Well let me start off by saying that this race was truly an epic, by every standard in my opinion. Molly and I arrived late Friday evening and ran into Doug and Denny driving out to get a signal to try and call us, when we stopped you could hear the water running down along the side of the road. As it turned out the water was well out of the banks of the river and was up over the road near the turn off to our cabin. We got upto the cabin and everyone was already there: Doug and Jeri, Denny and Margie, and Jim Cummins. We got our luggage in and sat around the rest of the evening just talking and having a good time, it was very relaxing. Sat morning was a very cold morning, the tour riders were getting ready to start their ride and they were bundled up. Since the water was out the resort had flatbed trailers that the riders jumped on with their bikes and were hauled across the river, it was over waist deep at this point and had actually come down. We watched and laughed because we knew we needed to get across to preride and we were not sure what we would encounter the next morning for the start of our race. We went back to the cabin and ate breakfast and then we prepped our bikes and headed down to the water, after a short discussion Denny said he would drive his truck across the water with us in the back. We made it thru the water fine and parked on the other side and started a 2.5 mile climb up a gravel road. We met up with 4 guys from Arkansas and after a haul we did not see the trail head, so we rode a bit further and still did not see it. We opted to ride down to the truck and drive til we found it and then start riding from there, turns out we were only about 200 yds from the trail head when we turned around. We went into the singletrack and it was very moderate climbing to start as we were well up the hillside already and then some fast downhill. We dropped into a bottom, crossed a small creek and then hit the first steep climb that really wasn't short, it did lessen in intesity but the climbing continued. We rode, and rode, and rode some more, I finally looked and my computer was a little over 10 miles and I knew we had to ride back to the truck. I wasn't looking for a long preride but I guess I should have known better!!! We rode to the first check station and Doug started back into the singletrack, we all stopped and called him back wanting to know how far he was intending on riding. Doug is a stud and can ride several miles and be fine for the next day but I didn't want to ride a lot further. We ended up going back to the check station and asked some campers the best way back to the resort. At the check station we had just crossed Brazil Creek which meant what? that's right, we were at the bottom of a hill so we had to climb out. We had a paved climb that I swear went on forever and when we thought we were there it kept going, and going, and finally...oh crap no it kept going. I know it's hard to believe but I can be a smart a$$ sometimes and as we were climbing as a group I yelled to Denny "Hey, get out of your big ring". All the Arkansas guys whipped their heads around to look at his ring situation and of course I started laughing, Denny ended up looking down because he thought maybe I was serious at first. When we got to the top of the hill we found the gravel road that eventually took us to the truck, approx 20.5 miles of preride and I was very tired.
Sun morning we got our gear ready and noticed that the resort truck was pulling the flatbed again so we made our way down to the start area. Shortly after arriving we saw the truck come back with no trailer and we knew we would not have a ride across the cold water. It was warmer that morning but still very chilly, I was shivering down on the start plus anyone that has raced with me knows that the 15-30 minutes prior to the race start is the time I hate the most. I can't stand the waiting part, I just want to get started with the pain of it all. Finally the race started and we had a makeshift bridge (the flatbed) that got us across the river. I rode the gravel climb pretty good, riding solid in the climbs and pushing in the flats so I was able to pass a few people before the singletrack. I love endurance racing but I still never know just how much to hold back so I have enough to finish strong. I was riding pretty comfortable but yet at a steady pace. Denny caught up with me shortly after the first check station and we rode together to the second station that was at the 21 mile mark. My sensor on my computer had moved and I had no idea how far I had gone....which sucked. A few miles after the second check station my bike was making some funky noise so I tried to locate the noise but was unsuccessful. Denny had pulled ahead of me by this point so I just settled into a good pace but soon started feeling the early signs of cramping. I backed off a bit but knew I needed to keep some good pace going. I was frustrated that I have had a couple cramping issues this year and I felt like I had prepared my body for this issue but still was feeling it, but that's just part of racing. A few miles later I could not get my bike to shift into the small ring, that is big trouble on this course as it was climb, climb, climb. I made some barrel adjustments on the fly and got back into business, the only problem is I over adjusted and when I hit the gravel road I went for the big ring and jumped the chain off the sprocket. I finally got to the last check station and the girls said that Denny had just left a few minutes
prior. I was sure that I would catch him since I have done several endurance races and this was his first and he was carrying a fast pace but it turned out that he actually gained time on me. The last leg was rutted out and had some good drops over rocks and roots, it was a blast to ride. It would have been even more fun if I wasn't so tired and if it wasn't so wet. Also I had locked out my front shock on the earlier gravel section and forgot to unlock it, now I know why my arms were taking a beating on the downhills. Denny had an awesome race and finished almost 13 minutes ahead of me. I had some mechanical issues but he out rode me, plain and simple. I can't really complain because I still turned in a good time of 6 hr 19 min 50 sec and finished 54th out of 120+ racers. Even with some rough conditions there were 4 riders that were fast enough to beat the old record.
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