It was a little harder to walk down the stairs this morning. The battle with the dragon proved harder than I anticipated. It was a hard day on the bike indeed. For the impatient readers, my unofficial time was 6:26 over about 37 miles. The day started with a 45min drive over to New Castle from Roanoke where I was staying. After fumbling around for a bit, I spotted some bike toting vehicles and followed them into the staging area. I was checked in and ready to go by 9am, but had an hour to waste, so I snapped this picture and sat on my minivan looking like a tool for 59 minutes.
I think I was probably the only person driving a minivan. In my immediate vicinity, everyone was riding carbon and XTR or better components. There were some serious racers in the house. I don't know why, but my nerves started to get to me. It was probably all the waiting around; I just wanted to get moving to settle down. After messing around with my smartphone and using the bathroom like 10 times due to maximum hydration issues we soon started rolling out with the pace vehicle for the neutral start.
There was about 4 miles of pavement before the pace truck pulled off are the race began. It was a full on sprint on that fire road. The race description warned of a stream crossing so I was expecting it when it came up. I rolled through it no problem (or so I thought). Then, 5 more stream crossings came. I was pegged near my threshold, so when some guy cut me off in the water I was thrown off a bit. I spent the next mile or so just trying to get the heart rate down knowing that a beast of a climb (Grouse Trail) was coming up. Here's where my first mechanical started to affect me. During the stream crossings, I washed off all of my chain lube and I started to experience the dreaded chain suck. I was in for a long day if this was starting already. After a half mile up Grouse, I couldn't take it anymore, flipped the bike and blasted it with a stream of water from my camelbak podium bottle and was back rolling in short order. Problem fixed, or at least my drive train wasn't locking up anymore. I rocked it up Grouse, only having to walk a few of the switchbacks and a rather nasty section that I was not looking forward to a second time. Once at the top of Grouse, I took a right and headed over to Deer trail. I have ridden this trail several times and blew it open on the descent (fully edited video to come later in the week, sorry, no audio today)
Before I knew it I was at Grouse again for the 2nd climb. I was determined to ride it again as I have been beaten up by this trail numerous times before. I pedaled all of it again, but was feeling the pains of my efforts. Once at the top, around 19 miles, I knew that it was going to be a hard day. Just a few miles earlier I experienced a leg cramp that forced me off the bike. I couldn't move my left leg at all as my quad decided to tie itself in a knot of fury. Uh oh, cramping at the half way point. Luckily, I've learned to deal with this problem. More water, electrolytes, and a slightly more cautious pace seemed to do the trick.
The North Mountain trail runs along a rocky ridge. It's nasty, cruel, and delivers on it's soul crushing warning. When I stared rolling out on the ridge is when I started to realize the difficulty of this race. It's rocky beyond belief. Knowing that, I aired up my tires to 28-30psi to save myself from flatting. The technical features keep you on your toes and for the most part I was picking solid and safe lines all day. My confidence was high until one unsuspecting section. I had cleared a hundred more just like it earlier in the day. The conditions must have been perfect...leaves down, hidden rock, front wheel hits rock at perfect location, weight just enough forward, etc...I endo'ed and landed hard on my left side in a garden of rocks. Knee was immediately bloody, but my shoulder was at the top of my concern. I hit hard enough that I wondered if I broke something. I did a quick range of motion test and convinced myself that is wasn't broken. My seat bag was torn off in the rock dance, but I continued on with diminished confidence.
I probably had another 8-9 miles to go on the ridge when I smashed my shoulder. For the next 3-4 miles the pain worsened. I was beginning to wonder if I could continue. At some point I passed two riders talking about bailing out. That certainly didn't help my case. On a few of the descents I kept tabs on my shoulder. I was able to keep my weight on it, so I figured I was good to go, so I just kept moving. The ridge was littered with so many hike-a-bikes that I went into survival mode. They were so hard, I just literally focused on trees a couple hundred feet up the trail and said, "I just need to get there". So, I plodded along in misery every time I came to a steep uphill section. It was on and off the bike for 5-6 miles before I recognized the downhill. I was relieved. At some point on the ridge I also ran out of water. I was running on fumes when I made it to aid station #2. I downed a Coke and a PB&J which seemed to immediately help. I was warned about the last climb, so I asked the guy at station #2 for his summary: "Two more climbs, first one starts off steep and then levels off, probably 20 minutes. 2nd climb isn't as bad, maybe half that" My body wanted to stop, but I knew if I stopped that the legs, knee, and shoulder would have gotten worse. Once I was refueled, I immediately left. Of course it turned steep really quick and I found myself walking again only this time with another problem. My shoe broke. Now if walking wasn't bad enough, the side of my shoe was now torn open allowing dirt, rocks, and twigs to enter. I was too tired to deal with it so I hobbled up the last climb, mounted my bike and tore down the last downhill before the road to the finish.
All I can say is wow, what a race. I wished I was able to ride a little more of the hills in the second half of the race, but I went into survival mode in the latter stages. I'm happy with the results. More thoughts, pictures and video later in the week.
