Hampshire 100 Race Report

The Hampshire 100 was yesterday and a great race it was.  It is amazing that each NUE course can have such a different personality, and this one was certainly that.  The first 20 miles were relatively flat and fast as advertised, then the next 40 miles were frenetic.  It seemed like we were never riding anything more than a few minutes -- a field crossing, single track in the woods, out on a paved road, turn on a side road, now it turns to dirt, now it becomes a jeep trail, now we are back on single track, then through someone's back yard.  It never settled into any rhythm.  There were no big epic climbs but tons and tons of small punchy ones, and most of them seemed to be about 20% grade on loose sandy, babyhead rock surface.   Lots of hike a bike.  Lots of bog holes with thick gooey mud.  

I can't believe how many people's properties we rode through.  I know what a headache it is to get permission from a small handful of property owners for some of these races.  That they could get 80 different people to say "yes, I'll be happy to have 300 psycho bike riders come through my yard" just blows me away.  There must be a real spirit here of sharing access to old right-a-ways and such ... much like England's famous lanes.   

The single track must not get much play there.  It all looked immature.  Clearly some of it was just cut the week before (gee, I think I'll make a 50 yard connector trail through here).  Some of it seemed very new until you hit a bridge that's been there for more than a decade.  On parts of the course we looped twice, the single track was nicely dug in on the second loop.   A lot of these trails are short bits and pieces; no epic 15 miles of continuous, flowly single track to be found.  It was all hard earned grunting and roots and rocks and rough going. 

We started in waves at 6:45 and I went off in the men's open, which was first.  Given that my strategy is to start very slowly, I wasn't real happy about that as I was going to get intercepted by the fast guys in subsequent waves.  Fortunately the first 20 miles of the course were very open and it was easy to allow everyone to self sort.  We did a loop around the camp ground then out to a gravel road.  The first 3 miles were all wide, fast gravel and downhill to boot.  A narrow bridge crossing backed things up for just a moment.  Then lots of gravel rail trail.   We hit the infamous section of riding along the rail bed.  Sure enough, a guy 4 spots in front of me clipped a pedal on a rail tie and flipped up and off into the woods.  Unfortunately his bike stayed on the trail so we all had to dismount and walk around. 

Then more rail trail, dirt roads.  Some climbing helped break things up a bit and then we climbed up the backside of Crotched Mountain Ski resort.  We did some single track through the woods to come down the front side.   Then a very long section of rail trail then went for many miles.   The last bit of it paralleled an old airstrip and was full of deep sand.  Slogfest!

Then we hit the two big climbs: the wall and the power line.  Both were hike a bikes.  The wall started out nicely but then got too loose and too many babyheads to be worth riding.  But this was the first of much hike a bike -- most all of it you could probably clean if you wanted to, but the effort needed to climb it wasn't worth it, better to walk and conserve your matches.   This was all at 25 miles and I was beginning to think this course was going to be really hard.  I had no idea.

The next 20 miles was very rough.  We hit this long section of logging path that was very crude and difficult to ride.  Lots of bogs and water crossings and slippery roots including one section where I carried my bike above my head through waste deep pond crossing.   I was off and pushing the bike lots.  I gotta say this was the dark section of the race and I was worried about having the chops to actually finish in a reasonable time.  The last 10 miles had some nicer single track and I managed to get back to the park in about 6:30 ride time for the first 63 miles. 

I then realized that I wasn't in that bad of a position.  I had beaten most of the 100k riders back for loop 1 and I also knew that I had 20 good fast miles to get back in the groove.  I think the constant struggle in the muddy single track had taken more of a mental toll than a physical one.   I replenished my food supplies and set off on loop 2.

My goal was to pick up 10 places in the last 36 miles.  That was pretty conservative but I didn't think there were that many riders in the 100 miler.   I got my first five in the 15 miles of rail trail; they weren't coming back at me that fast.  We finally hit the cutover section and I was starting to feel good again.  I was climbing well and picking up some slower riders.  I got to 10 and then let one get past me from behind.   We rejoined loop 1 and I started railing it.  Riders were coming back to me in waves and I even reeled in the guy who went by me before.   In the last 10 miles I kicked it up another notch and was humming way faster than I had been through here previously.  I got up to 32 riders I caught and just 1 that got by me and I think stayed out. 

I crossed the line in 9:59 of ride time and something like 10:24 on the clock.  It was a very good success and I can't believe how good I felt at the end.   I had even more kick than I had at W101 and didn't feel as wasted as I did with that effort.   I really think my conditioning is coming along! 

A short two weeks of rest before I head down to SM100. 

Family Rides on the Erie to Ohio Rail Trail

Eli pounding out miles on primitive rail bed.

I'm using this in between period (in between races) to get some family time.  Thursday I took Eli to ride the Heart of Ohio trail from Centerburg to Mt Vernon and back.  The first 7.5 miles is very smooth asphalt but the last 5.5 miles is primitive rail bed with big chucks of gravel and lots of overgrowth.  It was a real slog for those 10+ miles (to and back) on that path.   We picked up speed once we hit asphalt again and raced a storm system back to the car.   A quick stop at a local diner in Mt Vernon gave us some fuel for the return trip.

Family on the Holmes County Trail

On Saturday we packed up the family minivan and headed to Killbuck OH to ride the Holmes County trail to Millersburg and back.   It is a double wide paved trail with half for bikes and half for Amish buggies.  We saw about a half dozen buggies on the pathway and several others tied up at local businesses along the path.  Kind of like a super highway for Amish.   Unlike this blistering hot summer, Saturday was the one chilly day we've had since May.  It hardly got about 60 for the ride and we mostly froze.  Once again, we raced a storm back to the car but avoided getting majorly wet.   This was Dyl's first real ride this summer so she was a trooper to make the 15 mile round trip (with pizza lunch as a bribe in Millersburg). 

Both the Heart of Ohio and Holmes County trails are part of the larger Erie to Ohio cross state trail.  It will be fun to get this completed. 

Gravel goodness, old Mike climbs a gravel farm road.

Today I got out with J.G. and old Mike for some gravel grinding.   JG  rode his warbird prototype, I was on my Masi cross bike and old Mike showed up on a Trek full susp 26er!   Wow, the guy is strong but this was probably not the right bike for the ride -- he was suffering near the end.  We got in 61 miles of gently rolling gravel goodness in and around Mt Vernon including the primitive rail trail that Eli and I had done a few days earlier.  We pushed it and my legs were tired of hanging on JG's wheel for almost four hours.  I was glad to have old Mike there as we were better matched. 

Friday I head to New Hampshire for the Hampshire 100, my third NUE race of the season.  I'm excited to try something very new.  The long range forecast calls for rain, but this is so far out there is a very good chance things will change completely by race day.  Still, I hope we don't ride in the rain all day.

Post Race Ride

The first real ride back from any NUE 100 miler is a tough one.  Fortuitously, we planned a 3 day family vacation in Hocking Hills this week (see horse riding pic!), so I got extra time off the bike.  Today I went out for a 60 miler of hills on the cross bike.  

As expected, my legs felt a bit sluggish but it wasn't as terrible as it could have been.  I managed to keep a good pace climbing up the many steep hills and recover on the flats.   I found a new abandoned train bridge that was cool and stopped to take a quick pic.   It was on Claylick Rd coming out of Tobosso. 

I was planning to stay off the gravel today but it wasn't to be.  Apparently the south end of Pleasant Valley Rd isn't paved.   A car had gone by about 7 min ago and the dust just hung thickly in the air.  With no rain for many weeks, there is about 2" of fine silt on all the gravel roads that just gets kicked up in the air with the slightest provocation.  With only a slight wind today, the dust just hung there coating everything including my lungs.  

Stats: 58 miles, 3k feet climbing, 16.4 mph avg pace.