After the usual toss n turn night the day before the race, I showed up at the starting line a wee bit groggy from the night of broken sleep. The 5:30 start came early but it was a perfect start time as it was already daylight and nice and crisp.
I was looking forward to the day (well, sort of considering the dark places that you have to visit while on these journeys) and felt like my fitness was OK, and I had pre-ridden about 2/3 of the course and somewhat knew what to expect.
The starting gun went off and everyone followed the pace car on pavement for about 6 miles. For us singlespeeders, we got left to our own high rpm spinny cadence. I saw many a gearie pass me up on the road and took the approach of finding a comfortable cadence to spin and not try to keep up with the guys/gals with gears.
I knew that soon enough, we would hit the dirt and it would be time to start trying to reel some riders in.
After about 6 miles, we turned onto a quickie paved downhill section for about a mile until we turned off onto the dirt road that would take us up to the Larsen trail. The dirt road helped to thin out the riders and helped us singlespeeders to catch up to some folks. Once we hit the Larsen trail, we hit a couple of bottlenecks on some 'tek' sections where people were dismounting and walking.
I decided to accept the conga line place and just ride it out until we hit some areas that were more open and would spread people out a little more.
We took the Larsen trail over to Tiddlywinks and up Funner to Wanoga Sno Park where there was the first aid station. About 1 1/2 hours into the race, I noticed I was cramping! whhhhhhaaat? It was weird because I had not been hammering and did not feel like I had been working too hard yet. I quickly downed a handful of endurolytes and made a mental note to be diligent about popping a couple pills every hour for the duration of the day.
We got to Wanoga and I skipped the Aid station knowing that I had enough water and calories to take me to Dutchman (50 miles in). There was also another mini Aid station before that so I took the opportunity to keep moving.
Once we left Wanoga, we followed a trail for about a mile until it kicked us out onto a dirt road where we would continue to climb as the road got steeper and sandier. Once we hit the underpass I remembered there would be some hike a bike for me as a singlespeeder when the road got pretty steep and really soft for about 200 yds. If I was on a shorter ride I would have tried riding it but part of riding singlespeed is knowing when to dismount and hike a bike on some steep stuff in order to save your legs a little...The sooner you enter that red zone, the sooner you run the risk of bonking and considering we were only about 2 1/2 hours into the day, it was too early to go into the red zone.
We continued up from Vista Sno park until we hit the turn off for the connector trail over to Swampy Sno Park. We climbed for a little bit until we hit some fast flowy downhill. Soon enough we came up on the mini Aid station at Swampy and I did a quick water/calorie check and kept moving through the Aid station without stopping. I had enough to get me to Dutchman....
From swampy, we took a connector trail up to Swede Ridge where we picked up Sector 16 and bombed downhill until we hit Upper Whoops. Somewhere between Sector 16 and Whoops, I bit it! My front tire found some soft sand and before I knew it, I was on the ground dealing with a bit of a yard sale! Doh! I had been messing around with my Garmin on my bars and got distracted enough to bite it! My garmin attachment that is held on the bars with rubber bands was not wanting to stay in one spot. The rubber had stretched and so it kept want to slide to the smaller tapered area of the handlebars where it dangled. After the wreck I took it off and stashed it in my pack...it would be up to me to guesstimate when I needed to eat, take in endurolytes, etc....I usually go by the clock on the garmin to make sure I eat on the hour every hour, etc...
I brushed myself off, shook off the cobwebs and continued the downhill bombaroo....albeit a wee bit more cautiously.
We caught Skyliners and connected over Towards Tumalo where we would eventually connect to South Fork and work our way all the way back up to around 6,000 ft of elevation - it was time to settle in and find the happy place....I managed to pass several riders as they were spinning up the climb and I was forced to ride the bigger gearing on the singlespeed. I had ridden this section a couple of times before and knew what to expect so I just kept the cranks turning.
We eventually got back up to Swampy Cabin area where we took a connector trail back over towards the dirt road above Vista Sno Park, Instead of going back towards Vista, it was time to go the other direction to Dutchman where I had dropped off a couple of bottles for reloading on water and calories. I remembered climb up towards Dutchman as being steep and loose in a few areas so mentally I had made Dutchman a key point in the day where once we got there, most of the climbing would be behind us.
I got to Dutchman and swapped out bottles, got more water, and did some quick grazing before I hit the road again....did not want to linger too long and get too comfortable off the bike!
The next section of trail would all be new to me. We caught the Metolius Windigo trail that goes on the back side of Bachelor (or west side). This trail was totally different than anything I had ridden in the area and I became very alert to the real possibility of flatting due to all the sharp lava rock and techie trails. It was slow going in some areas and you could feel the day heating up as the day got hotter and we were not descending back the warm stuff. After about 11 miles, we hit Lava Lakes and another mini Aid station where I tried to keep moving through. The next few miles were a grind!
It was a steep climb out of Lava Lakes, with some nice tekkie loose ugliness thrown in for good measure.
Many of the geared guys were hike a biking through some sections so we kept each other company as we talked about what lay ahead....
The legs were feeling decent but the body was starting to break down...I could tell my riding was getting sloppy because my body and mind were getting tired. I took another spill - a stupid fall that seemed like it happened in slow motion as I hit another beach sand spot that gobbled my front tire and sent me off the bike. At that point, I knew it was time to dial it back a notch on the downhills and see if I could find the flow again.
We eventually crested the climb out of Lava Lakes and it was time to look forward to the next Aid Station at Edison Sno Park. This is where I had another drop bag with some goodies for the last 20 miles. For some reason (probably wishful thinking) I had thought we were done with climbing once we hit Edison Sno Park and that it would be mostly downhill until the finish.
There was a mean climb out of Edison Sno Park that added insult to injury because we were getting clobbered by midday sun and the trail was relatively soft so the pedaling was hard. We eventually hit the top and once we started heading downhill, I knew that it was mostly down back to the finish. At this point the body was achey and rebelling on the downhills which made it hard to find flow but the finish kept reeling me in like a magnet. We headed down Tiddlywinks back down towards the paved road we had turned off of about 10 hrs earlier...ahhh, now it was just 6 miles of pavement back to the finish....the miles went by relatively quickly and when I crossed the finish line I heard the announcer say, another finisher sub 11 hrs!
To my surprise I was able to finish just under 11 hours....now it was time to clean up a bit and hit the food, and most importantly find my finisher growler!.....all in all, it was a good day. I had a couple of dumb falls but I can't complain about the course or the race. The race was really well put together, organized, and laid out.
Thanks Mike (Mudslinger) for a great day on the bike!
I was looking forward to the day (well, sort of considering the dark places that you have to visit while on these journeys) and felt like my fitness was OK, and I had pre-ridden about 2/3 of the course and somewhat knew what to expect.
The starting gun went off and everyone followed the pace car on pavement for about 6 miles. For us singlespeeders, we got left to our own high rpm spinny cadence. I saw many a gearie pass me up on the road and took the approach of finding a comfortable cadence to spin and not try to keep up with the guys/gals with gears.
I knew that soon enough, we would hit the dirt and it would be time to start trying to reel some riders in.
After about 6 miles, we turned onto a quickie paved downhill section for about a mile until we turned off onto the dirt road that would take us up to the Larsen trail. The dirt road helped to thin out the riders and helped us singlespeeders to catch up to some folks. Once we hit the Larsen trail, we hit a couple of bottlenecks on some 'tek' sections where people were dismounting and walking.
I decided to accept the conga line place and just ride it out until we hit some areas that were more open and would spread people out a little more.
We took the Larsen trail over to Tiddlywinks and up Funner to Wanoga Sno Park where there was the first aid station. About 1 1/2 hours into the race, I noticed I was cramping! whhhhhhaaat? It was weird because I had not been hammering and did not feel like I had been working too hard yet. I quickly downed a handful of endurolytes and made a mental note to be diligent about popping a couple pills every hour for the duration of the day.
We got to Wanoga and I skipped the Aid station knowing that I had enough water and calories to take me to Dutchman (50 miles in). There was also another mini Aid station before that so I took the opportunity to keep moving.
Once we left Wanoga, we followed a trail for about a mile until it kicked us out onto a dirt road where we would continue to climb as the road got steeper and sandier. Once we hit the underpass I remembered there would be some hike a bike for me as a singlespeeder when the road got pretty steep and really soft for about 200 yds. If I was on a shorter ride I would have tried riding it but part of riding singlespeed is knowing when to dismount and hike a bike on some steep stuff in order to save your legs a little...The sooner you enter that red zone, the sooner you run the risk of bonking and considering we were only about 2 1/2 hours into the day, it was too early to go into the red zone.
We continued up from Vista Sno park until we hit the turn off for the connector trail over to Swampy Sno Park. We climbed for a little bit until we hit some fast flowy downhill. Soon enough we came up on the mini Aid station at Swampy and I did a quick water/calorie check and kept moving through the Aid station without stopping. I had enough to get me to Dutchman....
From swampy, we took a connector trail up to Swede Ridge where we picked up Sector 16 and bombed downhill until we hit Upper Whoops. Somewhere between Sector 16 and Whoops, I bit it! My front tire found some soft sand and before I knew it, I was on the ground dealing with a bit of a yard sale! Doh! I had been messing around with my Garmin on my bars and got distracted enough to bite it! My garmin attachment that is held on the bars with rubber bands was not wanting to stay in one spot. The rubber had stretched and so it kept want to slide to the smaller tapered area of the handlebars where it dangled. After the wreck I took it off and stashed it in my pack...it would be up to me to guesstimate when I needed to eat, take in endurolytes, etc....I usually go by the clock on the garmin to make sure I eat on the hour every hour, etc...
I brushed myself off, shook off the cobwebs and continued the downhill bombaroo....albeit a wee bit more cautiously.
We caught Skyliners and connected over Towards Tumalo where we would eventually connect to South Fork and work our way all the way back up to around 6,000 ft of elevation - it was time to settle in and find the happy place....I managed to pass several riders as they were spinning up the climb and I was forced to ride the bigger gearing on the singlespeed. I had ridden this section a couple of times before and knew what to expect so I just kept the cranks turning.
We eventually got back up to Swampy Cabin area where we took a connector trail back over towards the dirt road above Vista Sno Park, Instead of going back towards Vista, it was time to go the other direction to Dutchman where I had dropped off a couple of bottles for reloading on water and calories. I remembered climb up towards Dutchman as being steep and loose in a few areas so mentally I had made Dutchman a key point in the day where once we got there, most of the climbing would be behind us.
I got to Dutchman and swapped out bottles, got more water, and did some quick grazing before I hit the road again....did not want to linger too long and get too comfortable off the bike!
The next section of trail would all be new to me. We caught the Metolius Windigo trail that goes on the back side of Bachelor (or west side). This trail was totally different than anything I had ridden in the area and I became very alert to the real possibility of flatting due to all the sharp lava rock and techie trails. It was slow going in some areas and you could feel the day heating up as the day got hotter and we were not descending back the warm stuff. After about 11 miles, we hit Lava Lakes and another mini Aid station where I tried to keep moving through. The next few miles were a grind!
It was a steep climb out of Lava Lakes, with some nice tekkie loose ugliness thrown in for good measure.
Many of the geared guys were hike a biking through some sections so we kept each other company as we talked about what lay ahead....
The legs were feeling decent but the body was starting to break down...I could tell my riding was getting sloppy because my body and mind were getting tired. I took another spill - a stupid fall that seemed like it happened in slow motion as I hit another beach sand spot that gobbled my front tire and sent me off the bike. At that point, I knew it was time to dial it back a notch on the downhills and see if I could find the flow again.
We eventually crested the climb out of Lava Lakes and it was time to look forward to the next Aid Station at Edison Sno Park. This is where I had another drop bag with some goodies for the last 20 miles. For some reason (probably wishful thinking) I had thought we were done with climbing once we hit Edison Sno Park and that it would be mostly downhill until the finish.
There was a mean climb out of Edison Sno Park that added insult to injury because we were getting clobbered by midday sun and the trail was relatively soft so the pedaling was hard. We eventually hit the top and once we started heading downhill, I knew that it was mostly down back to the finish. At this point the body was achey and rebelling on the downhills which made it hard to find flow but the finish kept reeling me in like a magnet. We headed down Tiddlywinks back down towards the paved road we had turned off of about 10 hrs earlier...ahhh, now it was just 6 miles of pavement back to the finish....the miles went by relatively quickly and when I crossed the finish line I heard the announcer say, another finisher sub 11 hrs!
To my surprise I was able to finish just under 11 hours....now it was time to clean up a bit and hit the food, and most importantly find my finisher growler!.....all in all, it was a good day. I had a couple of dumb falls but I can't complain about the course or the race. The race was really well put together, organized, and laid out.
Thanks Mike (Mudslinger) for a great day on the bike!
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