SM100 Recap

As I pushed my bike up the narrow, steep, and rocky single track, I glanced down at my watch. I had been on my bike for about 3 hours now and I had been walking up this climb for almost an hour. My right ankle was starting to bother me. Hiking my bike up the technical single track was taking it's toll on my body. Bike shoes are actually not the best for hiking and with each step onto the loose rock, my ankle would twist slightly one way or the other. Occasionally my shins would bank into my pedals or I would lose my footing and almost drop my bike off the side of the trail where it just might have rolled away from me down the mountain. This section of the trail was not rideable by me or the other riders around me. Sometimes a biker would come by riding at a slightly faster pace then us walkers and we would do our best to get out of the way although most of the time, there was really no where to go. Invariably, I would see said biker up ahead also walking his or her bike. One rider said he should have done more hike-a-bike training. I was thinking the same thing. This was a brutal climb. In fact if I had to use one word to describe this race, it would be BRUTAL!

Before I recap the rest of the race, let me start at the beginning. On Saturday, we left Richmond about 9AM and met up with some friends around 9:30 before making our way to the Stokesville Campground which is about 25 minutes west of Verona, Virginia in the George Washington National Forest. I like to call Verona a suburb of Staunton, Virginia.

We arrived around noonish and setup our tents and scoped out the place. We ate sandwiches and relaxed up until it was time to pick up our race packets which consisted of a shirt, a race number for the bike, and a flask of Hammer Gel. After getting our race pack and chilling for a little longer, we went to the pavilion to eat the provided dinner. The dinner was ok but if I did it again, I would bring my own food and cook it there at the campsite.

After dinner, it was time to get our gear together and try to get some sleep. Unfortunately, it was pretty loud in the campsite until about midnight. There was lots of beer drinking and carrying on which I sort of anticipated. So after a measly 5 hours of sleep, my alarm went off and I got up and made my way to the porta potties. I am glad I went when I did because the lines got pretty long. After taking care of business I got back to our campsite and started prepping my bike. Somehow I had a totally flat front tire. So I scurried to change the flat and get the bike ready.

We made our way down to the starting line and lined up in the 11 hour group towards the back of the pack although 11 hours seemed ambitious to me. At 6:30 on the dot, the race started. It was a pretty fast and fun mass start. We made our way out of the campground onto a road and then down to a forest road to start our first set of up and downs. The ups were not too steep and the downs were just steep enough to get some good momentum for the ups. After a little while, I decided to dial it back a little and bid my fiends farewell as they were riding at a faster pace than I was capable of riding at this point.

And on it went for a while, up and down, up and down until we reached the first real climb. I rode the climb for a while but then it was just too much. I heard there were 4 switchbacks that we would have to traverse until we got to the top and that there was a sweet downhill on the other side. Funny how some people characterized the downhill as sweet. It was downhill, that much is for sure. But sweet? I am not sure. Kitchel or Sidewinder -trails in Vermont-those are sweet. This was just painful. My arms and hands really started hurting from steering my bike, braking heavily and hurtling down through the rocks, roots, and turns. Eventually I made it down safely with no bike damage and no bodily harm. Others were not so fortunate. I passed many people on the side of the trail, in the woods, fixing wheels, changing tubes, etc.

After 4 hours of riding, I made it to aid station 2 for my first break and refueling. I had 33 miles under my belt which was about 1 third of the race. I was on track for a 12 hour finish and was happy to realize that. The volunteers filled up my Camel Bak with water and my water bottle with Heed. I ate some bananas, oranges, and chips, used the bathroom and then headed out from Aid Station 2 towards the next challenge which of course was another climb.

Now at this point in the race, I am starting to mentally fade so I don't really remember specific climbs or downhills. They are all kind of running together in my mind. I had another long climb that seemed never ending. I do know that much. It was one of those climbs where as soon as I was certain I was at the top, I would go around the corner and have to climb some more. And of course, what goes up, must go down. After that long climb, there was a nice gradual downhill on a gravel road. It was a nice break and I actually passed a bunch of people on this section and eventually make it to Aid Station 3.

Aid Station 3 had Hammer Gel but I had not started using mine yet. I had the bananas, oranges, chips and what not and after a short 10 minute break, headed back out onto the bike for the next climb. I was starting to fade a bit. My legs felt ok but I was losing energy and motivation pretty fast. I started to do more walking and less riding.

Again, the details are kind of fuzzy and the order of the climbs and descents as I recount them here are not necessarily accurate. I do know that as I made my way to Aid Station 4, I was unsure I would make it by the 4PM cutoff. But I did. I made it there at 3:15. I ate and used the bathroom and headed out at 3:30.

After leaving Aid Station 4, we had to ride some road for while. As I was riding, my knee started acting up. It was having some spasms in the knee that were a little worrying. I stopped on the side of the road and did a little stretching and massaging of the knee. After getting back on the bike, I decided to eat a Hammer Bar to take my mind of things. And that actually worked. Biking on the road seemed long to me. If I had been with a group, it would have gone much faster but I left Aid Station 4 pretty much by myself so I was alone on the road.

After turning off the road and onto a forest road, I made my way towards what race organizers call "the main death climb." At this point, the forest road was more of a slight roller coaster terrain but I was having trouble with the smallest of climbs and had to walk my bike. I knew I was in trouble at this point. I was tired, dirty, lacking motivation and unable to keep riding. I had to get off and walk several times. And I had not even reached the death climb yet.

I finally made it to the base of the climb. The terrain was actually quite forgiving and had I had energy, this climb was totally rideable. But energy was something that can't always be manufactured out of thin air. I did a lot of walking and some riding. I was in danger of not making it to Aid Station 5 before the 6:30 cutoff. Melissa was at Aid Station 5 waiting for me. She was volunteering which is really the only way spectators are allowed to view the race, as volunteers. After a while, I had trouble even walking my bike. Like I said the terrain was easy so it was not like the hike-a-bike sections I had already completed. But I had to take breaks from walking. At one point, I decided to use a tactic that some people employ when running a marathon. I would walk for 5 minutes and then rest for 1 minute. I was thinking that maybe if I made it to the aid station, I could refuel, rest and continue on. So I took a few steps and then stopped. Instead of walking for 5 minutes, I walked for about 5 steps. I leaned over on the bike and rested my head on the handle bars. I felt strange, almost a shortness of breath. Even breathing had become tiresome. I had been taking my pulse throughout the race which is something I do quite often during workouts so I can tell how hard I am working. My pulse was slightly elevated but strong so that was a good thing. And I was very well hydrated as evidenced by the 10 times I had to stop to water the trees. Finally I decided I would just sit down and rest for a few minutes. While sitting there, a lady rode by and told me the Sweeper Van was about 10 minutes back.

It was then that I realized I was not going to finish the race. Once the Sweeper Van catches up with you, that is it. I got up and started walking again and was eventually overtaken by the van. We put my bike in the van with two other riders and started driving towards Aid Station 5. I was about 1.5 miles from the Aid Station. So I had completed about 73 miles. When we got to the aid station, we unloaded the bike and I put it on our vehicle and Melissa drove us back to the campground.

On the ride back to the campground, I had many thoughts about the race. I asked myself if I was really cut out for this kind of race. I wondered if there was something I could have done differently. Once we got back to the campground, I changed my clothes and then we waited for my friends to finish in the dark. They finished in 15 hours and 15 minutes. They persevered where I could not. I was very proud of them. It was the first ever mountain bike race for both of them and they finished. Quite an accomplishment!

After they finished we pretty much went to bed. The next day we bugged out pretty early and headed for home. I was exhausted but had some chores to do. We went to the store, got groceries, made dinner and hit the sack.

The next day I went to work and contemplated my weekend. The more I thought about the race, the more I realized all my mistakes. I made nutrition mistakes as well as tactical and training mistakes. I learned a lot by competing in this race and as the day went on that Tuesday after the race, I came to the conclusion that I would try again next year. I have already written too much so I will go into more details later about what I did wrong and how I plan to correct those mistakes for next year.

And now for a few pictures from the race.