More detailed report from SM100

The start was even more chaotic than last year. I heard that last year there were just over 300 riders and this there were 530... Wow. So we finally rolled off, and continued up the first long dirt road climb, at the top there was the usual bunch up at the beginning of the slightly technical single track. So many people didn't know how to ride dirt.

First aid station came and went very quickly at mile 10.

I was told that second station was around low 20's, and was wondering what was taking so long, but it turned out it was at the mile 31, which explained that. We were still feeling decent and rolled on pretty quickly.

Somewhere between station #2 and #3, which was mile 48, I started loosing power and Max was occasionally opening slight gaps on me. Thankfully there were some walking jams and other delays, so I was able to keep him in sight.

I think I somehow rolled into #4 somewhere around low 60's mile marker, ahead of Max, not sure what happened there, might've been some safety issues with his bike or something. I waited a little bit, but didn't see him, so I rolled on. That's where my legs basically fell off my body, then jumped up and beat me over my head and in my face saying "that's it, you stupid son of the bitch, we will get back at you and you won't finish". I was getting passed left and right. Max caught up to me. Out of stupid stubbornness I kept moving, knowing that I just had to get to the #5 at 75 and I would have a real second wind, because it was "only" 25 miles home stretch from there. Plus I wanted to get to #5 before 4:20, which was lights cut off. That section also had some longest stretches of flat, or false flat gravel roads, or at least they felt very very very long. I think the worst were ever so slight declined sections, not steep enough to gather enough momentum and coast, but too fast to maintain any sort of spin with my 32X20 gearing... It was mentally exhausting! I was trying to do some mental math to see if I had a chance of making the 4:20 cut off. I was trying to just stay on the bike as much as possible and walk as little as possible, even if my "gravity climbing", basically standing up and using solely my body weight to push the pedals down was all I could master on some of the climbs, and it was painfully slow, but a hear faster than walking and seemed to take less out of me and keep my mental state more focused. Somewhere in that suffer-fest, after downing tons of electrolytes and hammer gel, I started coming around a little and my head was clearing up and getting more focused.

Rolling into #5 I asked for time and, to my amazement, it was 3:24, almost an hour before the cut off and more than an hour ahead of last year's pace! Wow. As I downed some flat coke, had some fruit, got my gel flasks refilled, Max rolled in, he looked good and strong, I knew he'd catch me soon, so I told him that I'm going ahead and will see him soon.

Next stretch was painful but filled with purpose. There were only 13 miles to the #6, and we were on the finishing stretch. I just tried to keep moving, keep drinking and downing the gel periodically and walk as little as possible. And sure enough, #6 showed up pretty soon.

I was going to get my camelback topped off again, but a volunteer told me that it was few rolling miles on the road, followed by 3 miles climb and basically 6 miles downhill to the finish, so if I had half of the camelback, I should have enough water, plus would have less weight to carry. So I just got more gel in my flask. Before I started moving I peeked at someone's watch and it was 5:23... Damn. 12 miles, more than half of it downhill, only one long climb and few miles on the road before it, and just over an hour to sub 12 hour time. "Was it possible?..." What the hell, I went for it. Started off on the road. Managed to stay on the bike and climb slowly the entire 3 miles climb. Was passing several people walking or grannying up the hill, most of those people were the same guys who passed me so recently between stations #4 and #5, on the flat gravel roads, when I had nothing left in my tank. Now they were blowing up and I somehow managed to continue moving at my snail pace, which was enough to catch up to them.

When I saw the top of the climb and the down hill started, I just wanted to roll roll roll into the finish. I think three guys passed me on the first more technical singletrack downhill. Front or full susp were paying off for them. But then it flattened up and rolled up and adown for maybe 1/2 a mile on the old logging road and I was able to get them back. When that road pointed down for the final fast 2 mile decent, I caught up to two more of them, tried to encourage them to not give up and keep the speed going, and few moment later rolled thru the finish line.

Asked for time and was told it was 6:20... That would be 11:50 time! Still waiting for the final confirmation. My name wasn't on the board last time I checked, with the results "as of 6:20", there were times up to 11:42 on the lists, and my name wasn't on it yet. I think there were just around 300 finishers by that time.

Oficial results are up.
11:50:44, 271st out of 510 starters and 436 finishers. What always astounded me was the attrition rate... 114 people DNF'd... that is almost 1 out of every 5 starters!!!
1:20 improvement over the last year. I bet in big part it's due to no mechanicals, last year Max and I stopped twice to repair flats, and I think this year we were a little bit more efficient in and out of the aid stations.