Posted on April - 13 - 2011
Ready to ride: Cyclist overcomes injury to train for prestigious 100-mile marathon
Larkin Grisanti was laid up with a broken leg held together with 10 pins, 12 staples and a metal plate when he got the news: He had been accepted for the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, a 100-mile marathon through the Rocky Mountains.
He decided on the spot that he would do it. In March, he began blogging about his training for the Aug. 13 race at buckleupandride.blogspot.com.
Photo by Brandon Dill Buy this photo »
Photo by Brandon Dill Buy this photo »
Grisanti, 37, of East Memphis is part of the well-known local family of Italian restaurateurs. His father, Frank Grisanti, owns Frank Grisanti’s at the Embassy Suites Hotel, and father and son manage it.
It’s not the race that scares him most, he blogged: “It’s the training. I know that to have a chance of finishing, I must train every day. But if I push everything and everyone else on the back burner for my goal, I’ve failed.” He said he felt like a juggler who can’t drop a single pin.
Grisanti began riding seriously more than two years ago to lose weight and get fit. He lost 40 pounds, felt great and joined the regular rides sponsored by the Peddler Bike Shop in Midtown. On weekends, he rode with some of the same men on 50- and 60- mile excursions.
Last fall, he saw “Race Across the Sky,” the 2009 documentary about the grueling Leadville race, in which the elite cyclists of the world come to compete.
“I was just inspired by the people,” he said, “not by the professionals, but the everyday people whose stories it told. I wanted to try that. I just wanted to put the effort in.”
He applied for the race and worked with a trainer, Clark Butcher, partner in Victory Bicycle Studio, which opened last fall at 2294 Young. Butcher is training four riders from this area for the Leadville race.
Competitors are chosen by lottery. Last year, 1,554 were accepted and 931 finished the race in less than 12 hours, which earned them a coveted Leadville belt buckle. Previous winners have included David Wiens and Lance Armstrong.
But in January, Grisanti was having a snowball fight in his yard with his wife, Kimberly, and three kids when he stepped in a hole. He broke his fibula, the long, slender bone connected to the larger tibia, and tore some ligaments. Since then he has gone through a splint, five casts and a walking boot.
As soon as he was in the boot, he began spinning exercises. He resumed training with Butcher and two months after surgery he was back on his bike, riding with a friend. His doctor said his recovery is six to eight weeks ahead of schedule.
“He’s got a lot of natural talent,” said Butcher, “and with his following a structured program, we’ve got time to get him prepared.”
He calls Grisanti “the role-model athlete I like to work with. He’s determined, and he sets goals.”
He also admires Grisanti’s attitude: “He’s very sensible, very positive. He’s going to have fun. It’s an historic race, and the ability to participate in it is notable alone.”
Grisanti’s first ride with the Peddler group since his accident was nerve-wracking. He described it as 20 or 30 riders, juiced on testosterone, packed about two feet apart, going 25 miles per hour in the early morning darkness. “At times it’s like one giant gigantic speeding bullet,” he blogged. No manual is handed out for beginners. But a cardinal rule, he wrote, is “never slam on your brakes.”
At first his blog was about training. But he soon branched out, even documenting his leg shaving. Cyclers shave for different reason, he wrote. He admitted he simply thinks “it looks better.”
He’d like to shed 25 more pounds, but it’s tough for a man surrounded by Italian food and plagued by cravings, such as for Thousand Island dressing — really just mayo, ketchup and pickle relish, he wrote. He posted a photo of a cracker dipped in the soupy mixture.
The blog “makes me not take myself so seriously,” said Grisanti. “I put my guard down and relax. I’m not afraid to tell a dumb story about myself. I guess it’s kind of therapeutic.”
He now rides three or four days a week, some with the Peddler group, and some alone, trains on both a road bike and mountain bike and also works out with weights. At noon, he ducks home to ride for an hour or so, then showers and gets back to work.
His wife will fly to Leadville the day before the race. He will arrive the Thursday before the Saturday event to prepare himself. He plans to be in line by 4 a.m. for the race that starts at 6:30 a.m. He said he already knows what’s going to happen.
“I will give 100 percent of my effort. That will be the outcome,” he said.
His blog won’t end with the race. He said he’ll continue to tell stories of cycling here and become a voice for the sport in Memphis.
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