This year marks the first year that I have really begun to fully enjoy myself at 100 mile races. I had a blast at the Wilderness, and an even bigger blast at Shenandoah this past weekend. Shenandoah is a race that will definitely be on my calender next year. After that, who knows. The unfortunate thing is that it conflicts with 7 Springs, which is another race that I like. Maybe one of them will have the heart to change, although it's not like I would attempt to do them back-to-back.
Chris Scott tried a different type of start for this years Shenandoah 100, staging riders by expected finish times. I lined up with the 8hr group. Lets be clear here. I did not expect to finish in 8hrs. I just wanted to avoid the logjam in the singletrack that I was sure to get stuck in if I lined up in my actual group of 10hr. I lined up next to
Madison and his dad, and followed Jim up most of the first climb before moving ahead of him. I hit the singletrack and got stuck in a little traffic but generally made it through pretty quickly. I got into a good group on the roads and we began really trucking towards the next section of trail. Instead of walking most of it like I did two years ago, I made it up all but the steepest parts of the first singletrack climb. I guess that was when I realized I was riding pretty well. On the next descent (Wolf's Ridge I think...) I made a rookie line choice and ended up on my face and having to eject my bike behind me. My bike was ok (had to re-adjust one of my Ergon's), but my knee was a little banged up. It felt fine, though, so I kept trucking on, eventually catching Jim and following him down the descent at a slower pace. Jim is a good wheel to have on the road, and probably kept me from blowing myself up too early by chasing too hard. Chasing what, I don't know, but chasing nonetheless. We eventually got into a bigger group that included local superstar Jon Williams, and rolled into Aid Station #2 together.
At Aid Station #2, everyone stopped, except me. My plan was to hold of on stopping until Aid Station #3. I had enough Hammer Perpetuum and Hammer Gel to last until then, so I was just going to go. As I was nearing the top of the short road climb after Aid Station #2, I made another rookie mistake by trying to double shift while pedaling under load (Andy Schleck style) and lodged my chain against my drive-side chainstay. Twenty minutes later I had taken the chain apart, untangled it, and put the chain back together (the latter took much longer than it should have), and my knee had swelled up quite nicely from the crash. After a minute of pedaling I knew it would be slow going. Any pressure I put through my left knee was met with a nice shooting pain. I hit the next climb (Hankey Mountain/Wild Oak Trail... the real shitty climb) and started to soft pedal. Some kind soul (bless you kind soul for I know not who you are other than that you had sweet mutton chops) gave me some Vitamin I about halfway up the maintained road part of the climb. Once that kicked in, my legs started spinning more freely and I started ratcheting up my pace. I knew that utter sweetness awaited me at the top. I ripped down Dowells Draft like a kid in a candy store. That trail is truly too much fun. It is also where the lessons of fast descending finally sunk in: keep a cool head, keep loose, flow like water, go fast. Fast made all the difference in clearing the first set of loose drop-offy switchbacks. Fast made the bottom part more fun. Fast is good. When I got to Aid Station #3, I did my thing and left, eager to hit the next bit of singletrack.
After the stupid crash I caused on the road (no one injured, sorry TransSylvania Pete), I started up Bridge Hollow which is a fun, technical singletrack climb. Then it was down Johnson Draft, which is another killer descent. I stopped for a bit at Aid Station #4, even though I really didn't need to. It was nice to see Ms. Geology and my parents helping out there, but I needed to move, so I did. I moved out onto the open road for the long climb. The infamous 20 mile long climb which, although not very steep, offers up a continuous false flat-to-easy climb for about 10 miles, then 4 or 5 miles of rolling, but still climbing overall, roads, then 5 or 6 miles of steady moderate-grade climbing. When most people look at it at first, it scares them. In truth it's the easiest part of the whole course. The only thing that really starts to hurt is your ass from sitting on it too long. Alternating between sitting and standing is the key to keeping sane riding the long road sections. I settled into a good pace, with a good group on the false flat section. Once the climbing got more intense, our pace quickened slightly, but not too much, and people started falling off our group. When we hit the really climby last leg, our group, formerly about a dozen people, was down to 2, me and a singlespeeder whom I had seen earlier and passed before my chain/knee incident. The first time I saw him I wanted to punch him because he looked like
Evan Plews (the link explains itself... and if you were there you can definitely sympathize). He was not Evan Plews, just a pretty solid rider who was taking it easy after trying to chase back to hard from flatting. Very nice guy. I let him go up the steeper bits so I could maintain the same pace, and so my spinny geared ways didn't step on his singlespeed-ness. Near the top of the climb I upped my pace to make up some time and caught him before Aid Station #5.
After Aid Station #5 and another bottle change, I began hammering for home. A short descent and a medium length climb later I was headed down Wild Oak, the last long descent in the race. I definitely learned the lesson that faster is better when coming down the technical upper sections of this trail. There were two moments that I remember thinking to myself, after skipping over something hairy, that had I been going any slower I would be rolling down the mountain. Speed is good. Skipping over death rocks and death roots is good. Making it down the mountain in one piece, on my bike is good. Speed is good. Speed is fun. That feeling of cleaning something that you rightfully should have is an awesome feeling, as is ripping sweet singletrack.
I rolled through Aid Station #6. It was time to be done, and I wanted to beat the myth that your Shenandoah 100 time is your Wilderness 101 plus one hour. I hit it as hard as I could up the Hankey Mountain climb (version 2), ripped down the next descent, and hammered the slightly rolling roads just before the campground. I dropped down through the campground with some dude on my tail. He jumped out ahead of me onto the campground road, but missed the turn into the field. Sorry dude. I did my trademark manual over the jump in the field (a la the road in R.B. Winter at TransSylvania) and rolled into the finish with a time of 10:18:17, well under my goal time. I was happy. I am still happy. Cross is soon. It is fun. You should come. Some Shenandoah pictures are included below courtesy of
Bob Popovich.
Coming off of Wolf's Pond
Ended
Peace...
