Race Report By Eric “The Animal” Hunner: The Traverse 2009
RL Policar-The Animal shares his experience during the 2009 Traverse. Read his report and you’ll be amazed by his strength. I swear man, its like reading about Paul Bunyan or Hercules or something big and strong…I would like to add that The Animal is a very humble guy. The whole team as well as strangers alike are always commenting on how amazing he is or how powerful and how he has these massive banana sized hands, but The Animal remains low key about his abilities. Not only is he a great racer, but he really is a super cool dude.
I am starting to write my report a little more than 24 hours since the finish of “The Traverse” an epic race though the Santa Ana mountain range. Today has been a little rough, I am still feeling the after effects of the race,
I raced in The Traverse in 2008 which was a burner with temps hovering in the mid 100’s, so I didn’t take any chances as far as hydration was concerned for this years race. I outfitted my Ergon BD-1 with two bladders, one 3 liter with straight water, and a 2 liter with a mix.
This combination works well for me at 240 pounds I need a lot of fluid, and weight is not an issue with the Ergon backpack. I stuffed my Hoss shorts full of Sportlegs, Ibuprofen {a necessary evil when riding rigid long distance}, Hammer Gels, Power Bars, taped another Power bar on the seat post, and taped more gels on the handlebars. I didn’t want to start thinking about the catered El Pollo Loco at the finish half way though the race. I wanted to race my race and not stop at check points to eat. Lots of food, lots of fluid, and a hassle free Single Speed geared 32×20 on 26″ wheels with lots of PSI in the tires.
My wife was kind enough to drop me off at the start on Blackstar road. I took a quick spin down the road to loosen up, and it was about time to line up for the mass start all 175 of us. I chatted with some familiar faces that I met while racing with the MTNBikeRiders.com Team, one fellows name was Mark [we met at a Mt. SAC race] small world. Mark and his son were racing The Traverse together, very cool I hope to do the same with my little girl some day.
The Pro and Expert class take off promptly at 7am and the rest of us follow. I started right behind the Pro and Expert class and stayed to the side for the first two miles of flat terrain to stay out of the way of geared riders Big Ringin it down the the fire road. As the climbing started I began weaving though the same riders that passed me minutes before. Next stop Beek’s Place, I put my head down and started pressing on I had a long race ahead of me.
Beek’s Place is only a few hundred yards away and I hear RL hooting and hollering. It is an incredible feeling to have support on top of the mountain especially coming from from your team, it is no easy feat to get up to the ridge by car/truck/or suv and be on time for the event. Joe hauled his camera gear up the mountain captured the action unfolding in front of me. I was chasing a single speed up Blackstar and made my pass just after passing Joe [by the Golf ball], I kept up a fast pace and held off the other Single Speeds behind me. In The Traverse they do not have a Single Speed division but I chose to ride one anyways and so did about 5 other riders.
The weather was about perfect this race I don’t think the temp went over 100 degrees and there was a slight breeze. After many miles of riding and eating a bunch of science food all I could think about was El Pollo Loco at the Finish Line. It was 11:37am and my friend Mark caught up to me as I slowed down to ward off the cramps. We were riding up the last climb to West Horse Thief trail and I said, “El Pollo Loco is going to be served in 23 minutes I can not wait” we are still an hour away from the finish. That hour felt like two hours after going down loose shale rocks and ruts on a rigid bike. I finished the race for the second year in a row, and improved my time by an hour. 2008 time 6hours 36minutes, 2009 5hours 36 minutes. I was glad just to finish this race, it it one of the hardest races I have done yet.
Dude, you are one amazing rider!!! When I grow up, I wanna be just like you!
Wow Eric, 1 whole hour off your time? Dang…that’s crazy.
Great job out there!
RL
Great job Eric!
Amazing! And you knocked an hour off from last at that heat!!
Fantastic job!
Jeffrey
ERGON USA, Inc.
Nice job and on a SS way to go!!!!!!!!!!
Way to go ERIC!! That is awesome!! I thought 18 miles @ Sagebrush was tough! You ROCK!! I am bowing before you!! You make the team very proud!
Thanks everyone, this race to me is a great personal milestone, at the halfway point I found myself wondering why you are punishing yourself. When I crossed the finish line I figured it out, I don’t want to tell you about it, I want YOU to Experience this same feeling yourself.
I just turned 31 five days before this race, {what a great present to myself} and I feel my riding is getting better with age, maybe smarter and wiser…
Nicely done Big Eric!
As I was searchibng for pictures from the event, I came across this web site.
I saw you at the race, i did it as well ! ! I was at your right at the start with a Mexico Jersey ! !
Tough ride, damn was hard . . I bet the trabuco trail was tough with rigid bike right ! ! !
Anyway, I got cutrious how you manage the hydration, because I’m always havig issues with cramps (I’m 6’2″ 220 lb), after reading some of your comments about ibuprofen, I got curious why you take that (I’ve heard it before) so i was wondering if ibuprofen can releive me from crampig. but i came across this info that you might want to check it out. It looks like not a good idea the ibuprofen after all ! ! http://www.active.com/story.cfm?CHECKSSO=0&STORY_ID=12992
I would appreciatre suggestions.
and BTW i turned 33 just 3 days before the race
Hi Israel, If you want to see and buy some high quality pictures from Beeks Place goto http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=4715927, this is our team mate Joe’s site JS3 images.
I usally don’t use ibuprofen, but I do carry it with me for the long races. I hold off until the pain is taking over, it has helped with muscle pains during the race and I am aware that you can hurt yourself with over use. I did take the ibuprofen when crossing the saddle and it helped with Trabuco trail later on, but it still hurt…
way to go “little” bro. a 1 hour improvement is an amazing improvement. i just got hooked on Sport Beans made by jelly belly. it is science candy. if you can’t have pollo loco, some orange flavored science jelly beans aren’t bad…
Oh my gosh, Eric (Animal), you are really something! Quite an amazing accomplishment. You should be very proud. We are very proud of you! You are quite an athlete. The time and energy you put into this has to be quite a personal achievement on your part. Keep it up for as long as you can, and we are sure that one of these days, Dayna will be there right beside you!!!!
Love,
Georgie & Ed
Eric, awesome job on the Traverse. Congratulations! One of my goals next year is to do the Traverse. I hope to be there alongside you. Don’t worry too much on the Ibuprofen. Two years ago when I had a muscle tear I loaded up on the stuff. My doc said dose to relief. As long it is short term the side effects are nil. I was taking 4 at breakfast, 4 at lunch, and 2-4 at dinner for 6 weeks. Liver and kidneys are doing great. Once again, great job, truly inspirational.