been so bad.

I still believe I made the right decision as the race could of went on. So I will start tomorrow stage 8 and hope for a good day. We are staying right on the beach tonight, as I type I can look out the window and see the waves crashing. I am still so grateful to be blessed with this opportunity and am so thankful to have made it through this race in one piece, so far. This is an amazing experience and all of the people that I have been able to meet and interact with has been awesome. I am kind of sad there is only 2 days left, but at the same time I am ready to embark on the next 5 weeks in preparation for IM China. Thanks again for all of the support and the amount of people following the blog and on FB means a lot.

Below is a video from today and the elevation chart and shot of the first climb.

Coming up the mountain after myself and Elmer got in the van. Thanks to Rich for helping us out and making sure we got warm right away. He experienced the horrible conditions last year and decided not to race today and was a great support person in the van!

The first climb was awesome, the legs felt great and it had some great switch backs. If you click on the picture, the first pause sign is where they stopped us and was at the top, the rest is the descent.

The first climb was the neutral one. My garmin stayed on when it was on the bike on the top of the roof so you can see the second climb as well. The peak is where the race stopped.