Last Saturday was my final MTB event for the season: the 8 hour endurance race at the National Mountainbike Oktoberfest. With rain on friday night the course was quite slippery...while it was not super muddy, the roots were wet and most of the track slick. The field was small...but there was a host of the top guys there. I love the pic of the start above. Nat Ross is on the front, I am to the right, Tinker and Jeremiah Bishop are on the left, Harlan Price is in there as is Ernesto Marenchin. .
The start was fun....not too fast and I snagged third wheel for a while, then rode on Tinker's wheel for a bit....then we hit the woods. I was really tense on the slippery stuff and quickly fell off the pace of the leaders. In fact every time I felt like I was getting into a groove and gaining some confidence to go faster I would crash or slide out causing me to back off. After a few laps my arms were super tired from being tense. Laps were short...my first few were around 36-37 minutes.
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I was running about 7th or 8th for the early part of the race, but I decided not to worry about that much and I didn't even know for sure where I was or what the gaps were. Because of the short laps, and that I had Cara there pitting for me, I decided to go with bottles vs a camelbak. This can be dangerous for me as I tend to not drink enough with bottles.....but I got into a system of exactly where I would drink every lap and was going through about 2/3 to 1 full bottle most laps. Nutrition - wise I was eating something every lap. Either 1/2 package of bloks, or a gel...I kept on schedule and finally felt like I got it right.
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Right about dusk Jeremiah and Harlan lapped me and I was able to ride with them for a while. These guys are some of the best in the business and it was a blast for the 10 minutes or so I was able to stay with them. Riding with them I realized how much I need improve my riding! Talk about smooth....and while I am pretty good at holding a normal conversation at race pace, they were full on trading recipes the whole time. In general though I was feeling good...and riding to my limit because of my skills and not my fitness. I passed at least one solo rider and the attrition rate was high so I knew I had moved up some, but still was not sure where I was.
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As darkness fell, the track became even more slippery....or maybe it was just because I couldn't judge the roots as well. My 11th lap was mediocre and with one to go before the 7:30pm cutoff to go out on another lap, I was dreading the last long technical trail section. Tinker lapped me as I slid out on a root so I was not able to ride with him at all :(, then just as I entered the long singletrack, rooty part of the course Nixon (an asheville guy) caught me up and we rode together ...this was great as it kept my mind off the slppery-ness and my growing fatigue. As we hit the final climb that had been a steep muddy unrideable hike-a-bike the whole race, I put it in my easiest gear and made it about half way up before dismounting to slog the rest of the way. Nixon, to my chagrin, rode the whole climb! Good thing I was a lap ahead of him or that would have been demoralizing.
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I finished 6th....the first guy behind all the superstars. In fact the next rider ahead of me was Nat Ross, so I couldn't complain. It was nice to be able to pack up and head out quickly without having to wait around for anything.
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The next day was the NC CX series race up in Boone. This race is up in Seven Devils at an old golf course, literally on top of a mountain. Pretty cool. Only problem was that it had huge amounts of elevation changes...not so great just a few hours after an 8 hour race for me! I saw large amounts of suffering coming and I was right. I had an absolutely miserable start (as expected) and faded all the way back to 14th after the first lap. I was able to steadily move forward after that and found I was rolling pretty well...a surprise. I was hurting, but the course was really fun and I was moving up every lap. I made it up to 7th, then 6th, then finally 5th for the last couple of laps which is where I finished. I was really happy with that result considering my condition....
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Cara had a good race as well and was 2nd....so it was a successful weekend. One more endurance race for experience and a respectable finish on sunday. This week's training has been fairly light. One day of near 3 hours, otherwise short rides....most of my time has been working and doing house projects.
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Next up: Cross in TN saturday and Lenore NC sunday.
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a2
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