I was meeting some friends at the race, who went down on Friday. I pulled into the camp site about 5:30 PM, set up my tent, registered, got some food, dropped my drop bag, and settled in for the evening of pre-race jitters. :-)
My goal for the race was to finish. The longer single day ride I've done before the SM was about 75 miles long, and did not have a fraction of climbing we were facing in the race. So needless to say, I was nervous.
The morning of the race, we happily started at the back of the main group, knowing that we would pace ourselves and weren't gunning for the top honors.
However, as we turned off the paved roads into the first jeep road climbs, my buddy and I started picking the spots up. It's always entertaining to me to watch people on the geared bikes spinning granny gear up the hills. I know I'm not that strong and not stronger than the other riders, so I attribute the fact that I'm climbing faster up the hill in a harder gear on my SS than they do on geared bikes, to the black magic of SS.
At the top as we turned into the first section of singletrack, that's where our strategy of starting at the back came to bite us, as we were bogged down by riders who didn't seem to be used to and comfortable with out East Coast rocky terrain.
Luckily, the field was spreading out nicely and before we knew it we were cruising.
I must give big credit to the organizers as the course was just about perfect for a long race. There was plenty of climbing, but the climbs weren't such that they would stop us dead in our tracks and beat us up such that we wouldn't be able to ride past 20-30 mile mark. Flats were good for recovery. Singletrack sections were plentiful and absolutely a blast. Some of the best, funnest (yeah, if that's a word) prettiest singletrack I've seen. The down hills were fast and technical. I'm not the fastest down hiller by any means, and riding fully rigid bike, even tho it's a 29er doesn't help. Tho, I have to admit, it's not the bike that is really limiting the speed, but the rider. My buddy on his rigid 29er was opening a gap on my on every down hill.
I was expecting to barely claw my way to the finish, dragging my lifeless carcass by the sheer will power. In reality, I actually didn't feel half bad thru the race. I must've been better mentally prepared and definitely paid more attention and stayed on top of proper hydration and replenishment of the calories burnt.
Few interesting realizations that came to us during the race. We were looking forward to 50 mile mark as some magic mile stone after which it will be all easier and we would be home free. Despite that mile 50 for us was 6 hours into the ride and we had another 50 to go, and 50 is a darn long way!!! Then we were closing on aid station 5 at mile 75, like it was god sent, and after it, we had "ONLY" 25 miles left... Ha, my normal rides are about 16-17 miles long, and here I was looking at "only" 25 miles, AFTER riding for 75 already, and in these "just" 25 I would have to climb more than I usually do on any of my normal rides...
But still, mind is a funny thing, and it definitely helped a lot to look and think about it that way, "only" 25 left. At aid station 6, mile 88, we had "just mere" 12 left, that's child's play!!! We are home free!!! :-)
At station 6 we were told that if we really push we might be able to finish in the day light without using the lights! So that became our motivation and goal, and it worked out perfectly!
So I completed my first SS hundie. The longest one day SS or otherwise ride I have ever done! I loved every second of it. I'm hooked and will come back for more, much more next year.
PS One observation I made after the race was that to my surprise, during the race I did not think once about pulling out or not finishing. I was very happy about that.
My goal for the race was to finish. The longer single day ride I've done before the SM was about 75 miles long, and did not have a fraction of climbing we were facing in the race. So needless to say, I was nervous.
The morning of the race, we happily started at the back of the main group, knowing that we would pace ourselves and weren't gunning for the top honors.
However, as we turned off the paved roads into the first jeep road climbs, my buddy and I started picking the spots up. It's always entertaining to me to watch people on the geared bikes spinning granny gear up the hills. I know I'm not that strong and not stronger than the other riders, so I attribute the fact that I'm climbing faster up the hill in a harder gear on my SS than they do on geared bikes, to the black magic of SS.
At the top as we turned into the first section of singletrack, that's where our strategy of starting at the back came to bite us, as we were bogged down by riders who didn't seem to be used to and comfortable with out East Coast rocky terrain.
Luckily, the field was spreading out nicely and before we knew it we were cruising.
I must give big credit to the organizers as the course was just about perfect for a long race. There was plenty of climbing, but the climbs weren't such that they would stop us dead in our tracks and beat us up such that we wouldn't be able to ride past 20-30 mile mark. Flats were good for recovery. Singletrack sections were plentiful and absolutely a blast. Some of the best, funnest (yeah, if that's a word) prettiest singletrack I've seen. The down hills were fast and technical. I'm not the fastest down hiller by any means, and riding fully rigid bike, even tho it's a 29er doesn't help. Tho, I have to admit, it's not the bike that is really limiting the speed, but the rider. My buddy on his rigid 29er was opening a gap on my on every down hill.
I was expecting to barely claw my way to the finish, dragging my lifeless carcass by the sheer will power. In reality, I actually didn't feel half bad thru the race. I must've been better mentally prepared and definitely paid more attention and stayed on top of proper hydration and replenishment of the calories burnt.
Few interesting realizations that came to us during the race. We were looking forward to 50 mile mark as some magic mile stone after which it will be all easier and we would be home free. Despite that mile 50 for us was 6 hours into the ride and we had another 50 to go, and 50 is a darn long way!!! Then we were closing on aid station 5 at mile 75, like it was god sent, and after it, we had "ONLY" 25 miles left... Ha, my normal rides are about 16-17 miles long, and here I was looking at "only" 25 miles, AFTER riding for 75 already, and in these "just" 25 I would have to climb more than I usually do on any of my normal rides...
But still, mind is a funny thing, and it definitely helped a lot to look and think about it that way, "only" 25 left. At aid station 6, mile 88, we had "just mere" 12 left, that's child's play!!! We are home free!!! :-)
At station 6 we were told that if we really push we might be able to finish in the day light without using the lights! So that became our motivation and goal, and it worked out perfectly!
So I completed my first SS hundie. The longest one day SS or otherwise ride I have ever done! I loved every second of it. I'm hooked and will come back for more, much more next year.
PS One observation I made after the race was that to my surprise, during the race I did not think once about pulling out or not finishing. I was very happy about that.
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