12 Hours of Cranky Monkey

I did this race with Mike K and Jonathan W. Since I had been running a little bit in the spring, it was decided that I had to do the dreaded first lap with the run. The race started out fine. I can run, but I’m not a sprinter, so I didn’t actually gain anything in the run itself. Once on course, I was able to keep a steady rhythm, and I came in at a respectable time for Mike to go out for a lap. Jonathan went last and busted out a smoking lap, putting us in the lead of the three man 35+ division. We then continued to do consistent laps, finding that we actually could win the race without my going out for a final lap. As usual, Mike K would have none of it, giving me the guilt trip and saying that I had to go do another lap. So I went out and did a final lap at an easy pace, but you really can’t go that slowly, because there are hills you have to get up. In the end, we won the three man 35+ class, and our compatriots got second place in the three man 40+ division and first place in the open division.  Our team (Mature but not Old) actually got the most laps in time of the race. With my lap times of 53:21, 53:05, 53:00 , I was really happy that even though I wasn’t sometimes as fast as Jonathan on the team, I was consistently getting negative splits every lap.

Rattlin 50 a tale of two races.....

Short story
Pretty solid ride for the first 40miles...UNTIL my rear derailleur broke.  Until the end Single Speed with a max speed of 7.5mph.   Fine for the trails but too slow for the fireroads towards the end.

More detailed view:
The race is a pretty good one.  It is also very different compared to other endurance races I have done.  There is not as much climbing, but there was plenty of points in the race where you needed your power to get through the rocks.
The race starts out with a 2.5 mile climb, but after that you never climb anything else that is more then 8%.  The race includes some really Technical Shed/Gambril like trails, and with some fun super tight single track with mountain shrubs(maybe mt. laural?) giving you only 2 ft of trail up to your top tube.  I was happy to just "ride" steady at this race.  I had some issues where I couldn't actually go full out, cause I had to make sure I could get through the many rock gardens.  The Rocks for the most part are actually setup pretty well so you can ride them.  There were about 5-6 times I got off my bike, cause I dabbed and just walked through that rock section.  Since the race was not the usual Fire road up and then Single track downhill, you had to be on the gas when you could, but this meant being on the gas through real singletrack.  So you had a good amount of spinning.  There were some Dirt roads, and grass tracks as well.  I actually didn't find those that annoying since you spent some upperbody/core energy on the single track.  So the Fire roads and grass double tracks were good to regroup on.   I had some good back and forth with some folks, but once my derailleur busted that part of the race was done.
Broken Derailleur
What makes this annoying was that I had a derailleur hanger, but these new XT mechs have a piece that is suppose to break off, and I guess you are to have the replacement for that too.  After I made my bike a SS I could only go 7.5 miles an hour.  I was just trying to get the ride done at this point.  If I could have set it up with a little bigger gear that would of helped.  Taking what I had done, I kept the same avg. speed to the finish I think I would have done a 5:15 hour time.  Well here are the stats:

9 hours of Cranky Monkey

3-Man 105+ Results:

9 Hours of Cranky Monkey

I really enjoyed this race in 2010, so I signed up early to do it again in 2011. DCMTB had a big presence with 5 teams. I was a little unsure of my form, considering I had just been in Europe for 10 days and only did one major 50-mile ride in Berlin, so I asked to go last in the rotation. The weather looked really unpromising, with a forecast of rain and dark and cloudy skies at the start. By some crazy act of God, the race area never got rained on--although we know that some locations 5 miles away got drenched.

Start

Mike started us off, having to do the run. We found out that Mike is not a very fast runner. He was able to pass some people on the singletrack, and Joel went out next. My first lap I felt pretty good, but wasn't quite hitting some of the lines that I wanted to. To my surprise when I came back, I saw I'd actually gotten the fastest time on our team.

Rest of the Race

I was pretty stoked to have negative splits on my next 2 laps. The course seemed to suit me well, with the fast flowy sections and then the big climb in the middle where I could get into a rhythm. We ended up having a race on our hands, against the aptly named Two Wookies and an Ewok (the 2 dudes were like 6'5", while the last was about 5'4"). Since I was pulling pretty fast laps, I was actually bringing us back into the lead on my laps...then their fastest guy (the Ewok) would end up passing Mike on the climb.

Finish

So the race came down to the final lap. We were both going to be able to put out a third man on the course before the time cutoff. I was hoping that we would get the lead and then I could just maintain it for the win. Joel did a solid lap, but we still ended up down over a minute and a half from the other team. Mike gave one of his motivational speeches (aka yelling at me to go fast), and I went out full steam. I ended up catching up to Bill early in the course (I found out later he had wrecked because he pushed it too hard knowing that our team was right behind him). So once I was ahead, I knew I had to just keep it going and we could pull out the victory. Going down the big downhill, I ended up getting a slow-leaking flat. I jumped off the bike and used a CO2 to hopefully get enough air in there and get the damn tire home. It held, but just barely, and I kept my weight off the rear end of the bike. It was a pretty cool feeling coming into the finish having the whole DCMTB crew cheering me on.

1

DCMTB-Mature not Old

Darren Biggs, Mike Klasmeier, Joel Wilson

8:36:05

0:44:03

0:43:51

0:40:44

0:42:32

0:43:25

0:40:32

0:45:44

0:43:32

0:40:30

0:43:18

0:45:16

0:42:38

2

Two Wookiees and an Ewok

Daniel Tille, Chris Mayhew, Bill Schieken

8:38:11

0:46:02

0:43:05

0:39:51

0:44:20

0:40:09

0:43:18

0:39:39

0:45:53

0:43:52

0:40:23

0:45:32

0:46:07

Dragon's Tail 40m mile race

From April 3rd.
Dragon's Tail was a race I had heard about for years.  This race used to be Dragon's back, a race that was 25miles or so and took a long time to finish.  Chris Scott brought the race back as Dragon's Tail and made it longer 40miles but more like 37miles.

Jon W. from the team had talked about the race, and I was on the fence about going.  I was waiting to hear about the weather before committing.  Thursday came and weather looked ok so I was in.  I went down with John Rogers and Joel Wilson.  We went down on Sat. got some Thia food in downtown Roanoke which was good.  The boys went to bed early which was ok, but I woke at 3am for about an hour and listened to an audiobook to go to bed.
Race,
We drove about 30minutes to the start of the race, really low key, good vibe.  Chris Scott gave DCMTB a shout out since we had 10 riders there out of of a field of 50+.  The ride starts with a neutral roll out slightly downhill pavement to a dirt road.  Once we got to the dirt road the fast cats zoomed off the front.  I was riding around my teammates just keeping my cool.  The road went through 4 major stream crossings.  The first I waded through while the others I rode through. These were BB height, so your feet were soaking wet.  after the streams you start making your way up the mountain on the fire road.  I was in front of most of the DCMTB boys, with Ian and Mike T(the fast robots) in front.
Finally we get to the single trak, where there is an aid station with our drop off bags.  I have bad feet(they get cold easily) and knew about the streams so I had new shoes and wool socks in my drop bag.  I was glad I changed my shoes, but in doing so I lost 4-5 minutes.  In that time though the DCMTB crew came up to me and I then was riding with Erik Spar up the climb for a  bit.  I then was riding with 5th place female up some touch switchbacks.  I was actually going a little slower then I could have been going, but in retrospect this was a good thing because you need your energy later in the course.
Once on the ridge saw Chris Scott doing race coverage, and then riding with the 3rd place female.  I passed her on a big log hop.  I did not go crazy on the downhill just tried to enjoy it.  The downhill is big enough that my brakes started squealing at the bottom.  Once at the aid station I just filled up my bottle and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I was then going up the climb again, but since I knew the climb now I was going faster.  I passed Misty who was in 2nd place, and then later in the climb she and 3 other people ended up passing me cause my chain dropped.  As we were going up the 3rd place female was gaining on us.  I found out later she had broken her front brake line and was doing the downhills with only a back brake.
Once on the ridge again, we took a left this time.  This ridgeline is what makes Dragon's Tail.  The ridge is very steep so the views are pretty awesome.  Compared to other ridgelines this one goes up and down the whole time, and has many, repeat many steep pitches.  I was doing well and actually catching people on the ridgeline, using my power that I have up the steep ramps.  After awhile the 3rd place female must have passed Misty since she passed me on a incline where I had to walk.  As I saw her go up the trail I was thinking,"well that girl is a bad-ass"  I was doing well, but it was the early season form that was getting me, after 3 hours I lost that raw strength that have.  There were some false downhills, that had you climbing again.  I was damning Chris Scott at this point just lamenting in my head,"get me off this damn ridgeline!!!"  Finally it descended into a rest stop.
I wasn't there too long, but the next climb was the big disappointment for me.  This climb was very doable, but since I had used so much energy already I was on and off the bike the whole way up the climb.  I had seen the downhill of this climb on video, so it was cool when I finally was riding what I had seen.  
Once down off the mountain it was just a short road ride back to the start.

Random stuff:

• Bring extra socks and shoes(I will bring my hiker-biker shoes next time since I had to walk so much)
• Was happy with my 5:20 time best of the normal DCMTB riders, considering Ian got sub-4 hours
• The day was beautiful mid sixties and completely clear skies
• Great race vibe, stations, and post ride beer, and burgers!
• Not sure I will do this again, but I think best to save yourself for the ridge line
• The Anthem 29er was rocking the course, needed to let some air out of the shocks.
• This is the hardest race I have done basically 35miles with 7200 feet of elevation.

Tacchino CX

Big Jim has carved out himself a great race.  I went and watched last year, and this year I was able to race.
 

Masters 3/4  
I got an ok starting position, I was lined up next to Gwadzilla.  I wanted to keep it smooth and see if I could not hurt my back too much.  I got an ok start, and had Bruce B. in my sights.  I don't know if ever passed him, but by DCMTB teammate Brian caught up to me.  I had a bad remount, landing on the tire/brake.  I losed some time there. After the first 2 laps it was just going into maintaining mode, since I couldn't really get any power out of my body.  I got passed by a good many people, but the only saving grace was that I was able to get the guy who caught up to me on the last off camber(almost wrecking there).  I liked the double logs where you could jump them or dismount.  I think bigger logs would be better so it was more of a question.  Reminded me of the Swiss worldcup I watched, the barriers are not as high as the ones we use cause most pros were bunny hopping them and it didn't look 40 inches high.
 

Tandem
There was a tandumb race happening, and this time I made sure the pedal was on ok.  I had Tyler from Family Bikes pack a pedal tap so that I could clean out the threads.  That did the trick Matt's pedals went on fine, and we were ready to roll.  We started in the first row, and were able to get the lead after the first corner.  I knew the Padam team was coming behind us.  They got us on the off camber downhill, and we never saw them again.  We were riding good together, and had our shinning moment/almost disaster when we did a planned move that we talked about in a practice lap.  After a downhilll there is a U-turn then an uphill rise.  The Tom team was in front of us and Matt kicked it in going out of the turn and we stood for the whole hill.  The almost disaster happened at the turn where we passed and hit a root I never saw in the Masters race.  When we hit the root is sent our bike into the tape, but luckly I was able to control it.  We did ok at the barriers, but we were not as insync as we were at DCCX.  After the first  lap we were in no-man's land, but our luck changed as we saw the Toms team have a mechanical with their timing chain having fallen off.  So we caught them at the double logs, and tried to get them at the berm, but we were running out of trail.  We got them on the off camber, and on the pavement for a 3rd place.  We made the podium DCMTB's second podium of the day.

Thoughts:

• Jim put on a great race, cool prizes I got some of the sausage and ate this week-yum.
• The vibe pretty awesome.
•  I found the Elite race a lot more fun to watch since Joe D. started 2:30 down on the whole race, and he came back to win big.
•  The team support was out there today
•  Tandem races are great! I mean pretty cool motivating, and dieing out on the course with a friend.
•  Right now My favorite races for Mabra are Ed Sanders, DCCX, and Rockburn.  I didn't do the one in Winchester, but I have seen the course so I will try that next year. 

An artsy version of a shot I found online

DCCX 2010

Most photos by Jon Janis

As the captain of DCMTB, DCCX is more than just a race for me. It's our team's way to give back to the biking community by putting on the best event that we can. Yet again, I think that we have succeeded, having over 700 racers and shattering the MABRA record of 80 women at our race. Mother nature came through as well (for the fourth year running) with sunny skies and mild temperatures. A big thank you to all the sponsors--Dogfish Head Alehouses (for tasty beer and pourers), Family Bikeshop (Jonathan rocks), Bobby's Pottys (we had to go big this year, with 7 porta-johns that still all became out of order by the end of the day), the Dutch Club (for making great pancakes). Stickyfingers Bakery, and Joe Foley Photography. Special thanks also to the Armed Forces Retirement Home for allowing us to use the beautiful grounds.

Men's Masters ¾

Well, I was worried a little bit going into this race.  I had been working on the race and on my feet all day Saturday, and then was working the VIP team tent area in the morning.   One good thing with having your own race, you get an ok start position.   I was starting next to Mark D. from the team.  I got a pretty good

s tart(which I seem to be able to do usually)  Right before going to the finish line for the first time, I was able to get to Bruce B’s wheel.  I had the opportunity to pre ride the course a  Bruce had not been able to pre ride, and was not riding as smooth as I was.  I got a little impatient and passed Bruce.  This would be short lived as Bruce passed me, then Bill of CXHairs passed me as well.  Around the 2^nd or 3^rd lap my back blew up.  At that point I was in trouble, I went from like 17^th to the 31^st position I ended up at.  I guess Gwadzilla was behind me closing in cause he finished right behind me.   I did ok, but when you loose 15 places you are not going to be too happy.

Tandem

This was the race that I had been thinking about leading up to the race.  I had originally planned to do the race with Sara.  After pre-riding the course, Sara and I thought it best for our relationship that we didn’t ride it together.  I got Matt E. from my team who was a great sport.  He is a really strong rider, and fit the tandem great.  Matt, and I had pre-ridden the course on Sat so we had an idea what we were doing.  We had a slow start, but by the first turn one tandem blew up, and we were in 3rd place.  At the barriers our technique came into play and we were in 2^nd.  The Toms boys caught back up to us, and we were doing ok until we messed up at the stairs(which we did good in practice).  At some point we lost a pedal and some time getting it back on.  I think after that on the backside of the course we saw one of the tandems roll a tubular(don’t use tubulars unless you have defense grade adhesive!)  We lost some time on the uphill pavement, then lost our pedal again.  We fixed it with a pedal wrench, but the damage was done we went into steady mode.  The best part on the tandem was doing the bricks to the downhill, we were doing 33mph there.  I had a good time on the Tandem and will hope to do it again this CX season.

DCCX has gotten better every year, and this year I was really happy with the course, and my little off road addition to the mix.  Sara was great for coming out for the day as she was reading when she could and watchin’ her man do his thing too.
 

18 hours of Scouts Honor

From August

With the Boys with the FAT $200 for winning, unfortunately that didn't cover registration.

I have been lame and not been keeping up my blog for my 3 loyal readers......   Well I will be doing updates this week, and try to be on it for the next couple of weeks if I am racing.


I have done Scouts Honor I think like 4-6 times.  I might have only missed one year of it.  I did the first one at Poorfarm Park in Ashland which was cool.  They have had Scouts Honor at the boy scouts camp for the last several years, and I think it is a great venue.  The course this year was even longer then last year with around 12 miles.  I think they have hit the sweet spot for course length right about an hour.  The only thing I would say against the course, I don't know if it was new cut trail or weird drainage, but there were some slow sections in there even though it had been really dry.  Hopefully it was new cut trail and next year it will be fast and smooth like the rest of the course.

-before the race:
So we decided to go down the day of, and I was going to have Sara come down at the end of the race and drive me to my parents.  Things did not got to plan, I had Jonathan pick me up at my work parking lot and he went all the way to Annapolis to get Leland.  We got to the traffic jam known as 95 and were running late to make the start.  Mike K. was down in Williamsburg with his family and was to meet us there. Mike got there, and ended up having to do our first lap, as we got our registration.  If Mike wasn't there it would have been a little dicey.
-the race

Mike did a good lap having us around 5th over-all, after the first lap.  Jonathan went out and ripped a crazy fast time like 5 minutes faster then Mike which put us in 2nd over-all 1st for 4-man.  I went out did a pretty good lap, and then Leland went out and pulled a good one as well.  After the first laps we were into the darkness(race starts at 4pm).  I was rocking my second lap when I had my front tire burb on me after I railed  a turn with a dip in it.  I had to refill the tire a little bit, so that cost me some time.  We did consistant laps through the night with that 3-5 stretch being people's slowest laps.  Jonathan was the rockstar of the race, he was just killing it the whole way.  I wanted a sub 1:00 for my last lap and was able to pull that off.  Jonathan took the only 5th lap, instead of Mike since he left to go back to Williamsburg to his family. 
Notes:

-Good course, alot of ups and downs.  I made a point to stay in the middle ring, and stand out of the saddle when I needed to.
-The Voodoo worked great in it's 3x9 geared with FT suspension. ( usually run this bike Rigid, and SS)
-Getting first was nice, and we grabbed 2nd over-all the 1st place duo team is semi-pro. 
-I was riding with my saddle more forward then usual, but I really like to be "on-top" of the pedals for a fast course. 
-We all did the race, on the bare minimum, got food on the way down(would eat half later that night) Jonathan brought the boiled potatoes which really helped.  I didn't bring a tent but just rested in the chair with my lite sleeping bag.
-Bring bug spray next year!

-Have to see how the 2011 summer turns out, but I could see myself here once again.

Iron Cross 8 the X X X edition

From 10-10-10

Iron Cross

Iron Cross
Oh you beast, I think I know you and then you go and change on me.  The Iron Cross race is something that any biker who has a CX bike should do.  The race is between a SM100 kind of race, a dirt road race, and a mountain bike race.  The nice thing about the race is that it is short enough that most people finish within an hour of almost everyone else.  This was my race this year. I had broken my pinky in May, so this was my objective race.  I started training late, cause I moved from Arlington to DC this July.  So it wasn't until late August that I started to get the miles and rides in (the OMG-Shepherdstown stuff is great training).  By September, I was getting a good amount of rides, and I had done Ed Sanders, and AVC cross before Iron Cross.  My back was starting to act up even with those short events, so I had no idea what was going to happen at Iron CX.
An Unexpected Partner
Two of my DCMTB teammates Matt E. and Mark P. went up a day early and stayed in one of the cabins.  I am thinking that will be the ticket for next year.  The unexpected partner was Sid.  I haven't ridden with Sid in a long time so I was surprised to hear that he was going to be doing Iron CX.  He rented a CX bike, and I gave him a helping hand by letting him borrow a set of 38mm WTB interwolfs.  This tire is not made anymore, but it is the perfect tread for this event.  I might try and run them tubeless next year.  I ran them this year with Latex tubes.  So Sid and I met up at Scots run near 495 at 5:15 am and got on the road.  We got up there pretty quick with plenty of time to spare.
Pre-Race
This year the weather was warmer then when I did it in 2007.  I was worried about clothing, but I settled on wool bib shorts, knee warmers, arm warmers, jersey and vest.  Sid and I met up with Matt and Mark, and we were able to put our stuff in their cabin.   I planned bags with CO2 and tubes at both stops just in case.We talked about the course, and people were getting nervous.

The Start, Lippencote Trail, to Wigwam

Matt started fast and I was on his wheel, but then we switched.  We got to the open road/trail, and Matt went speeding ahead.  Mark eventually caught up to me as well and passed me.  I had only been racing for 30 minutes and I was already starting to feel my back.  I knew it was going to be a rough day.  I was climbing ok, but I think this year my descending was going great.  I felt really comfortable on the downhills. The road sections were not going well for me. I think that next year I will have to work on doing more road riding to work on my high-end speed.  We did a paved road climb, and then it was on to the first real singletrack.  One of the keys to racing this race is top levers on a CX bike.  Going up the trail, I was riding smooth and slowly catching up to and passing some people.  Once the trail went downhill I started doing even better.  I somehow ended up behind two other mt. bikers or skilled riders, cause the three of us passed like 20+ people on the trail.  We were going over logs (some over a foot high) and I made it past the part in 2007 where I walked.  Now I was in front of 30+ people who had previously been in front of me.  Just as in 2007, everyone was doing pacelines that were going too fast for me to even get in on.  Matt caught up to me again (I had passed him) and passed me again.
Wigwam to Aid 3
The good thing about having done the race was that I knew how much Wigwam sucks.  This year I carried my bike across my back, with it kinda resting on my camelbak.  I think this was the right way to do it, but I think that if you could have a bungee to hold on to so that your hands are not in a weird position, it would be bettter.  Might work on that.  Once at the rest stop, I took a minute to take off my vest, arm warmers, and knee warmers, put them in my drop bag, and fill up my bottle.  Matt was just in front of me. I caught up to him and he was going a little slower, so I passed him.  The next downhill was sick, I was riding it fast like 45 mph and felt comfortable (my back not so much), but was thinking if I wreck this is going to be bad.  At one point I took a turn a little too hot and ended off the road, but I was fine.  I dropped some people going down the mountain, but the problem with that speed is you can miss your next turn!  So I went left at this Y and felt that there should be someone near me.  So I turned around and saw some people up the road going into the woods.  So I was now behind like 10 people I had passed.  I saw Matt again, who was cursing me, the race, and his lot in life it seems.  This was a new singletrack section, where my top levers, and 34-32 gearing was coming in handy.  I was passing people and hooked up with a mountain biker.  I actually passed the mountain biker on the downhill--pretty amazing.  I was then mostly on my own to aid 3.
Aid 3-Fin
So at the aid station, I filled up my bottle again, and had a cup to go as well.  This was the start of the big ass climbing.  I had 2 interesting experiences. One was with Todd B. from the SS Outlaw crew was rocking it on his SS.  I was climbing steady in my small gear as he was mashing away.  We both said that our legs were getting some twinges.  At some point Todd must had had both legs cramp, cause he fell into a heap on the side of the fire road.  The other person I rode next to was a beast of a rider.  She was the 4th or 5th place female (and I later found out she was 51 years old--go her). She was riding a bike almost like a touring bike.  She was breathing up a storm, pushing a big ass gear. and she would pedal, then walk, pedal then walk.  I was just going constant (slowly).  We went back and forth, with her going in front until she had to walk, and me catching back up to her because I was still actually pedaling my bike. She then left me as it leveled out at the top.  Once it started down hill I dropped her hard.  I finally got to the last singletrack section.  This is the funnest part of the course, but you are usually too tired to like it.  The singletrack seemed longer, and more technical then before.  I knew I was running slower, cause last time I rode most of the last walk up.  After going though the last singletrack, I heard my tire rubbing.  I looked at it and I had broken a spoke (I found out later it was 2). So I was thinking about what to do. I didn't want the tire to take off all my paint on the bike. I found the bad spot and just whacked it a couple of times, and that seemed to true it enough not to hit my frame.  Now I had no rear brake though.  The last pavement downhill was trickier then last time, since I only really had a front brake.  My wheel was so messed up it made the bike do a lurching motion.  I did the last 2-3 big rollers, then back to the finish.  I made it just under 5 hours.  I achieved my goal, but I thought I was faster. I think that most people's times were slower cause of the added singletrack (which is a good thing).

Thoughts

• This race should be only CX bikes like the Three Peaks Race
• Next year if I got up with some people I will try to have us ride as a group until the first singletrack
• I need to work on leg speed for the road sections
• I should make a small bungee thing to help hold the bike for Wigwam, and then dump it at the aid station
• I plan to ride my stans wheels next year 
• Thinking about doing a spring training camp and doing the ride then
• Seems like most roadies were riding mountain bikes, and it was mountain bikers on the CX bikes.
• I think the Camelbak and one water bottle is the way to go, only had to fill it once.

A guy shot a video of the race, the cyclocross stuff you see that is only at the very beginning.  You can see Matt E. @ 1:52 on the HUGE hike a bike.  and you can see me at 2:02 at the rest stop eating a GU.  Also I zip on by on the trail at 2:25 (had taken a wrong turn so had to pass a bunch of people I passed once already)

The 9 Hours of Cranky Monkey at Rocky Gap

This is a new race put on by the EX2 Adventures folks at Rocky Gap State Park. Both Leland and Tom liked the course, so I thought it would be a good place to go race. I had never done a relay race with Chris, so I teamed up with him and got Jonathan to join us. We were able to sign up for a 120+ team because our ages were 45, 43 and 35.

I got to Chris's a bit late and he was a little upset, but all was good once we got on the road. We got there in a little over 2 hours, with an hour to spare before the start. Originally, I was going to go third, thinking that I would be the slowest...but Chris said I had to go second because I was late. The crafty old man played his cards well, and he ended up doing only three laps instead of the four that Jonathan and I did.

The Start

Jonathan started us off. Unfortunately, there was a little bit of a run at the beginning, which is not Jonathan's strong suit. He went out, did a good lap and came in about a minute behind Leland, who was riding on a 3-man open team. I was a little worried about racing with my finger. I thought it was sprained (found out after the race it was broken), so I put a little mini-splint on and hoped it wouldn't hurt too much while I was riding.

I started my first lap and things were going well. I was feeling very comfortable on the flowing singletrack considering that the last race I had done was very twisty (12 hrs of Lodi). I was picking off people and I think I was in the lead of our class when I spied Mike S. from the DCMTB 3-man open team in front of me. As I was starting to gain some ground on him and was excited about the prospect of passing him, I felt my pedal at an odd angle. My crank arm was coming off the spindle. I had to stop to take care of this, which took some valuable time (around 7 minutes or so) to fix. Fixing it entailed bashing my multi-tool against the crank arm since the screw thing had broken when the crank arm came off. I was feeling my finger a little bit, but I was still hopeful that the pain wouldn't get too bad. I then started doing some of the downhills on the course, which turned out to be a different issue. I was almost crying and each time ended up losing some precious momentum that would have helped me up the uphills. I finally brought it in and Chris went out for his lap.

Rest of the Race

After my lap, I believe we were down by almost 12 minutes to the first place team. I was able to ride with my pinky taped to my ring finger instead of riding with a splint. It was still painful at times, but if I gripped the handlebars really tight, I was able to deal with it.

As a team, we all rode consistent laps after my mishap, and we were able to chip away at the lead of the teams in front of us. On the last lap, which was mine, we were up by one minute. I went out pretty hard to ensure that no one would get past me. At one point, a rider caught up to me, asking what class I was in. I didn't believe it was the rider in our division, but at the same time I wanted to drop him if I could. I rode the rocky uphill section at a steady pace and was able to slowly distance myself from him. Once I got to the downhill, I took the left-hand side, which was a lot rougher but let it all hang out and bombed down. I passed seven or eight people and left him behind in the process. I ended up having the same time on my last lap as I did on my third lap--pretty crazy.

Because I held off that racer (he was part of the first-place 105+ 3-man team), we ended up getting third place overall for 3-man teams. We also won the 3-man 120+ division. It was great hanging out with the DCMTB and Family Bikes crew and watching Ian and Mike crush the competition. They ended up being first place overall at the race. The Family Bikes team did a great job getting 2nd place in the 105+ division and the other DCMTBers on the "Not the Old Guys" team got 3rd in their race. Good results for all.

So the big question is...after I have surgery on my pinky, will I be able to hold the handlebars to train for the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey. If not, I think I might start running again :) Maybe I will go to the 12-hour race just to watch and pit with Mike K, who has a broken foot. Special thanks to Sara for typing this up because I couldn't do it with my pinky in a cast.

12hours of Lodi

From May 2nd. Photos by backlight photography

This race has a special place in my heart, it was the first 12 hour race I had ever done. I did this race in 1999 or 2000 when it started at 12 mid-night and went to 12pm the next day. It was my first night ride too! We raced it in a impromptu 2 man division(our 3r rider bailed) and won. I have done the race 3-4 times over the years, with last year being the first to do it single speed.
I am not a single speed mountain bike person, but I found the single speed is fun to ride at the easier places in the area like Wakefield, Larual Hills, Roseyville, Schaffer. I usually ride those places rigid, but I had bought a front shock for Lodi. Compared to other racers I was running a really low gear a 32 x 22 29er. I love that gear at Lodi, cause with the turning and short hills it lets you have the ability to climb everything. There are only two parts of the course that are longer then 50 feet of flat/straight.
I raced 3-man SS with Jonathan, and Kevin. We were competing against the other DCMTB team of Mike, Joel, and Kent. We had our work cutout for us. I was going last since I knew I would be the slowest of the three of us. Jonathan did a great first lap, but got a little dehydrated out there which would effect him the rest of the race. Kevin did a strong first lap as well. My first lap I had a lead, but I knew that Mike was coming behind me. I was able to hold him off until the end of the lap, so it would be up to my teamates to build that cushion.
We ended up slipping father and father away from the other team, ended in 2nd place by 11 minutes or so. I was not happy with my times, but considering that this year has been slow-slow start up I was just happy to be tired on my last lap and not to have my back hurting me. I do like racing the SS at certain races. I like doing wakefield on the SS, and am thinking I might the battle at burke farm SS. Or maybe the Schaffer CM race.
I want to give a big thanks to Sara for coming to the race, and for picking up some Chipotle and driving me to my parents place at 12:30am.

Random Notes:

• Great weather this year at Lodi, was warm but no rain
• The course started to get slick with the temps falling in the evening.
• First Year I have done this race without the poison ivy, used Jonathan's trick of wiping off with rubbing alcohol with baby wipes every lap.
• Lodi is still great event even though the amount of teams has gone down, while the solo's have gone up.
• Hope to race here next year, but be in better shape.
• DCMTB had great crew out there with a 2nd place expert(team was co-ed) 1,2 3-man SS

DCCX 2009 Great race, mine not so much

DCCX is the big CX race of the year for me mostly cause it is the race that our little team of 30 members puts on so almost everyone is involved. In years past I have done a fair bit of lawnmowing on the course, but this year with the rain the week of the race I could not get out there. The other big consideration is what kind of facial hair to have; this year I did Stache and Burns.

My Race

I wanted to finish midpack and try to hang with Corey on my team. I got a 50th start position and Corey was in the 20's so I knew I had my work cut out to catch him. I usually don't worry about starts, cause I seem to usually start fast but have more issues with holding that position. So we get sent off and I was able to close and pass Corey before getting to the pavement after the up and down hill.At the out At the out and back, I felt I was with some people a little too fast for me and held up a bit. By the second time through the start/finish line my back was done. The course was very slow, so you had to engage your back to get any kind of speed. So I was in pain, but I wasn't going to hurt my back worse by pushing it with my back. So I got up to the 30's I think but ended up in 65th place, with Kevin from my team passing me on SS! I had wanted him to race so I could beat someone :-( Boy, was I wrong. So now I am doing planks and other core stuff along with no CX racing this year to be back strong next year. Sara seemed to be happy with the way I did compared to my own feelings on it.

The Event

DCCX yet again had beautiful weather, and with that came the crowds. We had over 500 racers and spectators. I think our team has created the kind of race that everyone wants to go to. I mean, there are other courses that are more challenging, but few in the area are able to create that atmosphere with the free beer, frites, and Dutch pancakes. We had a record 70 women, and that is the one area where we can improve for next year since we were at the field limits for the other races. It was also pretty cool to watch and hang out with my teammates and to see them put up good results.


Also want to give a shout out to Alex on my team who moved to San Francisco, sad to see him leave was able to do a mt. relay race with him and do some riding in GW forest and other places. Hope to visit him and his wife in the future.

2009 Shenandoah Mountain 100

For any Mid-Atlantic mountain biker, the SM100 is a goal to do either for the first time, a personal best, or to beat your teammates. I had done the SM100 previously in 2007, and had an amazing ride, pulling a 9:33. In hindsight I wish I would've done worse the first time out, because it sets your expectations pretty high. For this year, I was training to beat the time I had gotten in 2007, but although I felt strong going into the race, I wasn't sure I had gotten enough miles in.

Pre-Race

I was able to hitch a ride down with Mark W. since Sara was to join me on Sunday coming from PA and I would go back with her. We got down to the site and found the DCMTB crew and set up our tents, eventually doing a pre-ride shakedown on the bikes. The bike was good, but the suspension felt a little slack, so I pumped up the shocks a little bit (looking back, I should've just left it the way it was). We had some good times talking that night and I was able to get to bed pretty early for the start the next day.

I got up with the usual SM100 tradition of the gong and somebody setting off some black cat firecrackers. I did not want to have happen what happened to me last year with the bathroom, so I made sure to get coffee as soon as possible to ensure that the system was flushed out. As I was going to get coffee, I saw somebody coming towards me. She looked like Sara, but Sara wasn't supposed to get there until later in the day, so I thought, "Who could this be?" Then as she drew near, I found out it was Sara, so I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. She had decided that she wanted to see the start, so she drove through the night from Pennsylvania, got to the campsite around 3 a.m. and slept in her car until I got up (she is racking up the bonus points).

As usual, I had forgotten something--this being my DCMTB jerseys. Mike K. was nice enough to lend me one of his, which would mean that I would have a jersey, but I wouldn't be able to change it mid-race like I did in 2007.

The Start

This time, compared with 2007 when I started as one of the last 25 people, I was in a good spot with all my teammates. We went down the road with lots of dust, and I was just spinning out the legs going at a pretty good clip. I was going pretty fast up Narrowback and rode well until I went through the only mud puddle on the course. I was able to ride a lot of the Cookie Trail because I was with the faster people and didn't get caught behind slow riders. I was dismayed going to check point 1 that the old Jeep road had been turned into a logging road, which made the trail not as fun as it used to be.

Check Point 1-2

I hooked up with Matty and Kent after the downhill, and we were riding a good paceline to the bottom of Reddish Knob. Once on the Reddish Knob climb, I was off the pace with Matty in front. I slowly made up ground to him and by the time we got into the Lynne Trail singletrack, I was a good hundred meters in front of Matty and Kent. I felt going up the climb that I was burning some matches, and I was not really feeling on top of my game; I felt a bit outside of my comfort zone. On the Wolf Ridge downhill, I was riding better than I ever have before. I got stuck behind a non-technical rider who had about ten of us bunched up behind him. He finally pulled over, and we went on our way. Towards the bottom, Matty caught up to me. Once we got on the road to check point 2, Matty, Kent and I got to ride together again, which was nice. We were going at a pretty good clip, but I still wasn't quite feeling myself, so I had to go my own pace. When I got to check point 2, Kent was still there, but Matty was long gone. I exchanged a bottle, ate some yummy oranges and had some pretzels, and then I was off to Hankey.

Check Point 2-3

I caught up to Kent and passed him on the climb. Then we regrouped after the downhill and rode the gravel road to the Hankey Mt. fire road climb. Going up the fire road climb of Hankey turned into me going through the rings of Hell from Dante's Inferno. I started off okay, but yet again I still wasn't feeling myself, and I had to keep gearing down. Then the mental implosion was underway when more and more people were passing me on the trail. Previously I had ridden up this climb without dabbing, and I knew that if I was going to break my 9:33 I needed to ride the climb at least as well as I had before. I started thinking about quitting once I got through 3/4 of the climb. I stopped at the top of the climb to get my wits about me, and still had it in my head to quit at aid station 3, where I knew Sara was working. I went down Dowel's Draft not even really caring if I was going too slowly or not. I got into aid station 3, and Sara looked happy and supportive, not knowing what nightmare I had just gone through. I was eating food and Kent tried to lift my spirits and cheer me up, but I was still floundering. Kent was sitting in the camping love seat and he said "Come sit down here next to Uncle Kent." Maybe he slipped something in the vanilla Coke that he'd slipped in his drop bag, because boy it sure tasted good. Kent then left and after talking to Sara I decided that I would go do the Brailey's Climb because the route would then return to aid 3 so if I wanted to quit at that point I could.


Check Point 3-4

I was going up the road climb at a pretty good clip and I had a couple guys pacelining behind me for a few miles. I decided to unhitch myself from them and just went my own speed, knowing that I was not going to get my 9:33 and that I just needed to do the race at my pace. I caught up to Kent at the dry riverbed crossing. He had stopped for a second before starting the ascent up Brailey's. I then prepared myself to go up the Brailey's climb; in previous years I have cleared the whole climb without dabbing. I didn't take the climb too fast--just a steady tempo. There was a singlespeeder and another rider who I was ping ponging with back and forth. I ended up pushing into the guy's nuts one time when he had stopped during a rocky section and I tried to go around him. I got hung off and pushed off with my hand, but what I pushed off of was actually his crotch. He was none too pleased, but at the same time I felt that if he hadn't stopped that wouldn't have happened. To return the favor, I let those guys go in front of me on the downhill. I ended up riding the downhill pretty clean. I had a guy behind me at one point who wanted to pass, but there was traffic in front of us, so we kinda went down together in a group of 7. I got down the climb and into the aid station, picked up my drop bag. I looked up to see that I had caught up to Matty somehow, but then I realized something was wrong. He was walking around in a daze, with bandages on his leg and arm, some blood seeping out of it. He said he crashed hard going down Brailey's and he was thinking about quitting (I found out later that he was really out of it there because he had already talked to the race official by that point and quit). I waited for Kent to ride the death march from 4-5.


Check Point 4-End

This is typically the hardest mental part of the race, but this year it was not for me. I ended up not being able to ride with Kent, so I went off ahead of him at my own pace. I was now riding faster than the people around me, so it was nice that now I was catching people instead of getting passed all the time. I must've passed about 20 people going up the climb. As usual, you think you're almost there, but still the rest stop doesn't appear. Finally got to the rest stop, changed my socks and ended up taking some more time, since some of the people I'd passed came into the rest stop and left before I got my ass in gear. After the rest stop, doing the Chestnut Ridge, I caught up to those people I'd passed earlier and ended up actually passing them at the very top because they knew that they weren't that technically proficient and didn't want to hold anybody up. I was doing the downhill a lot better than I did 2 years previously. This is one of the more remote trails to get to, so it was actually only the 2nd time I had ever ridden the trail, whereas Brailey's I have ridden 6 times. So I had a good time on the downhill, wasn't as scared out of my wits as I was in 2007, and got down the mountain--passing four riders (a first)--without any mishaps. For check point 6, I was just going to do an on-the-fly bottle exchange, but for some reason the little kid who was doing the bottles didn't quite understand how to do it, so that did not work out. But that was no issue since I knew I probably had enough water in my Camelbak. The second time up Hankey was not as bad as the first for me--just a lot of out-of-the-seat climbing because my nate was feeling the hours in the saddle. I had to walk up a few parts on the way back to the campground (did not have to do this in 2007), but I got down to the fire road quicker than I thought. Then it was just the ride on in to the campground and over the line to see a cheering Sara looking very happy to see me back safe and alive.

9:28 ride time 10:12 race time

Notes

• If I knew that I was actually going to do a 9:28 ride time, I would've taken my head out of my ass, paced myself a little better and done a 9:45 race time.
• The race is long, so there's no need to kill yourself in the beginning. Next time I'm going to make sure I leave it for check point 4-5; if I have extra energy, that's the place to burn it.
• I should've kept my suspension a little softer so I could've enjoyed the downhills more...especially my front fork, since it has a lockout.
• The Crossmarks 29er tires tubeless on my Crossmax 29er wheels worked great aside from the loose gravel, which I don't think any tire can do well at while being fast on smooth sections.
• The bike worked great--no issues--besides some squeaky pivots that I'll need to replace over the winter.
• The race support was excellent as usual, with NASCAR efficiency.
  
• The post-ride food was great--gotta like them Scud fries.
• It was cool talking to Jeremiah Bishop after the race to hear how his race went since I didn't know how the pros did. What other sport has camaraderie where you can talk with a pro as an ordinary Joe?
• It was really good seeing my teammates at the race and watching some (Roy--Raul's brother from Costa Rica, Tyler and Mark D.) finish their first 100 mile mountain bike race.
• Lastly, it was especially nice that Sara came to encourage me and partake in the event that is the SM100.

Aftermath

Sara and I left that night because she needed some sleep and my back had started to seize up (go figure, I think I went too deep). So we decided that it was best if we slept in real beds for the night. I rode for the first time on Saturday the following week to give my body some time to rest and to somehow to even find some motivation to look at a bike, let alone ride one. It's funny how the mind works...I said the whole weekend I wasn't going to do the SM100 in 2010, but not even 3 days later, you start thinking "If I just do this or that, I think I could do better next year....."

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