What a crazy race, what a loooong day. I didn't know if I could do it, but I did!
Taken from my blog....
"It was a very long day. Hard to describe. A lot of fun, and incredibly challenging. The mental side of it all is the toughest to overcome. I had such a rough start, that I thought I was out of the race in the first 5-10 miles. I've been dealing with some bad lower back pain for two weeks. Had the back iced down almost the whole time and couldn't knock it out before the race. Woke up Sunday A.M. barely able to stand upright. During the first climb up the Narrow Back fire road I got stuck in the large "peloton" on the far left side of the fire road where it was steep and really rocky for about 30 yards. I was in the wrong gear so stood and cranked it SS style. During a hard mash down I had a huge shock jolt go up through my legs as I hit a larger rock and it sent a searing pain up my back. It was super intense. I looked down and the Garmin read mile 5. Ugh.
A couple miles further up the climb I got a nail puncture in my rear tire. I had laced up the arches last week and gone tubeless, so it was show time. Pulled the nail out, and tried to get it to seal up, which it seemed to do immediately. Hoped back on the bike and it just kept re-opening and re-sealing over and over as I climbed. Finally, it seemed to get a final seal at the top of the climb and my pressure was down to about 16psi. Stopped and aired up a bit more and was good to go (aside from my back pain).
After descending down Narrow Back we headed over towards the Wolf Ridge climb. As the group turned off the main road and down towards the single track, Eatough was standing there with a seized rear bearing and broken rear axel.... he was done for the day (mile 15ish). About 18 miles in going up to Wolf, I had to start walking with everyone else to keep my heart rate down. My back actually hurt worse off the bike. After pushing a bit with everyone, suddenly my right quad started to cramp. I realized at that point we were two hours in and during the excitement of the whole race, I lost track of time and my endurolyte intake. CRAP. At this point, I'm thinking I'm lucky to see CP2. What a mess!
I stopped and starting popping some endurolytes and putting down a bunch of water and some sports drinks. Tried to stay on the bike as much as possible and spin easy, keeping off my stabilizer muscles as much as possible. Got off the descent down Wolf feeling a bit better and went into a nice easy spin on the fire road headed to CP2. Cramps were slowly starting to subside, however any steeper hills that popped up would give that tinge letting me know I was on the edge.
At this point, my tire remained sealed and my back started to loosen up and the pain started to subside some. That helped my spirits to get me through the cramping. Quickly stopped at CP2 and decided to roll on with the crew (My buddies Steve and James). We hit the grind up Hankey and settled into another pack of riders. Hankey is one of the tougher climbs when headed up to Dowell's. It grinds, teases and then hits single track only to become quite steep and sustained for a bit. James and I grinded together for awhile and Steve took off up the climb. At the top of the climb, Steve was sitting in the woods off to the side resting up and I yelled at him to hop on and get moving as the descent was about to start.
The three of us went into the descent with Steve out front, then me and then James. Shortly after, Steve took a nasty digger coming around a turn and busted out a nice aerial maneuver for everyone to enjoy. Luckily he stood up and quickly hopped on the bike, asking me to take the lead. We head into that nasty loose section at the top and I see a lot of people hoping off to walk as we came blasting through. I'm use to riding this section, but it was much more torn up today after the head back came through. I almost ate it hard, but pulled through. Coming through some of the other sections, one is the uphill grind through the rock garden. I held my momentum and blasted up through it passing lots of walkers. I came into the lower part of the descent as it opens up and flows a few miles and came absolutely flying through there having a total blast. I gained on a lot of riders during this section up to CP3 and my back was feeling much better. The cramps however, were popping my muscles out on my quads as I stood at CP3 (45 miles in).
As I stand there waiting, I see James roll in shortly after, and he tells me he passed by Steve earlier on the descent. I'm getting my chain lubed and filling up my water supply and he never shows. Hmmmm, he should definitely be here by now. Next thing I know, I hear another rider coming into the CP and telling the officials someone has possibly broken his collar bone. I asked the guy for a description, and sure enough I knew it was Steve. I ran back up the fire road out of the CP towards the trail head. Steve was coming down holding his arm up on his right side. He looked at me and yelled "What are you doing! Go race M#%^$ F&%$#@!".
Damn, Steve is out. James and I head out to the road and up rte250 to Ramsey's draft and the Bridge Hollow climb up the back to the top of the descent into Braley's. We spin easy, taking in electrolytes in multiple forms and sipping down water in good intervals. James had not been cramping and felt extremely good. He was poised to finish strong. This was a good 5 mile section to help subside the cramping a bit for me. We hit the single track and start to climb. At some point, James came off the bike in a slow speed spill and somehow tweaked his knee out pretty bad. His knee slowed him down instantly and before I knew it he was out of my sights. I ended up climbing a lot with a guy from NoVa named Rob. We had talked off and on every since we cruised up the Wolf Ridge climb together earlyier in the race. We saw two SS'ers sitting on a nice log up the hill and headed towards them. They sat exactly at the 50 mile marker. I joined them for a minute and waited for James as Rob moved on. As we sat there and "took in nature" a bit, I see James roll around the corner so I hop back on the bike as he rolls up. We take off and tackle the rest of the climb pretty well.
We stopped for a quick breather at the top of the descent, found Rob again and then headed down for some high speed fun. I was railing the descent fast and smooth and I felt like I was just out riding like any other day. I made great timing into CP4. Rob was right behind me, but no James. I ate a little PB&J and topped off my water waiting for James. We he shows up, he looks a bit rough and tells me the knee is pretty bad. He debated for a minute or so and decided he had to drop out. Rob also had the last of his buddies fall out at CP4 as well. We both looked at each other and decided to tackle the long 18 mile climb up to the top of Shenadoah Mtn. and CP5. The first half of the climb has a few semi-steeper sections, but mainly just slightly steeper than a false flat the whole time. We spun easy and nourished the bodies to keep cramping down. This climb is simply long and mind numbing. Nothing fun about it. After 2.5 hours, we arrive at CP5 (74 miles in).
PIZZA!!!!!! Yes, that's right. CP5 had the pizza! As I pulled up I also saw a couple of familiar faces, Fenton and Shawn. Shawn was out of the race due to a separated shoulder coming down Braley's and was up at CP5 to support. I had done a couple of big training rides in the last couple months with Fenton and he was still in the race going steady. Fenton had been there for a couple of minutes when we rolled up, so he left a minute or so before us. He has been climbing stronger than myself on the training rides, but he figured I'd catch up to him on the descent. I grabbed my mandatory light from my drop bag (we were 20 minutes past the light cut off) and stuffed it in my wingnut. After CP5 you have another 4 miles or so of climbing to Little Bald Knob.
Rob and I took off into the climb out of CP5 right as a volunteer announced he was giving rides back to the campground and had plenty of people and bike space. We looked at each other, smiled and got the hell out of there. Climb climb climb, all day long it seemed like we climbed. Rob took off on me as I had to push easier up the climb to keep the cramps to a minimal. I wanted to save some juice for the last climb up Hankey again. Rob figured I'd catch him on the descent too, but that never happened. I did however catch up to Fenton about 2/3 of the way down. The descent off Little bald was rough and brutal, and yeah, extremely loose in many spots. A lot of people were hurting at the bottom as I rolled into CP6 (88 miles in).
At CP6 Rob was waiting and had been there a couple of minutes. I got some more lube on the chain, topped off the water and Rob hustled me out of the CP. Fenton was still topping off some of his supplies, but we figured he'd catch me up the Hankey climb and we'd all finish close together. As we hit Hankey, I pulled out a secret weapon.... red bull! I had a can stashed in my drop at CP5 and saved it for the final burst. Rob and I had just hoped off the bikes to walk for a second up a steep spot and I cracked it open. Took it down as quick as possible and then hopped back on the bike. As I started cranking again, I felt the "wings" pop on. It was pretty sweet. I pulled some energy out from deep within and took off up the climb. Slowly Rob started to drop back. I know mentally he was down on having to do this climb again, but I swore to him we turned off to the left away from Dowell's before the real torture from earlier in the race hit. He had been lied to all day about how tough each coming section was from the CP volunteers (they were only trying to motivate), so he was wary of trusting me. Rob was a hundred or so yards back when I finally saw the turn off to the left. I yelled back at Rob "I see the turn!" and he lit up! Before I knew it he was closing me fast and there was a group of other riders in our site going into the last rolling ridge section before we dropped onto the descent to the campground. Rob hustled up fast behind me and we both took off at a fast pace closing in on a bunch of riders. One by one we made our passes and cruised quickly to the top of the descent."
continued...
Taken from my blog....
"It was a very long day. Hard to describe. A lot of fun, and incredibly challenging. The mental side of it all is the toughest to overcome. I had such a rough start, that I thought I was out of the race in the first 5-10 miles. I've been dealing with some bad lower back pain for two weeks. Had the back iced down almost the whole time and couldn't knock it out before the race. Woke up Sunday A.M. barely able to stand upright. During the first climb up the Narrow Back fire road I got stuck in the large "peloton" on the far left side of the fire road where it was steep and really rocky for about 30 yards. I was in the wrong gear so stood and cranked it SS style. During a hard mash down I had a huge shock jolt go up through my legs as I hit a larger rock and it sent a searing pain up my back. It was super intense. I looked down and the Garmin read mile 5. Ugh.
A couple miles further up the climb I got a nail puncture in my rear tire. I had laced up the arches last week and gone tubeless, so it was show time. Pulled the nail out, and tried to get it to seal up, which it seemed to do immediately. Hoped back on the bike and it just kept re-opening and re-sealing over and over as I climbed. Finally, it seemed to get a final seal at the top of the climb and my pressure was down to about 16psi. Stopped and aired up a bit more and was good to go (aside from my back pain).
After descending down Narrow Back we headed over towards the Wolf Ridge climb. As the group turned off the main road and down towards the single track, Eatough was standing there with a seized rear bearing and broken rear axel.... he was done for the day (mile 15ish). About 18 miles in going up to Wolf, I had to start walking with everyone else to keep my heart rate down. My back actually hurt worse off the bike. After pushing a bit with everyone, suddenly my right quad started to cramp. I realized at that point we were two hours in and during the excitement of the whole race, I lost track of time and my endurolyte intake. CRAP. At this point, I'm thinking I'm lucky to see CP2. What a mess!
I stopped and starting popping some endurolytes and putting down a bunch of water and some sports drinks. Tried to stay on the bike as much as possible and spin easy, keeping off my stabilizer muscles as much as possible. Got off the descent down Wolf feeling a bit better and went into a nice easy spin on the fire road headed to CP2. Cramps were slowly starting to subside, however any steeper hills that popped up would give that tinge letting me know I was on the edge.
At this point, my tire remained sealed and my back started to loosen up and the pain started to subside some. That helped my spirits to get me through the cramping. Quickly stopped at CP2 and decided to roll on with the crew (My buddies Steve and James). We hit the grind up Hankey and settled into another pack of riders. Hankey is one of the tougher climbs when headed up to Dowell's. It grinds, teases and then hits single track only to become quite steep and sustained for a bit. James and I grinded together for awhile and Steve took off up the climb. At the top of the climb, Steve was sitting in the woods off to the side resting up and I yelled at him to hop on and get moving as the descent was about to start.
The three of us went into the descent with Steve out front, then me and then James. Shortly after, Steve took a nasty digger coming around a turn and busted out a nice aerial maneuver for everyone to enjoy. Luckily he stood up and quickly hopped on the bike, asking me to take the lead. We head into that nasty loose section at the top and I see a lot of people hoping off to walk as we came blasting through. I'm use to riding this section, but it was much more torn up today after the head back came through. I almost ate it hard, but pulled through. Coming through some of the other sections, one is the uphill grind through the rock garden. I held my momentum and blasted up through it passing lots of walkers. I came into the lower part of the descent as it opens up and flows a few miles and came absolutely flying through there having a total blast. I gained on a lot of riders during this section up to CP3 and my back was feeling much better. The cramps however, were popping my muscles out on my quads as I stood at CP3 (45 miles in).
As I stand there waiting, I see James roll in shortly after, and he tells me he passed by Steve earlier on the descent. I'm getting my chain lubed and filling up my water supply and he never shows. Hmmmm, he should definitely be here by now. Next thing I know, I hear another rider coming into the CP and telling the officials someone has possibly broken his collar bone. I asked the guy for a description, and sure enough I knew it was Steve. I ran back up the fire road out of the CP towards the trail head. Steve was coming down holding his arm up on his right side. He looked at me and yelled "What are you doing! Go race M#%^$ F&%$#@!".
Damn, Steve is out. James and I head out to the road and up rte250 to Ramsey's draft and the Bridge Hollow climb up the back to the top of the descent into Braley's. We spin easy, taking in electrolytes in multiple forms and sipping down water in good intervals. James had not been cramping and felt extremely good. He was poised to finish strong. This was a good 5 mile section to help subside the cramping a bit for me. We hit the single track and start to climb. At some point, James came off the bike in a slow speed spill and somehow tweaked his knee out pretty bad. His knee slowed him down instantly and before I knew it he was out of my sights. I ended up climbing a lot with a guy from NoVa named Rob. We had talked off and on every since we cruised up the Wolf Ridge climb together earlyier in the race. We saw two SS'ers sitting on a nice log up the hill and headed towards them. They sat exactly at the 50 mile marker. I joined them for a minute and waited for James as Rob moved on. As we sat there and "took in nature" a bit, I see James roll around the corner so I hop back on the bike as he rolls up. We take off and tackle the rest of the climb pretty well.
We stopped for a quick breather at the top of the descent, found Rob again and then headed down for some high speed fun. I was railing the descent fast and smooth and I felt like I was just out riding like any other day. I made great timing into CP4. Rob was right behind me, but no James. I ate a little PB&J and topped off my water waiting for James. We he shows up, he looks a bit rough and tells me the knee is pretty bad. He debated for a minute or so and decided he had to drop out. Rob also had the last of his buddies fall out at CP4 as well. We both looked at each other and decided to tackle the long 18 mile climb up to the top of Shenadoah Mtn. and CP5. The first half of the climb has a few semi-steeper sections, but mainly just slightly steeper than a false flat the whole time. We spun easy and nourished the bodies to keep cramping down. This climb is simply long and mind numbing. Nothing fun about it. After 2.5 hours, we arrive at CP5 (74 miles in).
PIZZA!!!!!! Yes, that's right. CP5 had the pizza! As I pulled up I also saw a couple of familiar faces, Fenton and Shawn. Shawn was out of the race due to a separated shoulder coming down Braley's and was up at CP5 to support. I had done a couple of big training rides in the last couple months with Fenton and he was still in the race going steady. Fenton had been there for a couple of minutes when we rolled up, so he left a minute or so before us. He has been climbing stronger than myself on the training rides, but he figured I'd catch up to him on the descent. I grabbed my mandatory light from my drop bag (we were 20 minutes past the light cut off) and stuffed it in my wingnut. After CP5 you have another 4 miles or so of climbing to Little Bald Knob.
Rob and I took off into the climb out of CP5 right as a volunteer announced he was giving rides back to the campground and had plenty of people and bike space. We looked at each other, smiled and got the hell out of there. Climb climb climb, all day long it seemed like we climbed. Rob took off on me as I had to push easier up the climb to keep the cramps to a minimal. I wanted to save some juice for the last climb up Hankey again. Rob figured I'd catch him on the descent too, but that never happened. I did however catch up to Fenton about 2/3 of the way down. The descent off Little bald was rough and brutal, and yeah, extremely loose in many spots. A lot of people were hurting at the bottom as I rolled into CP6 (88 miles in).
At CP6 Rob was waiting and had been there a couple of minutes. I got some more lube on the chain, topped off the water and Rob hustled me out of the CP. Fenton was still topping off some of his supplies, but we figured he'd catch me up the Hankey climb and we'd all finish close together. As we hit Hankey, I pulled out a secret weapon.... red bull! I had a can stashed in my drop at CP5 and saved it for the final burst. Rob and I had just hoped off the bikes to walk for a second up a steep spot and I cracked it open. Took it down as quick as possible and then hopped back on the bike. As I started cranking again, I felt the "wings" pop on. It was pretty sweet. I pulled some energy out from deep within and took off up the climb. Slowly Rob started to drop back. I know mentally he was down on having to do this climb again, but I swore to him we turned off to the left away from Dowell's before the real torture from earlier in the race hit. He had been lied to all day about how tough each coming section was from the CP volunteers (they were only trying to motivate), so he was wary of trusting me. Rob was a hundred or so yards back when I finally saw the turn off to the left. I yelled back at Rob "I see the turn!" and he lit up! Before I knew it he was closing me fast and there was a group of other riders in our site going into the last rolling ridge section before we dropped onto the descent to the campground. Rob hustled up fast behind me and we both took off at a fast pace closing in on a bunch of riders. One by one we made our passes and cruised quickly to the top of the descent."
continued...
