Gravel Grovel 2017

I can't remember how many years ago that the Gravel Grovel was started, but I sure am happy that I found it. A lot has changed over the years. Where the race starts and finishes, how bad the weather conditions are, what bikes I have used and how bad the pain was. I have had a few years that would make a lot of people not want to come back, but for some reason I find myself lined up on the starting line every year just hoping to do better than some previous years.

Pedals helping people - Cancer Sucks!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of being able to attend a race that is for a worthy cause. This is the second year that this race has been put on. I was unable to attend last year, so when the day opened up for me I knew I needed to go. This race is put on to help fund a worthy cause of Shirley's Way and all proceeds were put in to that organization. I am sure there is no one out there who has not been effected by cancer and some all too frequently.

2017 Fools Gold 60 ish

I have wanted to do this race for several years. When the idea was brought up, I was really hoping it could work out. My original thinking was to camp at the start/finish area and hang out and have a good time. But, that plan was not followed and we went the hotel route. I was fine with that. I am sure I would sleep better there. It would have only been better if it was a little closer. 

Tri-State 6 hour - England Idlewild

I had a blast at the first 6 hour race that I did. I could not attend the second of the season because of some other obligations. It seemed like everyone was backing out of going to this race and I really didn't feel like making the trip all by myself. So, thinking that I was not going to race I was easily talked in to a long ride the weekend before. We rode down to Tell City to ride the Schweitzer fest ride and then ride home. It was a 125 mile ride with over 7000' of elevation gain. It sounded horrible so of course I was easily talked in to it. Shortly after the ride started I was informed that E2 was probably going to attend the 6 hour race. Crap, here I am out doing a really silly race the weekend before a 6 hour race. Oh well I guess we will see how it all goes.

2017 Big Frog 65

I had some time to write this after I returned home from the race, but I was trying to not get in too much of a hurry. I was really not sure what I wanted to write and I wanted to give myself some time to let everything sink in and what it really means to me. I'm still not clear on how or what I feel about this years race. I know, I know. I keep getting told this or that and that I'm too hard on myself. Who else can be my worst critic but me?

Griffin Park XC

I am foraging new areas with this race report and not really sure what to think about it. Let me start with the week leading up to this race. I was being asked if I was going to attend this race or not. I really didn't have anything on the calendar that I could not miss that should keep me from racing this race. I typically am not really in to XC racing that much, so I did not have a huge desire to attend. I was leaning toward just staying home and putting in a long ride here. The week leading up to the race I was starting my 3rd week in a row of feeling sick. I was still riding, but coughing and over all just feeling run down.

My arm continued to get twisted about attending. It turns out that several team members were going to be able to make it to this race. We have not really had that many people be able to make it to the same place very often over the last couple years, so I agreed to go along. I didn't expect to do very well and I was really good with that. It was going to be more about hanging out with friends and riding my bike. This mentality had me doing some things that I normally would not have done before a race. There was supposed to be a soccer tournament the two days before. There was a lot of rain that came in and they had to post pone the tournament to the next week. This allowed me to join a couple other friends on a ride Saturday morning.

This ride was not typically what I think I should do the day before a race. We did a 43 mile gravel ride that had a fair amount of climbing. I knew it was going to be a pretty big ride, but like I said above I was not overly concerned about finishing well at the race. We had a great ride! I tried to not go too hard on the climbs just so I didn't completely destroy myself. After the ride I tried to do a few things to make sure and recover and re-hydrate, but did allow myself to have a couple beers too. Later that night my legs were hurting and borderline cramping while I was sitting on the couch. It was not looking very promising that I would have much for Sunday.

Sunday morning came much earlier than I wanted it to. I got ready and headed over to the meeting place and we loaded up the team trailer. Down the road we went to Griffin Bike Park. We made it there with plenty of time left before the race. It was not as early as we wanted, but it was just fine. We all signed up and got ready to go warm up. I had never been there before. I figured that the one person who did know the trail would lead us in the right direction of a sample of the trail to warm up on.

After a few miles I realized that me and Kade were all alone. Neither one of us had any idea where we were or where to take any short cuts to head back. The trail was not that long and I knew we should have enough time to finish the lap, but that was not my plan at all. When we finished the lap we rolled up to the car with about 12 min before the start of the race. I grabbed what I wanted for the race and tried to eat and drink a little then headed to the start.



I didn't really plan it, but when we rolled up to the line from the dashed line, I found myself in the second row. I was not too worried about it as I was not really sure how the legs would be. There was also a long road section before we turned in to the woods. We took off fairly fast. At first it was not bad, but then the road was getting longer than I wanted it to be. I backed off my pace a little so I didn't completely blow myself up before we even hit the woods. I noticed that there seemed to be a little gap behind me so it was all good.

I went in to the woods somewhere a little above the top 10 I think. It was hard to tell and I didn't want to slide out on the 180 degree turn in to the woods. I was a little worried about this first section since it had some tight corners and some short up and downs. I figured if the group was all bunched up and everyone slowed a little at the top of the hills, it could turn in to a bad pile up on the face of the hill. That would not be good at all. Luckily it was not too bad and I tried to keep enough room in front of me where I thought the issue would be worse.

I made a few passes here and there where it worked out. I could also make some moves on the open gravel section that went by the finish line. Somewhere in this lap I came up on Tristin and followed him for a while. At some point he dropped me. I kept going as best that I could. I was happy with how the legs were working. Somewhere late in the first lap I found myself behind JJ. I figured that I probably was not doing too bad as I had noticed him toward the top of the finishers lists on some of the other Dino races. I was content being where I was and just stayed with that group. At some point it ended up just being the two of us as we started the second lap.

I felt like we were not rolling along too bad. I expected to be working harder than I was, but was happy with where I was and stayed there. Next thing I knew Barry came up on us pretty quick and on one of the more technical little climbs he went flying by us on the other side of the trail. We both followed him for a little while. This is the point that my day changed a little. Barry had asked if he was holding us up and if we wanted by. JJ declined and said we were good. It was then when Barry asked where we were sitting. When the reply was 2nd and 3rd I just about crapped myself. I knew I had passed a few people, but I never expected to be that far up. It gets a little confusing on where you are after the different age groups get mixed up. It had been a very long time since I had been in this situation. It was back in the 90's when I frequently found myself near the front of the Sport class. Every since getting back in to racing I had just been pack filler.

At this point I could not have been any happier. My legs were feeling a lot better than I could have ever expected after what I did the day before and with my warm up ride. I figured all I needed to do was try to hang on and maybe be able to make a run for the position at the finish. I was not sure if Barry was in our class or not, but he dropped us anyway. Now I was potentially going to have to sprint it out for a 3rd place finish. I was hoping that he was in the 50+ class, but I was not sure. I just wanted to keep an eye out behind me to make sure no one was catching us and possibly loose another position. Somewhere in there we caught back up with Tristin and rode with him.
We had moments where we were really moving out. Overall the legs were feeling pretty good, but had moments where it felt like they might be working on cramping soon. I downed a Honey Stinger gel and took in some big drinks. In no time those feelings went away. I am not sure where it happened, but JJ was taking a turn at the front and I ended up passing Tristin. Not sure where he fell off, but it was back to just the two of us.

Somewhere in the third lap another rider came up on us before I knew it. He asked to pass, but right then there was not really a good place. In just a little bit I knew we would be hitting one of the double track sections and there was no need to move over in a dangerous spot. I knew as soon as we hit the double track he would be making his move. I didn't want to risk loosing any more positions so when he went, I jumped on his wheel. We flew down that section and back in to the woods. I kept on his wheel the best that I could. There were not too many spots that I really felt like he was going too slow.

We crossed the parking lot section where the start turned in and where we were parked. I was wearing down and getting worried I would run out of gas. So, I finally asked the question, what class are you in? He said 50+, how about you? I said 40 and he replied, oh thank god. That means we won't have to sprint it out at the line. LOL we were both hoping that. I am not sure if it was the release of the stress or what, but right after that I started to feel a little stronger. He had just asked if I needed by and I didn't think I wanted to at that point. A corner later I was kind of thinking I should have passed, but at that point it was all good. I just didn't want JJ to catch back up to us and kept looking back as the trails crisscrossed. We went hard when we hit the gravel, but I didn't have enough to pass him and I was ok with that.

Well it turned out that I ended up in 2nd and was able to stand on the podium. It felt awesome to be able to have such a great ride and then have the best MTB result that I have had in probably 20 years or more. It is great to finally feel like all the work I had been putting actually making a difference. I know I have not done everything that I need to or even had planned, but I have been doing more than previous years and it may just be starting to add up. Now I just hope to keep moving forward.
Now for the what if's that I just can't keep out of my head. It is really hard to talk myself in to some things when I really didn't expect to be somewhere to begin with. There are a lot of things leading up to this race that had me thinking I would not do very well, even for my normal finishes. I had been sick for 3 weeks and just barely getting over it. I had rode some in that time, but had some days that I really struggled and was really run down and wore out. Then I look at the ride I did the day before. This was not what I would call a good idea the day before a race. Not enough sleep the two nights leading up to the race and then that much longer warm up ride than I had planned. Any and all of those things should have kept me from having a good race. So, how did it go so right?

The other side of the second guessing myself is what would have happened if I would have pushed forward and made a couple passes that I didn't make? The guy who won the race was only 1 minute ahead of me. Could I have made up that time? Would I have blown up and fell apart? I will never know. Part of me thinks I did so well because I didn't make a couple passes. When I was on someones wheel and I was able to rest a little, it could be the whole reason I was as strong. After being stick and everything else, I am not going to beat myself up much wondering about the what if's. I am just very happy to finally have a good result. I just need to keep doing what I have been doing and working on improving. Maybe someday I will feel good enough about myself to go back to Cat 1 or even race Sport Open. My real goal is to be able to do better at the longer races. I feel like I am getting closer, so maybe one day I'll be "there".

Dirty South Roubaix 100k

The Dirty South Roubaix was on my radar since I first saw it posted. It was a little farther away than I wanted to drive by myself to and from on the same day. I also have a full enough calendar that I really didn't want to spend for another hotel room. When I found out that one of my teammates was making the trip, it was a no brainer. It would be a fairly early morning, but the race is in a different time zone to help with that. The drive over went well and we found ourselves behind the Bushong van as we got close to the start.

We checked in and started getting ready. I was not as prepared as I needed to be on a couple bike things and I also took a long time trying to figure out what to wear. It was supposed to get fairly warm, but it was much colder getting ready than I expected. I just ran with my decision on clothes and hoped for the best. I figured I would not always be warm enough, but hopefully not too cold for too long. Before I knew it, I was needing to grab my things and line up. This was the first year for this race and I was pretty surprised as how many people were there. I really think that if this race was not the same weekend as Southern Cross, it would have been even more people there.
After a few words by the promoter, we were going down the road for a neutral start. I was not trying to be too far to the front. I didn't really expect the legs to show up good enough to be there. But, there were a few small inclines as we rolled along and several people were slowing down more than I wanted and I found my way back toward first group on the road. The pace car pulled away and I kind of expected it to just go crazy. The guys at the front may have picked the pace up, but it was not a full blown attack. I was able to hang out with some riders and work on warming the legs up.

After a  couple hills, up and down and then the first part of gravel, I found myself in some company that I am not used to being in. I was riding in the pack that Bushong was riding in. That typically has made me wonder if I was going too hard. I was feeling good and tried to make sure that I was not over cooking it too early. I hung around in that area for a little while, but eventually he pulled away on a climb. It was early and I was still not sure if I was going too hard or not, so I just settled in at a comfortable pace and climbed away. The first big switch back type climb was pretty long. There were areas that I though we were at the top only to find myself climbing again. I will say there were several sections that if I had a camera with me, it would have been very easy for me to pull over and take some pictures. It was a very pretty area.

When I was on the rollers at the top a rider that was wearing the Saint Nichols Brewing Company team kit. I knew he had to be local and knew the roads. I pushed a little harder in areas that I would not have because of him.This was a very good thing. It let me keep the pace up and climb hills faster than I would have not knowing just how long they were or weren't. I let everything hang out on the main down hill on this section. Apparently it was going well. Strava had me in 4th place overall on this section, well at least against the riders who are on Strava.

Toward the end of this section I was taking a turn up front. He said the road section would be soon and we should try to bridge the gap up to the riders in front of us. So, I picked it up a little and pulled them in. I found Bushong in this group. Most of this group stayed together for the road section and the beginning of the levee. Zach from Hashtag bikes joined us on the levee. This part was the hardest section of the ride. It was basically flat, but the wind made it very painful. The group started to splinter and soon enough I too was spit off the back. Zach and Bushong were putting in just a little too much power for me and knew we still had a long way to go.

I was stuck along for a little while, but eventually another rider who was part of the group at the beginning of the levee, rejoined me. Together we took turns trying to finish this section up. At one point we turned left and the cross wind was so hard I thought I was going to be blown off of the levee. I was leaning to the right very hard just to stay on the path. I was very happy when this section finally ended. But, it didn't take too much down the road that we were climbing a steep and loose section of climbs. I was really feeling the effects of the levee and just tried to keep moving forward.
Overall this section was really nice and scenic, but there was some sections of chunky gravel that also made it interesting. Eventually we came down another fast and fun but chunky down hill. There was another guy near me that was all excited about how crazy that hill was and then all of a sudden, his tire was loosing air. It really didn't not shock me after what we just went down. I was thankful that I was tubeless and managed to stay aired up for that section. Not too far after this, I was spit out on to another road section. I was out there by myself for this whole section. I didn't see anyone in front of me or behind me. I was told that this was a tail wind section, but I sure didn't feel it. I just did what I could to keep the pedals turning and moving forward. It is easy to sit up or stop and eat up a lot of time. The legs were feeling it and I kept eating and drinking to keep fueled up. I guess I did a pretty good job of this as I kept riding better than expected.

After we crossed back over the levee section we took a right to head back toward the finish line. As I turned the back wheel slid out on me. I knew right away that it was flat or really close. I stopped and checked it. I put some air in it and got back on. it did a pretty good job for a while. The tire kept loosing a little air and I could tell it was lower pressure than what I prefer. I tried to take it easy on it, but shorty after the creek crossing in the picture above, it was low enough that I needed to stop again. I put some more air in it. At this point my teammate Lovins pulled up. He wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. I guess he saw me stop the first time to put air in it, but just could not quite catch me. If I would have looked back, I probably would have eased up so we could join forces.

The tire held for the rest of the race, but it was not at the pressure I wanted it to be. I kept waiting for it to go flat again, but managed to hold on. I heard about a huge climb at the finish. The legs were really tired, but I was ready to be done. I was surprised at the pace that I was climbing the last hill and was just waiting for the point that my legs give up. Maybe the power of the finish line was pulling me through. I powered up the last climb and rolled across the line. I finished in 4:17 and ended up in 5th place in the sport class. I was very happy with my effort and how well I rode. I was also very happy with 5th place, but that back part of the brain does wonder what would have happened if the tire didn't start to loose air. I do not think I had enough in the legs to catch 3rd place and get on the podium, but I know I would have been close. Maybe next time!!

For a first time event these guys did a great job!! The course was marked very well and there were volunteers at most of the intersections just to make sure people didn't go the wrong way. The roads were very enjoyable. This is an area that I could go ride just for fun. I may have to schedule a long weekend down that way. Thanks to all the volunteers and everyone that made this race possible. Thanks to my teammate Lovins for being like minded and helping twist my arm to make the trip. This is on my to do list for next year. I really hope my schedule works out so I can make it.


Here is a video by Zach Andrews of the first 1.5 hours of the race. I get a lot of coverage near the end when we are riding together on the levee section.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVI6cth9sck

2017 Snake Creek Gap TT #2

This was the second year that I made the trip down to Dalton to race The Snake. This year was the first time that I was going to race the same distance both times. If you read my last post, then you know that the first race was shortened because of the weather. But, anyone who finished would get credit for finishing the race in their class. Last weekend I headed back for the second race in the series. The good news was that the weather was supposed to be a lot nicer than the first race. Not just less ice and snow that we could actually race the full distance, it was going to be pretty nice.

One problem with the weather being nicer is that I had been riding in colder weather and not used to knowing what to put on. I am not very good about keeping track of what I am wearing per how the weather is. I had a new kit that I really wanted to wear. Another issue I was having was that this new kit looked like the jersey was a little thinner than what the old ones were. This makes it hard to know how much difference it would make. With the start being at a different parking lot then the finish, I also had to try and make some decisions before we left. I made some last minute changes of putting on a second under shirt. I also put on knee and arm warmers.

Once we got to the start we unloaded and started to get ready. The stress was a little high as expected. This was going to be a big day and a lot of things can happen. Just when I thought I was ready and getting ready to roll around a little, my first complication of the day showed up. I was a little rushed at the hotel and I could not take care of all of my pre-race prep. Normally this is just an inconvenience, but looking at the bathroom line it was a lot more than just an inconvenience. So, I make a quick decision to head to the woods. As I roll up to the jeep, something happens and I land on my seat a little hard and pop, the seat moves. Great!!! So, I dug around trying to get the tools needed and then leveled the seat out. So, back to the last task at hand..............

I then rushed back to the jeep and headed to the start line. I saw some of my group and worked my way up to them and hung out waiting for my place in line to be started. Soon enough I was shuffled up to the guy yelling out race numbers to the time keeper. He says go and then says wait. I was like what?? am I supposed to go or what? The timing guy said go ahead. I joked that there when 3 finish spots. Like I really thought it would matter.

Off I go in to this new trail section that I have not rode before. it was supposed to be nice and flowy, so I did not want to get too carried away and over do the first 17 miles as the next 34 would be tough enough with out blowing myself up. It didn't take long before I found myself behind Abby from Wood-N-wave who I met the night before. It felt like I was going too slow, but I figured that was just me being too pumped up. So, I made sure and just sat there for a little while. Eventually I made my way by and said good luck.

Not too far down the trail I found myself coming up on Hutch and a train of riders. As we worked past a couple people we found ourselves rolling up on Team People's bearded powerhouse and Kayla (She Shreds) in front of him. If I was catching him, I figured I was starting way too hard. Then I could tell he was really trying to pace himself so he didn't over do it in this section too. So, maybe I was not doing too bad. Eventually he pulled away and Kayla ended up behind us. We stayed that way for a little while with a few other riders in tow. Hutch was setting an awesome pace. I figured that she was going to have a finishing time that I would be very happy with, so there was no need to pass her. I figured any extra effort that she was not putting in would only hurt me later.

We rode this way for a while. There was a little time that I did end up in front and went back and forth with a few of the other riders in the pack. As we went up the big climb before the Snake Creek gap parking lot, the legs felt like they were going to cramp. I backed the pack off hoping to keep that from happening and she rolled away from me. I came in to the parking lot rest area hurting pretty good. It was not easy to roll past the unsanctioned rest stop that had beer and whisky. I figured a beer would make my day end up badly. I rolled over to the sag tent and grabbed everything I felt I needed. I ate some Cliff products that were being handed out. I topped off my bottles and took off up the very long climb before my legs decided to take a break.

I took it easy up the hill as I knew it was a long one and with my legs feeling heaving I really didn't want to cramp. i saw some more familiar faces as they passed me, but I did't panic and just did what I felt I needed to. My bail out gear on my 1x11 is really nice for some things, but when I am in it I go pretty slow. Maybe shifting in to a bigger gear would have been good, but I will never know. When I did get to the top of the climb and started the next section the legs started to feel better. I had some highs and lows for this part all the way up to the water stop at the top of the road climb. I downed some mustard and went on my way.

I did pretty well for the next section. Legs were feeling better and it allowed my to ride a lot of the rock sections.  I just tried to keep moving, eating and drinking. It is crazy, but I kept wishing the wall was around the next corner. I really didn't want to go up it, but I was ready to get it over with. Eventually the wall came  and I started walking. With the legs wanting to cramp and also being wore out, I didn't ride as much as I did before. After what seemed like 3 hours I thought I was finally over the wall. I thought at this point that I had a little rock section to go and then the radio tower would be there soon enough. Well, this little bit really dragged on for every. I didn't remember there being that much after the wall. Part of the issue could be that at this point, my legs were locking up and keeping me from doing much. The cramps would come and go. When I could ride, I felt like I was still moving pretty well, but when my legs were locked up I was a snail.

Eventually I saw the radio tower. I could not have been happier. I knew it was all down hill from here. I dropped the hammer the best I could and let it rip on the down hills and made fairly short work of the last section. As I came around the corner and saw the finish line tent, I was ecstatic. I safely made the turn in to the parking lot and here was the group cheering me on. Jeff yelled for me to do a wheelie and even with my legs about ready to fall off, the next thing I know I was pulling up to ride one. Riding a wheelie at the finish line can be tricky. It is even harder after putting in the effort that I had to put in to get this far. I didn't want to pull up crooked or if I did pull it up straight, I didn't want to loop out. I was very happy when I pulled up an perfect wheelie and rode it way longer than I thought I had the energy for. I think this was one of things in the ride that I was the most happy about. Very little beats a good finish line wheelie.

I rolled across the line in 6:13 and ended up finishing in 15th place in the 40-49 class . My goal was to finish in 6 hours. I was not really thinking that I could get to 6 or even under so I really am happy with my time. But that does not mean that I don't keep thinking what if. I am super happy with the first 4 hours of the race. After that is where I started to put more effort in being able to finish as strong as I could and not just riding/racing. Typically I am the blame for my cramps or issues. I have a bad habit of not eating or drinking enough. Maybe I still didn't do enough of either or both, but I felt like I was doing a good job of taking in enough.

After thinking about it a little, I think maybe my issue was just not training hard enough. The cramps were along the inside of my thigh. I am not used to having cramps there as they are normally the calves or the hamstrings. I think all of the standing and pumping I did trying to ride everything was using muscles that I didn't work out enough before. Too many of my miles were put in riding gravel and not enough actual mtb riding where I need to stand up. I may be way off on this, but it seems to make some sense to me.

After the race we all headed to Cherokee Brewing for some awesome pizza and beer. Good times were had and we even helped a local named Eric celebrate his birthday and he shared his cake with us. It was interesting to say the least, but we had a great time. I would recommend checking that place out if you are in the area. We moved the after party back to the hotel and continued to have a lot of laughs and good times. I keep saying that the hanging out before/after the actual race is why I keep coming back. it just makes the trip all worth it. Laughter is good for the soul and with this group it is easy to come by.

I though it was just the beer talking, but apparently all the talk about riding the next day was really a thing. The next morning I was still a little in denial about the fact that we were really going to go ride. I didn't get near enough sleep, but I was up and moving like it or not. We loaded up and headed to Booker T State park. We met up with the girls and we all went for a ride. I was very tired, but was riding better than I thought I would. It didn't take time before the climbs were getting slower, but I was still going. The weather was over 70 degrees in February, so how could I not be out riding. The only bad thing about it was that it made the drive home seem longer than normal.

I want to thank the staff that puts on this race every year. There are a lot of people that put in a lot of hard work . I also want to thank everyone who helped make this weekend work out as good as it did and as fun as it was. Phil at Adventure's Recreation for helping me get my Scott Scale. This bike is a blast to ride and much lighter than what I was riding. Thanks to ESI Grips for having the best grips on the market. Stan's NoTubes for helping me keep from having a flat tire with all of the rocks I bounced off of all day. Honey Stinger for helping keep me fueled up with some great tasting energy products. Handup Gloves for keeping my hand happy. I want to thank my wife for all the hard work she has to do while I am gone for the weekend racing and while I am out putting in all of my training rides. She pushes me to get out and keep getting better. I can not ask for a better support team. And of course I have to thank my travel partners. With out you I would have to laugh at my own jokes and we all know that is not a good thing.

Sorry for the book. See you next time :-)

2017 Snake Creek Gap #1

Last weekend was the first of two Snake Creek Gap TT races. Being that it is the second weekend of the month, it did not leave much down time for the new year. I didn't go too crazy at the end of the year, but I tried to keep as active as I could. I knew this race was just around the corner. The first week of the year didn't work out too good for riding and I didn't get any miles in before this race. I did have some activity, but no riding out doors.

As the weekend drew closer, the extended forecast kept getting worse. The high temp if the day kept going down and the chance of snow kept increasing. There was even some thoughts about not heading down as it didn't seem like it would be worth it. Since part of the group already left Thursday, there was no way I was going to back out even if I had to head down by myself. Thankfully that didn't happen and Friday afternoon we headed south. The chance for bad weather Friday night was pretty high. There was some areas not too far away already getting snow. They also posted that there would be a decision late Friday about if the race will be shortened or cancelled. We were already on the road and I figured they would not cancel it unless it was really bad. Worse case we would have a real good time Friday night and find someplace farther north to ride on Saturday.
The company that was going to do the shuttle was not going to run to the parking lot for the 34/50 mile start. So, the race was shortened for everyone to being just 17 miles. Now that may sound like a pretty short race, but anyone who has done this before knows that this is the hardest 17 miles of the race and seems a lot more than just 17 miles. Then if you add in the snow that was coming and the temps reaching a high of 28 degrees, it could be a very tough "short" race.

I was torn on how to feel about hearing the race was shortened. It was not really what I came down here for, but with the conditions it would make a hard race even harder. I was also a little worried about how strong I would be for the full 50. Also, with it being this early in the year I as really thinking this more like a training race than something that I could actually place well at. So, with all that could go wrong for the weekend a snowy 17 mile ride was not too bad.

The first climb out of the parking lot hurt me more than I thought it would. I am not sure if it was the fact that half way up the hill I could no longer feel my fingers to know if I was pulling the brakes or not, much less holding on to the handle bar. I felt like I kept moving pretty well even with it hurting. I was going faster than some and slower than others. It was cold and the snow made some sections tricky. Once I hit the top and started flowing, the feeling in my hands came back. I felt like I was a lot farther in on mileage than I thought I should be. This made me think that I probably was riding better than previous times there. I did have one issue. The one water bottle I had was banging around and making a lot of noise. I thought my water bottle cage was loose, but it was just that the ice block of a bottle was too much weight and it was bouncing around everywhere. The other bottle that I had was an insulated bottle and after the second drink, it was frozen too much for me to get a drink.

I rolled up to the water spot quicker than I expected. I ended up staying here longer than I normally would have wanted to, but it just kind of happened. I was going to just leave the water bottle there and thought the guy would take it back to the start. Then he said he was just going to throw it away. But, I really like the cap that was on that bottle and then dug in the trash to retrieve the cap. When I took it off, I noticed that there was some water still in there. I dumped out everything I could and put it back on the bike. I took the top off of my other bottle to get a drink. I had a slushy for the rest of the day, but at least I could take the top off and get something to drink.

I kept moving for the next section and doing what I could. I had a few sections that I thought I was going down, but managed to keep myself up right. The extra effort I was putting in to keep traction or to stay upright was starting to add up. I am sure the lack of fluids or food played a big part in this. There were a couple of spots that I had to push and tried to take a drink during some of those sections. I did finally eat a gel at some point, but it was pretty late in the ride. I was very happy with how I was climbing the tricky sections, but it was not necessarily what I would call fast. I did destroy any of my previous times climbing the wall. So, I guess I had that going for me.

I admit that I didn't ride as much of the last rock section as I normally would have. After so many near misses I was second guessing myself too much. Some of the snow had melted and it was hard to tell what exactly was there. The sun was also to my back and put a shadow on the section of trail I was trying to see. With the race being cut short, my finish time really didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that I did finish and I didn't get hurt too bad to ride the next race.

The radio tower was there sooner than I expected, but I was really happy to know that I was just about done. The down hill from there had a few sections you really had to watch but was not near as bad as the road section. The changing between the pavement and the wet snow spots had me thinking that a high speed crash would be very easy to do. I took it way easier than I probably needed to but oh well.

I ended up finishing in 2:40 and in 108th place overall out of 232 riders. It should not really bother me but it does. The fastest time was 1:54. I don't think I am anywhere near that time but still think I should be faster. Granted I went in to this thinking more like a group ride than a race and I also made a few more bad decisions the night before. The time makes no difference for me in the race final, well unless the next race has the same issues and it cut short. If that is the case I will just go harder then.

Even with knowing all the reasons that I didn't go faster, it still bothers me. It is also compounded by the fact that in 2012 I did this race in a lot worse condition (myself not the trail) and I was on a rigid SS and it only took me 7 minutes longer. I am either getting slower the more I work out or I just need to sell the new bike and start riding my SS again. I have said several times that my best/fastest races are on a SS.

Yea, I know I have some issues. That does not mean that it is easy to change how I think.