Cohutta the 2nd Half

See the first half here. On the subsequent climb a woman came by.  Most of the girls were gearies, with that and long endurance event being the great equalizer between the sexes, I have humbly accepted the occasional pass by the fairer sex.  Not this girl, she left her gear bike at home because of the muddy conditions.  She ultimately got 6th among the women.  When Bonsby came by a little later he said he has seen her race before and she was a force to be reckoned with.  I dropped her on the next descent only for her to dance away up one of the succeeding climbs.  She seem to climb about twice as fast as me,  a feat I could not match on the DHs.

Now back to the numbers game.  I was still averaging about 10.5 mph at this time.  My metric century was done in 5:44.  Thing were still looking up.  But that damn rest stop #5 would just not materialize.  Mike came up just before the crest of a hill, we both lamented over the 35 miles between rest stops, he was out of H2O.  I told the full suspension riding Bonsby that I would follow him on my rigid bike for the descent.  He said he was not going to go to fast and let me pass.  The fire road turned up again and some time had passed, as well as a few other rider and I started to worry about Mike.  Hoping that he did not crash or flat.  But shortly before the climb out to rest stop #5/4 he passed me.  I had another fast pit and left as Mike was getting his camel back filled, only for him to pass me on, what I call the bonus climb.

My average speed from 62 to 77 miles had started to drop.  There were several riders walking up the bonus climb, I think they were stragglers from the 65 mile Big Frog version of the race.  At least I was going faster than walking pace!

Finally back back at rest stop #3/6.  A volunteer asked how I was liking the single speed now.  I felt a slow grin come across my muddy face and sad the bike hadn't given up yet, but my body may have.

The final climb.  It would end just over the next rise or around the next bend, but it seemed like it never did.  A short false flat or small dip and I was sure it was down hill from there.  After all Mike said the the last Single track was all down hill too, Great I thought.  But first I had to climb the same hill we first came down on the fire road.  Blue sky, That is a good sign we are near the top right?,  Not! The road would turn and keep on climbing.  We had to dodge the occasional car on these narrow gravel road from time to time, as well.

Just when I just about had it,  A bearded single speeder with a full hip pack passes me on what was really the top of the Fire road.  I caught him back on the descent, but confused the entry into the single track, which turn immediately up, not down and he was on my wheel, so I let him pass. I headed into the Quarry loop as Bosnby headed out.  I was dead tired and parts of the quarry did not care.  As for the rest of the single track, I am sure it would have been great fun an hour or two earlier, but now it was anything but the DH single track I was hoping for!  A girl on gears passed me on a particularly SS unfriendly stretch.  I thought she was gone until the hard left hander, that pointed up a moderate to steep climb with rooty technical bits.  She was walking about a couple hundred yard up.  I asked how she liked the DH single track, she replied that she did not have anything left in the tank.  I was walking before I got to her and pulled off as a guy on gears  was coming up.  He saw why I got off and got off as well.  He said "after you", so I remounted after the big root that I was too tired to to attempt and was on my way past the girl, with the guy in tow.  He and I replayed that same scenario a few times, before a definitely pro gearie section came up, where I stepped off to let him do that gearie thing they do.  This Single track may have been loosing elevation, but it was not giving it up with out a fight at every turn, literally.  When it finally did pint down, it was like, "Wait What, that was it?!" and we were out at the power station, not the finish line like TK and I had thought.  Nothing left and nothing left to do but pedal the very slight grade on the pavement back to the start finish area.  Pedal I did, painfully slowly.  I have never really needed a cheering section to motivate me, but here on this plain old, nearly flat stretch of pavement, going about 7.5 miles an hour, through the parking lot, I soaked up every cheer and clap and good job that came my way.

I ended up 15th out of 21 single speeders that signed up, but was the 2nd to last that finished on this day, at ten hours and thirty eight minutes.  I would have been 13th out of 34, with only 21 finishers.

As slow as this was, just two weeks prior to the event, I would have happy with 11 hours, and consider it an improvement over the eleven hours and nineteen minutes that the Tatanka 100 took me, with similar elevation gain, but a completely different profile.

I was happy with my start and the first 20 miles of single track and even the early fire road climbing and I was super happy with my fire road descending through out.  I was good until about 10% over my training duration and miles and I finished and got that mug.  Over the last 10 miles I was thinking I got to finish to get that mug!

TK had to take this Picture quickly before I fell over!

Recovery ride with Tom

Lunch the day after....
We Crown thee the Hundred Miler

2015 Cohutta 100

I am starting to write this more than 24 hours after the finish of the race and parts of my legs are still sore. This race is the probably most suffering I have ever done, the most on a bike for sure!

Tammy handed me off to Tom near Asheville, I drove to give him a break and let him work from his mobile office, he is always being productive, that man is.  The GPS was a little off and we stopped at Ranger station first.  I hollered down to some guys riding crossing the bridge to ask them were registration was.  It was one of those small world moments as it was Michael Bonsby, he showed me around the MOCO Epic a while back.  I would see him many more times, several during the race as we were yo-yoing back and forth for a while, late in the race.

We get to registration, sign up, pick up our SWAG bag and number, some complementary pre-race pasta, confirmed no course changes with impending inclement weather, drove the opening road climb and walked down to the first hairy bottle neck, checked in to the hotel and had a little pizza to supplement our fuel and protein stores and were in bed a quarter past nine.  This is normal for Tom, I on the other hand had to move my bed time up gradually over the last several days, just so I could manage at 5am.  I was getting a head ache, probably a remnant of my 38 degree race tune.  I took some aspirin a and buried my head in the pillow until my hydration caught up to me at 3:30.  I little more fitful sleep, I could not let Tom have all the fun I guess.

The weather man was not wrong and we got up to rain and not quite 50 degrees out.  I foam rollered and stretched, suited up, packed up and headed to the start.  I lined up with TK on the line, just for good measure, at the front.  After a short prayer from the race starter, the race started at 7:02.  The start pace was pretty brisk.  I fell to about mid pack early and re-caught several riders towards the top after they were fading from the 10 plus minute effort.  I felt like I was just warming up.  I only saw 3 single speeders pass me, but it was hard to tell for sure in the sea of gearies.  I caught one and got on the wheel of a gearie behind behind him, just before the single track.  I aimed to mark him as long as I could.  We made several passes in the tight single track, until we came to a long train and rode it out until one punchy climb where someone went and several of us followed.  I had 2 good saves in that first single track; my front tire caught a rock just wrong on this narrow rise and pitched me sideways, towards the abyss, I unclipped and stabbed the ground with my foot, righted myself and was clipped back in, miraculously without losing any moment or stalling the guys on my wheel.  The next was crossing the creek before crossing the suspension bridge.  I tried to follow a guys line but he bobbled.  I was forced on to some big slabs that everyone seemed to be avoiding.  They very slick and under several inches of rushing water.  My wheels slide hither and fro and somehow I managed to right the ship.  I rinsed the mud off my glasses only to have them completely fog up for the a decent climb out of the river,  Then my brakes went out.  I just put new pads in for the race and the grit wore them down some much that I had adjust my mechicals.  The self adjusting nature of hydraulics was looking pretty goo right about then.  I lost some places a couple times until I got it right, stashed my glasses in a pocket and got back to it.  I did not stop for rest stop one, as #2 was so close.  I passed several that did stop, including that SSer that I marked.  "Now on to the fire road portion of today's activities', That SSer cuaght and passed me, commenting on the size of my gear, we were both standing.  I was feeling pretty good, though, with a just a few twinges of cramps around mile 40.  From 50 on they were increasing.  The rain stopped and the sun made its way out.  But the damage was done, my bike and I were covered in mud.  I switched from my cool weather fueling and tried to get more water into the mix.  I was happy with pretty much all my rest stops, as they were quick and the volunteers very helpful.  I dropped my vest and long  gloves at #4, filled my bottles and heard them say it would be 35 miles till i got back there.  It took a while for that to sink in, when about 20 miles into that 35, I see a pop up at a "T" intersection, thinking it was and aid station, I asked for water. They said they were not an aid station, they topped me off anyway and said the real one was still 15 miles away.

My average speed was bouncing between 11 and 10 MPH,  I was starting to have hopes of a sub 10 hour time, 9:40 even maybe.  Things were looking up as long as I could keep the cramps at bay and now this queasiness in my stomach.

This is really long already and I need to go to bed.  Look for part 2 soon,  I should have my results by then as well.  See Part 2 Here