Cohutta 104-105ish

As I wrote before, I really don't know where to start. I figured I'd write about the race thing now and then maybe about our other adventures. I have to post about the shenanigans just so I remember. We had some laughs. It was a really good time. We got to the venue on Friday and checked in, did a little ride and then did the drop bag thing.

Jane needed her own space.

 

When I did Shen I had no idea where the aid stations were. I actually was good and taped  info to the top tube so I didn't annoy everyone around me by constantly asking where the next aid station was. Much like a Labrador Retriever, I am also motivated by snacks. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't put the elevation profile on there. It made me sad after a while.

There was a course change this year. It was a lollipop format and they added 2000' of climbing just for me. Luckily, I had no idea what the previous course was like so I had nothing to go on. No one who had ridden the previous course had much nice to say about this course. I wasn't feeling so spry in the morning before the start. I got to the staging area and told myself to go as slow as possible at the beginning. I didn't want to do anything that resembled work in the first couple of hours. I don't have much high end so I knew if I went there, it wouldn't bode well for the rest of my day. I just needed to ride to finish. At the start there was a road climb into singletrack and I stood and let my body weight turn the pedals over. I tried not to let my HR spike. I knew I would probably be frustrated in the singletrack, but I couldn''t take the chance of getting caught up in a train and pushing more than I should. I really felt like shit the first few hours. I was tired. Didn't have much sleep the two previous nights. However, I was mentally in a good place. It's probably the best I've felt mentally on the bike in a long time. I knew I was finishing. They were going to have to remove my cold, bloodied body off the course. I was finishing. That was that.

The aid stations were off  from the published mileage all day. The first one I thought could be a fluke, the second maybe my mileage was off, by the third one you just had to tell yourself that it was around Mile 37ish as to not get the hopes up.

I started to feel better after hour 3. I didn't know what to expect from my body and I still didn't trust my fitness so I was being really conservative.  I did some math and realized I needed to try and pick it up a bit.  The climbs were long and on really boring fire roads. I rotated sit, stand, walk. Sit, stand, walk. First gear, second gear, third gear.

At one point it was two-way traffic. I saw Mike coming towards me. He was spinning leisurely and chatting it up with a fellow racer. He saw me and stopped to see how I was. I was pretty comfortable at that point and in good spirits. He gave me a little rundown of what I was in for and then there was a dorky fist bump and I was off. A little while longer and I saw Jane. She was not looking like the Jane I know. She loves to climb and she looked miserable. We grinned at each other and I knew what she was telling me...it was going to suck for me to go back up that climb. I saw so many fast people that looked like the life had been sucked out of them. That was the bad thing about the lollipop. I knew what I was in for on the way back. Freshly grated dirt climbs and kitty litter horror.

Somewhere around mile 75ish I became a hoarder. I started to stuff anything that looked good to me from my drop bags and the aid stations in my jersey, down my bra and in my shorts. I really didn't touch much of it . The guys at the aid station were watching me in amazement as I shoved crap in all places that would hold it. I had a Little Debbie snack cakes in the back of my shorts, a full package of gummy bears in my bra along with shot blocks, peanut butter crackers and candy bars on my back, Gu up my short legs...I'm sure I'm missing something. I'd been eating and drinking consistently throughout the day and I didn't really need it or feel depleted, but mentally it made me feel better. I think subconsciously I was planning on a night in the woods.

At one point I caught up to a guy on a climb and he was staring at his Garmin. He kept screaming out the grade to me, "18!!!", "17%!!!", "22%!!!"  I didn't need a Garmin to tell me how much it hurt. I could have told him that by the way I was standing on the bike with my nose over the front wheel. I wanted to snatch it off of his bike and throw it in the woods.



The bracelet given at the turnaround

The sag wagons passed me a couple of times and I saw riders that I had been riding with and around all day. They waved and encouraged me and I would smile and wave back when all I really wanted to do was flip them the bird, the quitters. I came upon a guy on a singlespeed towards the end. I rode with him to next aid station and I never saw him again. I think he took the sag wagon out. After the last aid station, I caught up to another guy on a SS. We rode together for miles and kept each other going. We would ride to a tree and then get off and walk a bit, ride to a corner and then get off again. When we were told we had a few more miles of road and then 5 miles of singletrack I did the math in my head and realized it was more than a hundred miler. More like 105ish. The SS guy I was riding with was starting to slow down. He was barely turning it over. I told myself to try to beat him to the finish. I wanted to beat him. I needed to beat him. Motivation for the end. He probably didn't give a shit at that point and just wanted to get to the finish and sit down and crack a beer. However, I needed something. It worked. I put over 15 minutes into him in the last 5 miles.

Toe condoms saved me from hours of pain

Mike and Jane gave each other a high five as I was finishing. I'm not sure who was more excited, Jane and Mike or me. I was thinking I would probably start crying when I finished this one. It was a big deal for me to finish. I didn't cry. I was smiley and chatty. I saved the weeping for today when I used the bathroom at work and whimpered when I had to hover to pee.

My blurry finish (I was just so damn fast):

Don't let the picture below fool you. I look like I could be well endowed. Those are gummy bears. It was a comedy show when I got undressed. The guy parked next to us was entertained and shaking his head by watching me pull shit out of unimaginable places. He told me it was like watching 20 clowns get out of a little car. I offered him a hot and sweaty Little Debbie but he declined.

It wasn't fast, it wasn't pretty, but I finished. My time: dawn til dusk. I wasn't even last. Even better. I was dreading the thought of doing Shen in September. This course made me look forward to Shen on a SS. Hopefully, within the next week or so I stop feeling like I was hit by a semi and then dragged behind it. Next stop: Mohican.