'09 Race to the River

I haven't seen the final results but I think Rebecca said we had 25 racers in the sport 30-39 class. It sure felt like a crowd at the starting line for our group. Rebecca did a role call at the starting line and I was at the bottom of the list so I quickly realized I was on the fourth row and getting to the woods first was going to be a challenge. So I did the rude thing and elbowed my way to the second row in the middle so I wouldn’t get caught in a crowd trying to get into the woods.

The horn blew and off we went up the gravel road and onto firebreak. When we crossed the wood ramp on firebreak I was in a comfortable 4th place position. This is where I stayed all of the way to spiderwoman and into inner woman. Essentially riding in a lead group of four riders including me at what felt like a moderate pace.

Inner woman was not on my mental preparation leading up to this race. I was surprised that we were going to ride inner woman when Rebecca announced it. I really do not like this trail. It never has been my strong point. So up inner woman we go and I am on the wheel of the dude in front of me. He is having shifter problems and can’t power up the hill so I have to slow up and wait for a place to pass. Finally I pass but by now I have let the 5th 6th etc place riders catch up. In the granny gear up inner woman in severe pain cussing the whole way up. Jim passes me on the way up and that’s the last time I saw him. I’m still in good position at this point and ready to descend inner woman. When I got to the rock garden I was trying to show off for some photographer on the side of the trail and unclipped. I couldn’t get back on the bike in time before several riders passed. I am now in about 10th position. Crap. Things are falling apart for me mentally.

Exiting spiderwoman and trying to navigate the rocks at the trail crossing, I darn near endo’ed and was surprised I didn’t bend the front wheel. Luckily I stayed vertical on the bike and was able to navigate through. Climbing out the big climb on midland mountain, I am still wondering when I will recover from spiderwoman. My lungs were on fire and my legs felt like watermelons. But I knew that once I could get my speed up and get in a consistent cadence, things would get a lot more comfortable. And indeed they did. I was able to regain several positions that I had lost on the fast sections and through crooked pine.

For the remainder of the race, I traded places several times with one other rider with a ETSU jersey on but he is the only person I saw. As we rolled along the fast section of stewardship we traded places several times…we must have ”on your left”-ed each other ten times as we rolled along. I was able to drop him for the final time on the climb up the switchbacks on the second lap. The rest of the race was solo for me and it felt great to cross the finish line.

Due to the shenanigans on spiderwoman, I honestly thought I was in about 8th or 9th position to finish the race. I was disappointed in the performance. But it turns out that I was racing the final lap with the ETSU guy for 5th place. I am glad I raced him for that position and was able to fend him off. It made the personal best 5th place finish that much sweeter. I had lots of fun which is what it is all about.

1 regret: The initial lead group pace was too slow. I should have jumped out into the lead early and then I wouldn't have gotten stuck on inner woman and my spiderwoman experience probably wouldn't have turned out so sloppy. Or it could have been sloppy as usual but wouldn't have mattered because I think I could have put some distance between me and 2nd place to make up for the sloppy performance. If I knew I was holding on to a top three finish after spiderwoman, I might have dug a little deeper to finish. But as it is, I don't think I left anything on the course...just got behind the eight ball a little by setling for the pace line instead of taking the lead when I could have.

Tires

When I started riding mtbs in ’02, I bought a $900 Raleigh Hardtail from Harrell’s. It had wtb motoraptors on it and they weigh probably 700g. I think they were 26x2.1’s. I rode the snot out of those tires, putting probably 2000 miles on them and they are still ridable today. They seemed to hook up fairly well (I rode slower back then) and the durability was impressive. These tires are heavy and durable.

Then I bought the Giant that I currently ride. It came with 500g Hutchinson pythons 2.0s on the front and rear, a tire meant for dry hardpack xc race conditions. They are fast rolling, low resistance. I busted my tail about 3 times right off the bat on the leaves and needles of our area before I realized the front would not hook up at local trails like harbison. So I slowed down and adjusted how I entered turns. Because of this, I have developed a bad habit of not leaning my bike into turns, rather leaning my body instead. One day while riding at harbison, a ½” diameter pine branch punctured the tire and tube on the rear. This ruined the tire so I used it as an opportunity to get a more aggressive tread on the front.

I ended up with a Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a Hutchinson Python 2.0 on the rear. This proved to be a nice combination for me considering how and where I ride. I need to replace both tires now and I’d like to lose some grams and gain speed, but need something that hooks up well around here. Dennis loaned me some used Continental Mountain King 2.2’s. I rode them last night and thought they hooked up well at first. They are also light and accelerate well. But according to Dennis you have to run 40 psi or they’ll pinch flat. I was running 32 psi so we bumped them to 40 psi. They no longer hooked up at 40 psi. I have personally watched Dennis go through 5 tubes with these tires so I am not very confident in the 2.2 size with 40 psi.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I might go back to the Continental Explorer 2.1 on the front and a python 2.0 on the rear, but would like to improve on that as well.

Some pics from our trip to Colorado

Good times with the Girls

F.A.T.S.

Dennis and I made our way to FATS on Saturday with hopes of completing all of the trails including the newer ones. We got an early start and arrived at the trailhead at 8:00 am. Our goal was to be back at home by 1:00 pm before the kitchen pass expired.

It was quite solitary at 8:00 am except for one other car in the parking lot and this guy was making enough noise to wake the wildlife. He had his radio cranking out Dance Music tunes echoing across the forest.

After glancing at the posted map, we headed down the trail. We did the “left turn only” route which takes you all of the way out to Brown Wave then Skinny Loop, then Great wall. After 20 miles of this we were joking about the lack of climbing. Somehow we both felt like we had rolled downhill for 20 miles. After regrouping, we headed down Deep Step and were going to intercept the connector over to Big Rock and Tower. Here we found some elevation and did a good bit of climbing. I really liked the connector trail and the short pavement and gravel road section. Big rock has some serious elevation to it, but they built it following topo so the limited climbing sections are short and sweet, but numerous. By this time, there were a lot of people on the trails. We also crossed paths with a hunter who was hiking to his favorite spot in the woods. I had my Red Wolfpack jersey on, so hopefully I didn’t look like a deer.

We ended up running short on time and had to bail early, but we ended up with about 35 miles and 3.5 hours in the woods, including a flat and some sag stops. I believe you can now get close to 50 miles out there. We skipped Tower and only rode half of Big Rock to get 35. I want to go back and do the full 50-ish soon.

Jim was on board to go with us until “something hit him” and he had to pull out the night before. I hope you are feeling better.

Carolina Adventure World, Winnsboro.

Exit 46 on I-77. Jim and I rode it Saturday am. I think they have a good start to a fun trail system. It is spanking new so the clay is soupy in a lot of places but the clay is also similar to FATS clay so theres will be times when it dries out and will allow you to rail. There are some banked turns, woop-de-doos, and switchbacks. There is currently a lot of deadfall and tree litter which I don’t mind too much except, sure enough, a stick hopped up into my derailleur and almost ripped it off. So my bike would not stay in gear for the rest of the ride.

You start out at the main parking lot and enter the trail by the ATV gatehouse. You then go down some twisty stuff and begin a climb to “Top of the World”, a helipad…that’s right a helipad. I would say that climb is around 200’ elevation gain, but I am no Garmin. This reminded me of the airstrip climb at Dupont, but for just a second. This climb gets the legs burning nicely and then you descend into some flowy and technical stuff along ridges and creek bottoms.

http://www.carolinaadventureworld.net/images/CAWBikeTrailmap.jpg
Our first loop we did: a>A>C>A>B>A>E>D>E>A>a. Look at the map and it will make sense. It is directional so this is the full loop and is about 11 miles. C and D were almost un-ride-able so on our second loop we left them out and the trail felt a lot like FATS or a Lost Creek with a lot more climbing.

$5 per day or $40.00 per year. I think $40 is too high but it is what it is. There are some nice employees out there who really want the trails to succeed and they said they just need to get ridden. I agree with that.

New York

We spent three days in the city and two days traveling there and back. I am glad gas was $1.80/gal just in time for our trip. This is a great trip for families but bring your savings account because they love tourists.

If you were an immigrant in the early 1900's that came through Ellis Island, you approached the US by boat and this was the first thing you saw as you entered the New York Bay area on your way to Ellis Island. The immigrants were said to shout with joy, whooping and hollering as they saw the statue and they knew what it represented...Freedom. They were going to begin their new life of opportunity where "you can do anything you want to do".

By the way, did you know that the base of the statue is star shaped and was one of four forts that protected the bay. No enemy vessel ever tried to get past the four infamous forts. It was considered impenetrable. Now it is the base of the statue. This reminded me of Fort Moultrie and Sumter in Charleston (except the impenetrable part).

The kids in Central Park.

Ice Skating at Rockefeller Plaza. This was the kids favorite part of the trip. We didn't get any great pictures here but did manage to get a shot of this local kid who offered to help my youngest daughter skate. This fella was about 12 years old and probably started skating when he was 1.5. The picture doesn't do it justice but he was twirling around the rink with Abby between his legs. I was amazed at his skating ability.

A trip to New York isn't complete without a subway ride. And of course you get to share a bench with all kinds of folks. This lady seemed totally out of it but content with her bag of donuts. I didn't realize it till we got back to Columbia, but the subways were under high alert while we were there due to a terrorist threat.