Ouchy-wha-wha!!! What a tough, epic, and painfully
bliss event. This course is what mnt bike used
to be when I first started riding and racing.
You know it's a good one when multiple times
during the event you utter under your breath....."Are
f'n kidding me?!" and "Holy Sh*t!!!!".
You get to hike up the side of a dam. There
are some creek crossings...but the bridges are
missing, and you are forced to through your
bike to the top of the bank....then scurry to
the top. You also have a healthy dosage of rocks
and roots. Don't like rocks and roots? Don't
bother showing up.
The race started at 7 AM. The gentle roll out
for the first 7 miles....was ignored by 60%
of the field....which then left me siting mid-pack
going into the singletrack. One into the singletrack,
I got on my way. First rock section hand me
bobbling all over for the then dismount-to-run
maneuvere. The first 35 miles of this race was
singletrack...and I felt good.
After the first 45 miles of the 100 mile race,
is when things started to suck. Mentally I was
good, but my power output was severely lacking.
The course now switched over to farm road and
double track. It was some nasty steep stuff
also. During the next 40 miles of road to singletrack
riding, I would spin away like a mad man to
keep a respectable placing.
With about 15 miles to go, I finally got my
legs back and was able to take up more positions
on slowing racers. In the end, I ended up in
like 21st place out of 100 or so racers that
started. My finishing time was just over 9 hours.
The winner, Mr. Eatough, threw down a winning
time of 7 hours!!!!
Random race thoughts and observations....
- Weather was to my liking with highs near 86
degrees with high humidity.
- 1:00 PM brought scattered heavy rainfall from
some freak pop-up thunderstorms
- Ergon grips all over the place!!! Podium spots
dominated by Ergon athletes.
- Ran my LAKE
MX230 shoes in anticipation of the hike-a-bike
sections. Good call!!!
- Ran the BD1 pack all event. Worked like a
charm. Stops at aide stations where minimal.
- Lots of DNF's. Among the bigger names....Tinker.
- One missed turn. About 7 of us missed a corner
that had the trail marking on the inside of
the turn we were supposed to make. WTF? This
added about an extra 15 min. to our race time.
- One moment with the same 7 guys where we were
like..."which way do we go?"
I am cooked. Time to get ready for the Firecracker
50 in Breck., CO on July 4th
Mohican
100 
