I have numerous friends who are participating in the annual El Tour de Tucson this weekend. Good luck to all! May you always have the wind at your back. May you zoom down Tangerine Rd at 40 mph. May you finish in Platinum. May you not run into a big pile of gravel. Ha!
Here’s an approximate map of the course:
The El Tour de Tucson route, 2007 edition, about 3,000 feet of climbing. The route changes a bit every year, so don’t take this as gospel. This year, in 2011, it’s a full two miles longer, coming at 111 miles. Gee, maybe they should have held this ride last week on 11/11/11. Ha!
So anyway, what does this have to do with beginner’s luck?
Well, I’ve done the Tour de Tucson a few times, and the first time I did it, back in 2005, was also the year I had my fastest finishing time – a not fabulous but respectable 5:45:28. Try as I might, I’ve never bested that achievement.
That year, after zooming down the hill on Tangerine Rd, I had a “saddle bag incident.” The zipper on my saddle bag broke as I was cruising along in a very fast pace line. Someone was gracious enough to mention that the bag was open, and my car keys were about to spill out. So I had to stop and leave that fast pace line behind, wistfully. I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to fix said saddle bag, before taking it off and stuffing the whole thing into a jersey pocket. In retrospect, I should have not fussed with it at all and took it off right at the beginning!
So I lost fifteen minutes, which means I could have easily finished at a 5:30 pace. I figured, back then, that I’d be able to best a 5:30 time the next time around, and maybe even come in around 5:15, or if I played my cards right, under 5:00, for platinum. After all, I’ve gotten a lot stronger since that year, or so I believe.
Alas, the next year while I was doing a much better time halfway through, I had a flat – right while drafting behind a fast-moving tandem. Stopping to fix that flat cost me oodles of time, and I never recovered psychologically from that. I came in a full ten minutes later than the first time.
The next year after that, I cramped up big time just before the descent down Tangerine Rd. I wasn’t able to stay in any pace-lines, even going down hill, so I lost a lot of time, and finished 30 seconds later than my best time.
Achieving my best the first time around is a pattern I’ve had during my life in many other endeavors:
The first time I ever went bowling, my first throw was a strike. After that I mostly threw gutter balls.
My first 10K run was my fastest 10K. Okay, so I’ve only done two 10k’s – but I was full ten minutes slower the second time, though I’d done a lot more training and thought I was in better shape. This discouraged me from ever trying again.
My first organized double, Solvang 2008, was the fastest double I’ve ever done, coming in at just over 13 hours. I’ve never come close to this again, even though in later rides I had the advantage of drafting behind others.
Finally, the first time I ever entered a scholastic contest – a regional test on general high school science when I was a freshman – I won a gold medal. But I never came anywhere close to that in subsequent years.
So what’s up with the beginner’s luck?
I don’t know, but maybe I’ll have a reverse case of it the next time I encounter a big pile of gravel. Ha!
