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.