7.29.05 – Friday
Packed and got picked up by Brett Davis around 2’ish after I had just completed a short recovery ride. As usual, I packed a ton of stuff, but I tried to keep things to a minimum. Temperatures were calling for low 80’s for Saturday, so I didn’t bring rain/cold gear at all.
Got to the State College area around 6:15’ish and hung out and made minor repairs as my buddy’s Bill Alcorn and Richie Rich got their stuff together so we could grab some grub. During dinner, Bill calls his buddy/roommate Jim (organizing the single speed world championships this year) and tells him to pick up our race packets as he works near the race site. Nice. We wouldn’t have to drive a half hour to pick up our race packets.
Get back after dinner and our race packets come home with Jim shortly thereafter. I start my ritual of getting my Hammer Gel products figured out for the drop zones and tomorrows little jaunt as Bill’s friends start casually stopping by. I think my rituals start freaking everybody out as I get 100 questions as to how I prepare my bottles, where/what I carry with me, how many tubes I carry, etc. Most of these questions are followed up by some kind of comment like, “man, I don’t think I am ready for this.”
Race info:
Distances between aid stations -
#1 is 19 miles in
#2 is 40 miles in
#3 is 60 miles in
#4 is 74 miles in
#5 is 89 miles in
finish is 12 miles from #5 @ 101 miles
Talked to Billy about the course and he said that sections 3 and 4 are the worst ones as far as “flat” potentials were. So, we were allowed to two drops of our own stuff at two of the stations. I packed bags for #3 and #4, filled them with 2 gels/2 red bulls, one tube and co2 and either one small camelback receiver or a bottle of HEED.
7.30.05 – Saturday
6AM:
Arrive at venue with approximately 250 other racers, get ready and put down my bags at the pick up area for our stuff.
6:50’ish AM:
Line up and race announcements from race organizer Chris Scott. He introduces Eatough, Hendershot, Skip Brown, Cameron Chambers and saves the last introduction for the “real world champion at big bear”, myself. Felt very cool to be included with the ranks of those guys.
7’ish: Race to Aid Station #1
Race starts through town and then goes straight up a climb for about 15 minutes. Right before the climb, I talk briefly with Chris Eatough and am blown away that he knew me. (Later figure out that he has heard about me from Chris Scott, Cameron and Hendershot).
This first “section” is basically wide-open jeep trail (no single track) and everybody has informed me that the first section is basically a road race. And it is. But somehow those dang single speed guys were setting the pace high as they need to keep that single gear a movin’ or they are a’ hurtin. This strings the field out and drops probably at least 200 of the approximately 250 starters by the end of the first aid station.
Just before aid station #1, one of the guys that were in the main pack was a rider who I raced against during a few 6 Hours of Power races named Garth (don’t know the last name – sorry!). He said the next split would come right after the 2nd aid station as it immediately climbs upward was basically a rocky jeep trail that was not super rough, but it was far from smooth.
Grabbed a bottle of water coming through the aid station (didn’t stop – took it on the fly), drank about half of it in about a minute, and handed it to another rider whom needed it.
Race to Aid Station #2:
By this time, what was left of us was strung out. And within 10 minutes of leaving station #1, gaps had formed and Chris E was in full flight.
After the first climb after the station, I was now in a small group that formed and reformed after every climb. In it contained some locals, Hendershot and Garth.
The first little section of single track came up and Garth came to the front. As I know from racing against him that single track is not his specialty, I don’t know what I was thinking by letting him lead this single-track section. We went slow.
We came out of this section and into a ton of gravely jeep trails.
At the aid station, I picked up a bottle of Gatorade and filled up my flasks with gel.
Race to Aid Station #3:
More fun climbing split up our little group that swelled up to 5 or 6 riders and then was dwindled down to one as I came into station #3 feeling like I lost a lot of water and not feeling too swell.
At the aid station, I grabbed my stuff. I got a new camelback full of Sustained Energy, 2 flasks of gel, 2 flasks of hammer gel (one of which I slammed down), and a new water bottle. A volunteer gave me a swig of coca cola, and off I went.
Race to Aid Station #4:
And about 40 feet later, I was going up a double track rocky/rooty climb. And just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I flatted. I fixed it, got passed by two riders (Hendershot and another), and then caught one of the riders within ten minutes of remounting my bike. Bummer was that I was within eyesight of eventual 3rd place winner Mike Kuhn (known as the “visit pa guy ”) when I flatted.
So I rode and rode, within eyesight of Hendershot whom passed me when I flatted, up until the 4th aid station.
I had placed my stuff in the pick up pile, but my stuff was not there. (Volunteers just got there and had not placed it out yet). So I quickly drank two red bulls as I watched Mark ride away, and then got my camelback and water bottle filled up. Just as I was departing, Skip Brown pulled into the station. How the hell was a single speeder so close to me at this point?
Race to Aid Station #5:
I am chasing Mark when I am informed that I am in 6th place. I catch Mark and now I see Skip is hot on my trail, maybe 15 feet back. Having felt the first signs of leg cramps about twenty minutes before, I just rode my own pace. I dropped Skip.
Cramps were now setting in like crazy. Both calves and inner thighs were cramping very badly, so I would drink as much as I could when I could, and took my Hammer Gel endurolytes as well. Nothing was working, so I would stand up and try to move around to positions that were a little easier/different on my legs and I would eventually have to back off a little so that they wouldn’t get any worse. This would plague me until the end and can easily say that it cost me 3rd place, if not second.
By the end of this section, I got through the worst of the single-track rocky sections and had left behind all the riders whom were chasing me by minutes.
I got into the 5th aid station, grabbed a red bull, another full Hammer Gel flask and a large bottle of water.
Race to the finish:
Rails to trail sections with a climb, two tight wooden bridges, a few rocky single-track sections and two tunnels – the last of which came two miles to the finish.
I rode the first rails to trail section at blistering speed, thinking that it was rails to trail the entire way into the finish, but it was not. There was yet another killer climb and fast downhill.
After that, I soon came upon a single-track section that paralleled a stream where people were fly-fishing. They all had this look on their faces when I glanced at them like, “what the hell is that guy doing.” I laughed to myself and kept going.
I came out of the last tunnel and turned around to make sure nobody was chasing. I zipped up the jersey, put the Tifosi glasses on and rode on in around 55 minutes after winner Chris Eatough has finished.
After Race:
Immediately got cleaned up and starting putting my stuff away. Race venue was fully stocked with food goodies and even a hot outdoor shower. Oh yes.
Then I waited for the others to come in and for the race to finish. (Brett would come in under 10 hours for 48th place). In the meantime, spent a lot of the time talking to Cameron and Chris about their year, upcoming races, etc. First time I ever really talked to them for an extended period of time.
Cameron was telling me that he felt a little fatigued and was going to maybe take some time off. He looked pretty beat. He asked about the asylums and how the 29r thing is really taking off and that it’s good to start seeing other 29r’s placing well in the results. Nationals was a big deal to Fisher, so he has a little bit of stress off his shoulders seeing that he has the current stars and stripes for 2005. Great rider, hope he finishes out the year strong. Next on his calendar are the single speed world championships.
Chris looked like a million bucks and is fully recovered from the heat of Spokane back in May. He’s going to basically do every NORBA marathon this year, Whistler and a few other races. Overall good guy, pretty down to earth – he even checked out the asylum and noticed the similarities of it with the racer x.
Awards were late, and we got home even later. I think I got to bed around 1am’ish.
7.31.05 – Sunday
Easy recovery ride with Jennifer. Legs super tight and were still feeling the pain of severe cramps the day before.
I’ll be back next year – the open/long climbing really suited me. I think I’ll make some slight changes to my nutrition plans and that’s it. Great course, great race. Check it out next year.
Sologoat out.
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