Patapsco 100: Getting My Long Awaited Finisher Jersey

3rd Men's Open / 4th Overall

10 Hours 35 Minutes

Offical Results

Strava Data

Strava Bobblehead Race Replay 

 Photo by: Jerry Jackson

Patapsco 100 brings so many different feelings to different people. Some think it is too hard, some think it is too technical. For me it is the Goldilocks of endurance racing; just right. I love the amount of singletrack in this race, and it has just the right mix of technical sections. The nice part is some of the singletrack gives you a break while you just flow on some nice trails, sure you still have to pay attention but it’s still some sweet singletrack. I have raced my fair share of 100 mile mountain bike races and long endurance races. I would have to say that even though this course lasts longer than other 100 mile races it went by the fastest.

The 100 mile racers lined up at 0600 and rolled out to a beautiful brisk morning that recent rainfall had brought us. We quickly entered onto our singletrack that throughout the day was perfectly tacky aside from a couple muddy spots that weren’t that bad. Patrick Blair, Gordon Wadsworth and Greg Capelle sat up front and I settled in right behind them. Where’s Kevin Carter, we had all seen him hanging out around registration, he’ll show up, he always does; fashionably late.

Over the last years these trails have been my backyard to romp around in, play and most importantly on this race day, learn. I knew this race course inside out I knew where the log overs would be, I knew the lines to take. I had my own strategies to save energy and when to put it on the line. I knew when to get off my bike and run and the precise moments to do so.

I had been building my fitness focused on this race for the previous months and of course with my year round training. Recent training rides on and off the course with fast AFC team members and other friends had helped boost me to where I was today feeling strong and ready to perform my best.

With my preparation where it was for the technicality of this course I really wanted to get out front on the course but not try to chase down racers out of my league. This was tough from the start, Patrick and Gordon were easy to let go. This left me Greg and Jesse Kelly to fight for our ranks. Greg and I have done enough rides together that I know he is a stronger rider than me. He gets bullied into being strong at our weekly Wednesday team rides and still can usually out climb me on those tough days. I’ve raced with Jesse once earlier this year and had a good race for me, but still came in about 15 minutes behind him. I knew both of these riders are strong, so I needed to count on my training to prepare me to be a stronger rider today and most importantly focus on my strengths for the day; this course.

Jesse quickly let me lead out during our first couple miles of technical singletrack, but who’s this other guy behind me wanting to pass. I was stubborn and decided to just pick up my pace a little but took the advantage that I was in front and knew I wasn’t going to dab on the features. This was a strategy for mine through the whole race; don’t sit behind someone during anything technical, if they dab, I dab and then I spend wasted power. Smooth riding all day conserves energy and allows for faster racing.

Arrival at the first creek crossing came shortly and provided an opening for me to let my competitor by. We were moving into some steeper climbing that if the person behind me really should be passing then we shouldn’t have any issues. So I let mystery person by and, ahhhh, there goes Kevin Carter. I apologize as he goes by and feel like if I had known it was him I would have let him and his jet fuel past me. Kevin was super kind as always in racing and was even patient even though he was needing to catch up to his competition. Sorry I held you up Kevin :)

Cedar Creek Crossing First Lap, Kevin Carter coming up behind me. Photo By: Jerry Jackson

Greg decided I was going to slow for him around mile 10 at the top of a steeper climb into a big open field. I felt I had been holding him up, I thought he was just going to stick my wheel and take off later. When he passed I figured he had bigger fish to fry and was trying to catch up to the lead group. From here I rode alone for the next 15 miles or so until out of nowhere Jesse comes up behind me. Was I riding too casually to have him sneak up on me, sometimes I slow down when I’m riding solo. He tells me about the troubles that he has had early in the race and then we start swapping positions back and forth. The urge to pee starts getting pretty strong for me and I pull to the side with a small gap on Jesse. Dang the longest pee in the history of Paul, there goes Jesse and here I am still peeing.

I worked to catch back up to Jesse but as we got to the flats I had about a 10-15 second gap on him. He made sure to ride away with his Jesse power. I let him go, figuring that the effort spent to chase him down would burn me too much for the energy saved sucking his wheel and then I would probably get dropped on the Johnnycake climb or go too hard. He put a good gap on me and I went into my second lap without him in sight.

Into my second lap Greg shows up behind me somehow, he has had a rough day riding and has crashed a fair amount of times. I had to give Greg super kudos for even putting his wheel on the line, just about six weeks prior he suffered from a separated shoulder and had worked up enough to still race. The crashing was wearing him down though and I felt real bad for him. I really wanted him to finish, but the troubles of the day along with a cracked frame had him call it after his second lap.

I left Greg right before the Switchbacks and went to chase after Jesse, I really want to catch back up to him. I’ve now passed the halfway point of the lap which also puts me halfway through the race. Every long stretch I have I am looking ahead for Jesse, but no sign of him. I get back to start finish and throw down some boiled potatoes with balsamic vinegar, oil, salt and onions, yummm. One V8 down the hatch, a kiss for Leesa, my wife, and I’m off for lap three of goodness.

As I finished the picnic loop I see Jesse coming up towards the start finish, he hasn’t been ahead of me all of lap two, he is about 10 minutes behind me. This gave me a surge of energy, I was back in third with a strong lead. This surge of energy was short lived as I hit Pickall for the third time, the most technical part of the race with steep climbs and rocky rooty terrain. It wore hard on me this lap but I finally made it through it and checked it off my list for the day. As I started fatiguing on the third lap I got off the bike and ran instead of halting and crashing on a couple spots I knew were troublesome for me when I am fresh. I felt I made the correct decisions throughout the day on navigating this wonderful course. I hadn’t crashed, I felt good, my power had been consistent due to fluid maneuvering of the trail.

Two refreshing water crossings every lap!!! Photo By: Jerry Jackson

Of course mistakes happen and made one I did. I forgot to grab probars at the start finish. I started feeling the need for food very quickly into the third lap and knew I needed something. I started getting clumsy, and tired, and sick. My eyes were heavy and I felt very light headed, I just wanted to pull over and take a nap. I had my liquid nutrition that was working decent, but I needed something else right now. I still flew through Daniels Aid station and decided to push through till Woodstock for my aid bags. Probably not the wisest decision but it seemed like a good idea to a delusional mind. I kept forcing down my liquid nutrition, it provided calories and electrolytes even though it wasn’t hitting me just right. I luckily got to Woodstock fine, unfortunately I got there 10 minutes slower than the last two laps. I threw down a pro bar and took one to go, it did the trick and got me going a little stronger again.

I was so worried Jesse was right on my tail, I had lost ten minutes, and these could be the same ten minutes I had on him. If he was charging hard or keeping a same pace he could be right on my tail. I was close to the end now, but close is still 1 hour and 50 minutes away. I had to navigate Woodstock which only had two real climbs in it, neither were too demanding. After Woodstock a couple longer climbs one that was draining with a lot of rocks and roots with a steeper pitch at the top. Then of course to top off the day for climbing in the woods is Hell of the North, a hike a bike section, only rideable on a fun day. On race day, it would take more exertion and not really save time to ride it. I also didn’t mind the hike, Hell of the North would allow me to use my calf muscles more than my other muscles that have been fatiguing through the rest of the riding. I was still much slower on this segment than previous laps. Once at the top it is smooth sailing down some of the sweetest downhill this course has to offer, jump on some flat riding and hit the last road climb to the finish.

I kept looking back when I had long stretches to view, but no sign of anyone was behind. I climbed my way to third place open and was greeted by a bunch of friends and my earned my spot 3^rd on the podium. I crushed my goal of 11 hours by coming in at 10hr 35min. and I accomplished my goal of 3^rd place. Both were goals I knew were going to be hard to achieve. My training paid off and I was very proud of my accomplishments!

Thanks to my wife first for working with me on all the training and racing I do. AFC for such a great race. Everyone who contributed to making this race happen were amazing, Mid Atlantic Off Road Enthusiasts(MORE) and especially Ed Dixon and Eric Crawford have continued to keep Patapsco such an amazing place to ride. Training friends to help me get here. No Film Photography and his band of photographers for putting together some great coverage.

Woodstock Wrecker

3/18 Endurance Open Male
5 Laps; 42.5 miles
4 hours 2 minutes
Official Result

Strava Link
Strava Flyby 

Third place was first in my books for this race. When it comes to racing endurance races, as I relearned last race, you must race your own race. I knew going into this race that while anything is possible, going up against Pat Blair and Kevin Carter put me racing for third. I held my race tactics true and all turned out great; don't go out hard, race your own race, if these rules are followed then you can really start racing when it really counts. I need to remember, at the beginning of a race, there are two people up front, people who can hold what they got, and those that are hoping to have something they most likely don't. One person's zone 2 is another zone 5.

I went out knowing Johnny May was out again for this race and I wanted to finish in front of him. Mother's Day Mauler was a rough race for me, but Johnny came flying past me while I was bonking and I had nothing to stay on him. I felt we were an equal competition if I raced right, so I decided to stick with Johnny until the racing began. Johnny races smart, he has a nice slow burning fuse and Johnny knows how to hold back until he needs to go harder.

Race roll out was another casual endurance start. Pat and Kevin quickly moved up front. I let Johnny go in front of me and then we started rolling our laps. We rolled a nice casual first lap, everyone was having some nice conversation. My buddy John Stavlas was hanging out with us rolling strong, and two other guys; David F and a dude I rolled with for a while, Strava has his name as Vladimir Draco. About halfway into the first lap a gap started forming, I know Kevin and Pat's zones don't match mine so I let them go. I kept my original plan and just rolled with Johnny, Stavlas and Vlad. David took off with Kevin and Pat, I had a good idea that that was his mistake, but maybe he had it in him.

My plan to stick Johnny's tail quickly went away when he had to stop to fix his derailleur. It ended up being a quick fix and put him about 30 seconds back. Vlad and I rolled through the start finish and got the announcement that we were the first racers through. Very confused we kept rolling, I figured Kevin and Pat took a wrong turn somewhere. I knew this was going to light a fire under those two, I felt that if it did kick up their pace that David was going to get dropped real quick.

After coming through the second lap I saw Pat coming up on me. I talked with him for a bit, found out that he and Kevin did take a wrong turn, Kevin and Pat had dropped David, and Johnny was about 30-60 seconds back. Kevin was about 15 seconds back on Pat and made some jokes about Pat racing like a shark; once he smells blood he goes hard. I let them go, and go they did, they were quickly out of my sight. I found out Stavlas had taken the same wrong turn and also he got a nasty flat and his tire valve was stuck, super bummer! Stavlas ended up DNFing endurance and racing 40+ Elite to come in 5th, super kudos!

The gaps were now set, Kevin and Pat were up front doing their thing. I as on my own and wanted to keep the gap between me and the other racers. I had to try and keep this while keeping my pace my own. I rolled a couple uneventful laps just having a good time out on the trails in the awesome weather. During my fourth lap someone came up on me moving fast and wanting to pass. I knew it wasn't a sport racer so I thought some endurance racer had really started to pick it up. He passed me and was moving strong. I started keeping pace with him, knowing it was late enough in the race that I might be able to hold this pace for the rest of the race. We went up a climb and he started going harder. I looked at my heart rate and felt my exertion and knew he was going to hard for me to keep this pace for the rest of the race. I had to let him go and hope for the best.

Shortly after this racer shot past me another two racers passed me, one of them being Danny Atkins, this confirmed my suspicion. These guys were the elite racers on their first lap. I found some guy that I started holding good pace with and went the rest of the lap with him. I started having troubles with my chain and knew I needed to stop and lube it, I was having chain suck and I did not want to have a repeat chain incident from last race. I pulled into pit and spent a quick 50 seconds cleaning and lubing up my chain and took off to hit my last lap hard.

I had been ramping up my pace during my fourth lap and continued to do the same on the fifth lap. I was having an awesome race and had done everything like I should and now I was able to hit climbs hard and finish strong. I was getting close to the line and was noticing that I might possibly be going out for a sixth. I didn't really want to go for a sixth. I had thought this was going to be a five lap race and had put my push on harder for the last two laps and didn't want to go out for another lap, specially if all I was doing was chasing Pat and Kevin. I rolled across the line at four hour and two minutes, perfect!

This race was a ton of fun. We had great weather and good racers. I was very excited to have such a good race and come out with the results I did. Each lap was faster than the previous and that is an awesome way to roll. Thanks to my wife Leesa for coming out and cheering me on! Thanks Ty Long with NoFilm Photography for the great photos, you always cover an event amazingly! Thanks to an awesome team that continues to push me and provide great racing advice.

Mother's Day Mauler

5/14 Endurance Open Male
9 Laps; 40 miles
3 hours 53 minutes
Official Results

Strava Link

Everyone has to have their bad races and MDM was one of them for me. I had a nice dinner of a salad, chicken breast and spaghetti. Got to bed at a decent hour with my bike and everything all ready for the next day. The race is local on trails I know pretty well. I am trying to put my major focus on the NUE races, but a nice 4 hour MTB  ride is perfect Saturday training. I went to bed, but didn't get to sleep or stay asleep very well. I woke up the next morning not feeling that great, eating breakfast was a good indicator of this, I barely ate all my oatmeal and banana. Oh well, off to the races.

John and I setup a prime location for our pit stop which was halfway through the lap at  the top of a climb. Leesa and Ginny chilled up there playing music, dancing and cheering on racers. We got all setup and headed down to the race start. Besides not feeling the best in the stomach I was feeling great. We lined up on the start line and got ready for a good 4 hours of racing.

 

 

Four hours of racing is pretty short for me and I wasn't completely sure how to go about it. I remember doing my six hour race last year and going pretty hard for the whole thing so I figured I could push it a little more than my NUE races for four hours. Ten seconds before the race started I noticed I didn't have my glasses on, they were on my helmet, but being in the front row didn't seem like the right time to put my glasses on. The endurance rollout was the most casual race start I've ever been in. We had a small climb up to the single track but nobody took off anything close to a pushing pace to hit that single track first. We were going so casual that I sat up and put my glasses on and still was sitting up front. I didn't want to pull everyone up to the single track... I didn't want to be that guy. I even took time to give Ed Dixon a good high five as I rolled past him. John Stavlas was an awesome friend and teammate and he jumped up front and pulled us up. He said he knew he wasn't going to win but he wanted to pull me up there to get us started, super kudos to you my friend!

First Couple Laps Make It Look So Easy

Single Track with John leading our fun ride, we weren't pushing anything hard and enjoying the beginning of our four hours. once we hit the open climbs people started wanting to pull around so I did the same. I said farewell and thanks to John and took off. Tyler Monroe, Chris Newell and I sat up front for the first couple hours taking turns, but mainly Tyler was happy to sit up front. Tyler seemed pretty strong and I knew the pace was a little easier for him; I was worried about blowing up. The pace didn't seem hard to me and I wasn't feeling in the red, but when I looked at my heart rate it did seem a little high at times.

We rolled steady for about the first 2.5 hours together and I felt myself start slipping back some but I was doing alright. I was starting to see that I was going to be fighting for 2nd or 3rd as Chris and I took turns dropping back and then catching up. This is when Rob Campbell caught up and blew past me, I was in the middle of bridging a gap that had formed when I dabbed on a climb and had a big gap form. There was now a new pace for the front pack and I watched them leave me. I knew that it would be wise for me to let them go, I didn't have it in me to hold that pace for the next two hours.

This is where things took a turn for the worse. I saw Johnny May pass me shortly and now I was sitting 5th. I was hurting some already and I knew I had blown it. I was now the guy I try not to be; I had gone out strong and now struggling while watching the smart guys pass me. I just wanted to hold my position at least and maybe pick someone off. I did manage to catch back up to Chris and I was worried about passing him because I wasn't sure if I was pushing too much again just to gain a position to far from the finish.

There were three major climbs in this course, but two that I really cared about. One was a waterbars climb that was gravelly and fairly steep, the other was longer climb that took us to the end of the lap. I thought this final climb would be a strong point for me, it is a climb that I would normally excel at. This climb ended up being my nemesis, I could climb the waterbars, slower and slower but I was doing fine on it. The final climb I started cramping on every lap. I tried high cadence spin one lap, I tried low gear grinding another lap, I tried standing high cadence, then I found what worked the best, but still was very painful. Standing stretched over my bars climbing single speeder hunched over my bars so my legs were stretched the most was the best answer. I still had to fight hard to keep the cramps from completely setting in.

I had been drinking through the day and eating, I felt like my nutrition was on, but the temps were still a lot warmer than I am acclimated to so far for the year so I think this was some of the issue I was having. I think some was also attributed to whatever was going on with me not feeling well, and of course going hard in the beginning didn't help. I felt like I was bonking much harder than I should be though.

I held my 4th place and was dreading the 10th lap. I was hoping I would come in close enough to the cutoff that I wouldn't have to go at and still keep my 4th. I rolled through the lap with 10 minutes to spare, time for one more. I hit our gnarly rocky technical spot nicely and hit our hard corner into a climb and started pedaling.... no chain. I jump off and see that I still have a chain, but it has broken. I inspect the chain to see that I would have to pull out my chain tool to fix this. I was not about to fix some chain to fight for 4th or 5th. I didn't have it in me to fight for anything if I did get the chain fixed quickly, but I knew I would have to do it in less than five minutes. I turned around and walked my bike up the climb and finished with nine laps. I ended up only dropping to 5th and was happy with that.

I had chose dry lube for the race and don't know why I went that route, I really should have gone with wet lube. Halfway through this race my chain was super dry and gritty, I am sure this helped in my chain breaking.

Elite Racer, Lance Byrd, killing it on the rough mucky trails

All in all, it was not my day. I still fought hard and pushed on when it got tough. I went back and hung out with friends and waited around for the Elite race to take place. These guys battled it out in a mudfest that we didn't have because of 15 minutes of downpour before their race started. I recognized it wasn't my day but still gave good credit to the guys finishing ahead of me. I look forward to Woodstock Wrecker and hope to be feeling better that day.

Go Home... Your Done :)

Thanks to Leesa Tarter and Ty Long with NoFilm Photography for the awesome photos! Thanks again as always to Leesa for being the best pit boss ever and enjoying this sport with me!

2014 Cohutta 100 Race report

18/105 Open Male (DNFs not included) 
26/180 Overall (DNFs not included)
8 hours 53 minutes
Official Results

Strava Link 

Dinner: Grilled Chicken, Spaghetti, Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed broccoli, carrot and snap peas 

Breakfast: Oatmeal, banana, two scrambled eggs, pinto beans 

Drop Bag Strategy: Drink one bottle of Cera sport between each station and replace it at the next. Always have a bottle of water on the bike. Always have at least two probars in jersey with a flask of gel.

NUE Background

This was my first NUE 100 of the year and the last I did was when I started my endurance mountain biking in 2012: Wilderness 101 and Shenandoah 100. Wilderness being my first, I had a goal of finishing and learning what these 100 MTB races are all about. I did Wilderness in 10:45, taking way too much time at aid stations. Shenandoah, while usually a longer overall time for racers, I had learned a lot and wanted to come under nine hours after. I met this goal coming in 9:55. This year I decided to race a full NUE series, which means at least five races for the series, but I have six planned out.  I came into the series with a goal of going under nine hours at least once and if this was an easier goal to continue with it for following races. Staying in the top ten percent should be doable and finishing in top five percent is a goal. I would love to finish in the top ten but this is more of a stretch dream goal.

The Race

Cohutta starts on a two mile road climb of about six percent grade. It felt like a going up New Cut road and then dumping into single track. With my goal of under nine hours I knew getting a good start would be helpful. Endurance race starts are a difficult one to nail down. You don’t want to kill yourself, but you don’t want to get stuck in the wrong crowd early on and have to worry about passing a lot on single track. I started up front in the lineup and was pleasantly surprised that the race started with a prayer. I didn’t expect for the race to start with, “[prayer]…. Amen…. GO!!!” and we were off.  I settled in with the front pack, but people kept on shifting in here and there and I was getting pushed back. As the road opened up a little more there was a huge opening on the left, everyone wanted to stay huddled in his or her draft and not get in the open air. About halfway into the climb I jumped out on the left, and put down a little non zone five effort and rode up to the front and squeezed in, now I was sitting in with the top twenty.  I had done this just in time because as we crested the climb, the lead group decided to break off from the rest of the group and set a good gap. I held on and let them pull me into the single track in a sweet position.

I knew I wasn’t going to be sticking lead pack all day; they would destroy me if I tried. I wanted a good start in singletrack and they offered that to me zone five free. I entered the single track last and let the group take off. I settled into my high three low four riding. I like to be careful at the beginning races not to peg myself to hard, it is really easy to let your heart rate go too high in the first two to three hours; you will pay later if this route is chosen. hA couple guys passed me very spirited and I past a couple people too. The single track was fun and a nice start to the race.

I flew through Aid Station one, as most people do, and started on my fire road fun. Cohutta has a lot of elevation that primarily comes from the 70 miles of fire roads. I knew the ride profile to have a little bit of climbing and then at about 25 miles we would start climbing for the next 25 miles. This long climb is very similar to the SM100 death march. It starts with a road, and then gradually gets steeper. There is one little downhill during it. I started on my trek solo, but quickly found someone to pass me, so I latched onto his wheel. Even with this being a race I was not going to have him pull forever. After a bit I offered a pull and he was gracious of this. We worked for a bit until we picked up a third and a fourth. During one of my pulls someone came up from the rear and took a charge ahead. I grabbed his wheel and took off with him.

Some others and I went for a bit with this new guy, who wasn’t interested in sharing pulls, he was riding pretty strong. As the grade starting steepening I let him pull away for I felt myself creeping closer and closer to zone five; my plan for the day was no zone five until after eighty miles, zone four on the climbs and three on down hills and flats.

Nutrition had been going well for the day so far. I gathered some advice from Jelly, Patrick and my experience. Jelly had some great advice, which did marry up pretty well with what Patrick gave as well. Jelly sets an alarm on his GPS for every 400 or 500 calories and then eats 100 calories at the alarm no matter what. Patrick had advice of eat every 45 minutes no matter what, which ends up being about every 400 calories for me. I had also remembered Patrick at sometime giving advice to eat every chance you have. When I was cruising along on a flat and I was back in zone three it was time to shove food in my mouth.

I finally made it to the end of the twenty-five mile climb and started the 2000 foot decent. This was a long and fast decent. It was a little rough on my calves and was not a relaxing downhill.  The bottom of this decent jumped into a good loop of some super fun singletrack. It was fast flowing and full of pumps.

Coming out of the woods I knew the single track was done for another 40 miles. Time to start heading back. I had now passed the halfway point. But I had to climb the 2000 feet back out.  When planning for this race I thought I was going to do this brutal 2000 foot climb that is 5.5 miles long. Get to mile 64 and have a fast rolling downhill return. I had pictured something like when I do Baltimore to Frederick and back, it is a rolling climb there and a fast return; this wasn’t the case. From mile 64 to 77 was generally a downhill it had a bunch of 500 foot climbs tossed in there.

Patrick gave me the advice of racing my own race until mile 80 and then let the race begin.  We started our long decent of 10 miles at around mile 78. There was an aid station with a small little climb in the middle. Partway down this decent I started to notice that my rear tire was feeling a bit squishy and was not feeling the most secure on fast gravel turns, this caused me to slow up a bit on the gravel. I rolled into the aid station, tossed some air in my tires and was lured by their junk food. I grabbed a small handful of jellybeans, Fritos and a peanut butter and jelly and took off. Fritos were awesome, jellybeans tasted good, don’t know if they were the best idea, PB&J is always good.

I was now past the mile 80 point and it was time to start hammering a little. I left the aid station knowing I was in the top 30 but top twenty was doable and the next guy wasn’t too far up; let the hunt begin. I gradually caught up to the next guy, Jeff Mandell, he wasn’t going easy, but I passed him on a flat and didn’t give him a chance to latch on. He was not giving up a place easy though, because we started going back and forth, this would last near to the end of the race. We never shared pulls; we were very friendly on passes though. My GPS had died at around mile 70 so I asked him about distance and time at one point and he was happy to tell me his GPS had died too. We joked about the climbs never ending, but never stuck around each other long. I seemed to have him on down hills and then we took turns on who was stronger on climbs. We were 20 miles out and standing out of the saddle on each climb hammering up them.

We managed to pass a couple other people during our own competition and finally made it to the single track. I entered the single track first and never saw him after that. He had some loud brakes by this part of the race and there were times I could here them, which meant he wasn’t to far back. I didn’t know how much further we had once exiting the singletrack, but it was quickly obvious once we did because it dumped us on the road leading to the finish. I had about one mile or less of a gradual maybe 1 percent downhill grade to the finish. I went hard all the way, hard until I crossed the line and was so happy with my finish, specially because I had needed to pee for the last 30 miles!

I came in under nine hours and in the top twenty. I spoke with Jeff after he finished, cool dude! He ended up being 45 seconds back, not far at all. We pushed each other hard and made a better race for both of us. He told me he was battling with me at the end like we were fighting for first place. I had the same feeling at the end too, such a grueling fun way to end the race.

Thanks

Thanks first to Leesa, for enjoying this sport with me. We had to make this a short trip unfortunately but drove the ten hours out on a Friday, raced Saturday and drove back Sunday. Leesa, as always provided amazing support for me the whole way! Thanks to my amazing team, Adventures For the Cure, the training and commodore is always positive and helpful. Patrick, Jelly, Greg and Jelly all provided great advice going into Cohutta. Greg at our local bike shop, The Hub, provided some good last minute wrenching with me and is always there to provide amazing help. Boo Bikes, yes made from bamboo, a new bike in town from Colorado available at The Hub made it’s inaugural race at Cohutta. Thanks to Boo Bikes for the amazing race bike, just as advertised: fast, light, stiff, and comfortable. Another big thanks to Greg Rittler because he hooked me up with gloves five minutes before race start when I noticed I left mine at the cabin!

 

   

Pictures are not race photos, but of me playing around on the rocks in the race area.