I’ll spare you all the details, but it would suffice to say
that Jeff and I both faced some big obstacles before we even mounted our bikes
for this race! I had to deal with
inexperience riding wet trails, and some nagging knee issues that would hound
me all day. Jeff had to deal with lack
of sleep caused by a rough night with a migraine and stomach issues. Come game time though, we had a lot to be
happy for – the glory of a meal appropriate to precede such an endeavor,
suddenly improved weather, and a well-marked and well-supported ride through cavernous
forests and beautiful rolling farm land!
So, we both sucked it up, and hit the paved start with hundreds of other
stupids riding either a 100-mile or 100-kilometer race depending on their
preference. Folks in both races, and of
all levels of competence, went off with no particular structure – which was
very chaotic! Avoiding the numerous
crashes in the first mile was yet another thing I could consider going well for
me that morning.
The field spread out pretty quickly on a steep road climb
before the course eventually delivered us to the 25 miles of trail riding that
would come next. My position was good
heading into the trails, but I was riding very tentatively on the wet singletrack. Content with keeping myself from, “eating
crap,” I gave up a lot of position over these 25 miles. Jeff passed me at about mile 7 and would
never be seen again. At the end of the
25 miles, the trail alternated for a while between soupy horse trail and muddy
hiking trail before turning us out onto the remainder of the course – about 70
miles of a mix of scenic road, gravel, doubletrack and singletrack. At this point, I was pretty tense from a lot
of cautious riding, and a little disgruntled by a number of sections that were
not ride-able or generally ridiculous to be routed through. My knee was really irritating me, I was on
track to take 11+ hours (way too long) to finish, and I started seriously
considering either quitting or taking the fork around mile 45 where the
100-kilometer race separates from the 100-mile race.
Once I was out of the first trail section, my pace and
overall vibe rapidly improved, and I found myself re-gaining position as
quickly as I lost it in the first quarter of the race. I figured then that I probably wouldn’t quit
altogether, but I still considered sparing my knee anything more than 100
kilometers of riding.
About mile 45, I approached the fork that separated the two
races. In a couple seconds of thought, I
found it just as easy to opt for 100 miles as it would have been to opt for 100
kilometers. I am really happy I made
that choice since the rest of the course wasn’t terribly taxing at all. I continued to improve my pace, and was
motivated by the scenery, the weather, and the prospect of a sub-9-hour finish. The course sent me over at least one narrow
suspension bridge, a covered road bridge complete with horse-drawn buggy
inside, and past numerous spectators and farm folk doing their thing –
including one teenage Amish girl operating a gas powered weed whacker!
The last five miles navigated backward through some of the
first singletrack in the course.
Conditions at this point were ideal, but I was too smoked to bomb
through. Although I slowed down at that
point, I still finished 26th with a time under 9 hours. I was delighted to see that Jeff also chose
to persist through the race, and had finished about 15 minutes before me with a
20th place position! In 16
100-milers, this was Jeff’s fastest. We
spent a while enjoying the post-race festivities before filling our growlers
and heading back to our hotel in great spirits.
The next day, we woke up stiff and sore, and drove home in
spotty weather. Fortunately, rain had not
hit the area around Douthat State Park in Virginia – which allowed us to take
our creaky bikes for a not-too-hard and not-too-easy spin up and down some
great trails in that park. Bonus for me,
since I had never rode there and had a blast rocking down some fast descents to
make up for holding back so much the day before! As we got back on the road, we felt refreshed
by our ride. Rain soon resumed, and we
reflected on how much we ultimately lucked out over this weekend.
Awesome Frank! Looks like you guys had a blast.
ReplyDeleteThis race has the best post race festivities of any I have attended.