Well ... it rained a lot, I crashed a few times, and I had to pull out. There comes a time when a person has to measure up to the amount of suffering they are willing to endure, and I hit my limit in this race. I'd like to think I can endure significantly more suffering than the average American (afterall I sign up for these 100 mile mtn bike races and I have a long history of elite marathon running), but there were definitely more people out there willing to suffer more than me.
The race started off reasonably well. I set off on a medium/hard race pace and climbed through the first hill without too much incident. The air was very humid (100%) with moderate temps around 70 .. still I was sweating heavily and drinking a lot too. About an hour in to the race two things happened. First it started to rain, just moderate rain, but still significant rain that was wetting down the course. I also managed to catch up to Vicki Barclay who had an early flat and was well back in the field. We climbed and pushed the "Climb 2" hike-a-bike together and I stayed on her wheel during the fantastic descent. I was pushing it a bit hard but this was part of my strategy today ... to go harder from the start.
I paced her on the flatish road section and then pulled away going in to climb three. I stopped at Aid 2 about a minute longer than her so set off with the goal of catching her on the third and longest (so far) climb. It was a grueling affair made much worse by the thick mud covering most all of the climb. Somewhere between a slog and a slippery mess is the best description. Still I managed to reel her in and stay on her wheel through the top. The descent down the other side was more technical. Not bad, but rocky in places. Vicki was rocking it and I was pushing myself just a little too far beyond my comfort zone. Keep in mind that Vicki and I both are passing people on the descent, so it is not like I'm a slow wuss or something. Its just that Vicki is friggin awesome. I twisted my front wheel in a rock garden and went down for the first time. No big injury or anything so I picked up my bike and immediately set off even faster to try to catch Vicki's wheel. This was my big mistake. About 5 minutes later I went down again, much harder this time and busted up my knee pretty good. I had a nice blood flow and some heavy bruising. But more importantly, I was shaken and lost my trail mojo. I backed off the "follow Vicki" strategy and just set off at a mental recovery pace. Physically I felt good to go, but I was not in the "flow" anymore.
Things were good until the fourth climb. This was supposed to be a smaller affair but it proved to be my undoing. It was rather technical but the real problem was the pouring rain. Severe thunderstorms had moved in and had been dumping copious amounts of water on everything; we rode in these conditions for over two hours. The trail became a slick mess and now my confidence was really shot. The trail was cut on the side of a 45 degree rocky slope and was only about 12" wide. I got crossed up in a slippery rock garden and fell ... the wrong way. I tumbled off the side of the mountain and rolled about 3 times before I came to a final rest in a thicket of thorns. My knee was banged up again as well as my thumb, my hip and both elbows. It is amazing I didn't get hurt worse. It took me 10 minutes to untangle myself and scrambled with the bike up the steep slope to the trail. Then I walked ... a lot. My knee was hurt and I wasn't eager to get back on the bike in these conditions. I was mentally done.
I must admit, I HATE MOUNTAIN BIKING IN THE TORRENTIAL RAIN. I can ride in the rain no problem, but not technical rock gardens and precariously narrow trails. I can't do it. Other people can as lots of people seemed to be busting it down the slippery hill no problem. I was done. I walked much of the single track descent and then rode the "trail" back to Aid 4. The 4 miles of trail in to Aid 4 were more like a stream than a trail. It was all water everywhere and I had no idea if there was a mudhole or a rock in the middle of it.
I got in to Aid 4 and then made the decision to bail. I was hypothermic, it was pouring rain hard. 15 miles of easy road cruising and I was back at my car. Showered and left. The whole place was a bloody mud pit and I was ready to get out of there. Drove 6.5 hours back to Ohio, showered again and crawled in to bed.
This course was more technical than I had thought. I think it is harder overall than W101. I can certain ride this course and probably do well in it, when it is dry. I probably could have even toughened it out in the miserable mud conditions if not for the two bad falls. I was just pushing it too hard, too far beyond my ability and I paid the price. I don't think I would set off on another 100 mile mountain bike race if the forecast called for rain. I did four of them this year: Cohutta was lovely; W101 rained a bit at the start and then hard at the end; Hampshire was a wet course from recent rains and was technical, muddy and slippery in lots of places; and the Huricane Isaac misery of SM100. For a year that was marked by extreme drought all summer, I didn't have great luck with my races.
Now I just want to recover physically and recover my desire to ride a bike again. Maybe some rail trail exploration is in order this fall. And maybe some single track riding in DRY conditions.
