PMBAR 2018 - Team People's Brewing

Picture credit: Icon Media

The last time I had made the trip south for PMBAR was 2010. I have changed a lot in the last 8 years, but so has my amount of riding in Pisgah. So, I am in a lot better shape, but not as familiar with all the trails. The only time that I have actually finished this race (4 check points in less than 14 hours) we grabbed 4 check points and finished with 20 min. left on the clock. My goal was just to finish and hopefully in less time than that. My teammate had a little more aggressive goals, but we both gave some and came up with a goal somewhere in the middle. We figured that 4 check points in 10 hours should be possible and to try and go for 5 check points if at all possible. The ultimate goal was to finish before dark. That should be fairly easy right??

You need to be prepared for anything

I ended up sleeping pretty good for most of the night, but I did wake up about 3:30, hit the bathroom and had trouble falling back asleep from there. Eventually it was time to get up and get ready. The morning routine was pretty typical and soon enough I was loading up to head out the door. With all the traffic at the start finish area, we decided to park at the ranger station and ride over. We got there in plenty of time and waited around until it was time for Eric to give out all the pre-race info.

Pre-PMBAR 18

With Saturday being a rather large day on the bike I thought I would get some of the pre-race info put down in a post. Thursday after work I headed in the direction toward Pisgah. I met up with my PMBAR teammate just east of Louisville. I parked my jeep in a hotel parking log, moved all my stuff in to the van and headed down the road. We stayed north of London to break the drive up some. The next morning we got up and headed south. The best part of the drive was running in to Dolly Parton at one of the rest stops.

Once we got in to town, we went to the house to unload. After we were moved in we kitted up and went out for a ride to loosen the legs up. Since we were pretty close to downtown, we decided to head over to Bracken and do an out and back. It was a lot warmer than Indiana has been and the climb up Bracken was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Heart rates were elevated and pedals were turned so we only went part of the way to the top and turned around to head back toward the house.

Sporting the new Carbo Rocket jersey

It was a shorter ride than I thought it would be, but honestly it was probably all we needed. After we got back, we cleaned up some and headed over to get checked in. Check in went quick and we were just hanging out for a little bit before heading back to the house.

We got a bite to eat at Big Mikes, relaxed for a little bit and then made our way over to Brevard Brewing for a little bit. Good times were had and beers were drank. After we got back to the house we got things ready for in the morning. We also looked at the map and discussed route options and pros and cons of taking certain trails. This was good for me just to get things refreshed in my head. I was trying to keep hydrated by mixing in things other than beer. I did an ok job of it and slipped away quietly to try and crash early. There was going to be a huge day in the woods tomorrow, so I might as well try to be as prepared as I can.