As noted in my last post, me and Kevin drove 7 hr form Starkville to Oden Saturday, then went on a short pre-ride of the staring single tack. 3 miles in, 3 miles out. My legs felt ok at best and my technical skills were vastly lacking. I decided to stick with my racing plan and see what panned out.
The plan was to do whatever was needed to hit the single track at the back of the lead group then find my rhythm for the remainder of the race. On Sunday I tried my best to make this plan a reality.
After the short 1 mile naturalized start the pace quickly picked up to an uncomfortably fast pace. About halfway up the next to the last hill before the single track I decided that it was costing me too much energy to keep up with the lead group, so decided to fall back and start searching for my rhythm.
I hit the single tack about a minute behind the leader and immediately started to get passed by people. For the first hour I would have group after group catch and pass me. Quite frankly I was embarrassed with myself. I felt like I was in way over my head and was going to wind up DFL.
After about an hour I started to feel better about my situation and started riding stronger. Just a few minutes later I blew past Aid Station One. Then I started climbing up the single track of Blow Out Mountain. After a few miles of climbing I was thinking to myself "This is not nearly as bad as people warned." Less than 5 min later I was off the bike walking up this hill. This hill was extremely steep and coved by nothing but loose rock. Once over the top of this climb there were several sections of ride-able rock gardens that I had to hike-a-bike over due to other riders walking in front of me. After walking for a total of ~1 mile on Blow Out Mountain the trail turned downward.
My technical skills had been improving all day and hit a high point during the descent off of Blow out Mountain. I was quickly catching and passing people on every type of bike: 29er, 26er, hard-tails, and full suspension. This got me pumped as I worked hard to pass several people on the short road section leading to the last bit of the Ouachita Trial.
I had 1.5 bottles of Cytomax left by the time I reached Aid Station 2. I decided to stick with my nutrition plan and take on more Cytomax at this Aid Station. This turned out to be good on the nutrition front, but not so good on the racing strategy front. As I was getting my bottles refilled I was passed by a few of the riders I had passed on the road. I quickly caught up to a slow group of 3 rider going up the next hill. They were going so slow that I was turning an uncomfortably slow cadence in my lowest gear (22-34 on a 26er). I was behind these riders at the worst possible time, the trail was steep and narrow with no room to let anyone by. For 2 or 3 miles I was stuck behind this group bobbling every time I would hit a root or rock. Finally at the top of the hill I made a quick pass and railed a sick downhill to the end of the Ouachita Trail.
I was happy to see the Ouachita Trail end, but sad at the same time. It was a stupid hard and fun trail, but its end brought ~8 miles of road leading to the Womble! The road section was not a time to rest at all. Sunday saw strong winds that seemed to always be right in your face. I took it easy on this section hopping to be caught by a group. With a few miles left to the single track I joined a group of 3 riders and took short turns pulling at the front.
Blowing through Aid Station 3 I knew the Womble was just a few minutes away. After about 10 minutes of hammering gravel roads I turned onto some sweet single track! The Womble is very similar to what I normally ride on. Show me roots and I can tell you how to ride them, show me rocks and I'm lost. I just could not help but smile as I flowed through the flat section of the Womble (not to mention catching and passing several people on this section).
Then going up the first hill of the Womble I hit a point where I was done (about 45 miles in). My core and upper back was killing me (legs still felt strong) and I started to get a headache (my typical first sign of dehydration setting in). There were several times between Aid Station 3 and 4 that I thought I was going to quit once I reached Aid Station 4.
Then just before I reached Aid Station 4 I popped my first caffeinated Gu. Once at Aid Station 4 I asked for water in my bottles and had some cool water pored over my head. Boy what a boost a little caffeine and a cool head can give you. The thoughts of quitting were firmly out of my head.
The remainder of the race was a blur. All I really remember was finding a new corner of the pain cave I never knew existed and dumping most of my water over my head. I finished the race strong with a time of 5:37 and placed 33rd over all. Despite thinking I was DFL most of the race and having some issues, I still met most of my goals and had a finishing time that made me happy. I indentified some of my weaknesses and had a fun time in the woods!
My nutrition was spot on for a race of this length but could use some tweaking. When drinking just Cytomax I was wanting more electrolytes and when drinking just EFS I was wanting the lactic clearing properties of Cytomax. My core and upper body strength needs working on, as well as my ability to climb long hills. Time to tweak my training and nutrition over the next 6 weeks before my A priority race, Syllamo's Revenge 125k!
On a side note, Kevin killed it all day and placed 4th, less than 5 minutes behind 1st! Congrats Kevin and everyone ells that finished this year's Ouachita Challenge.
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