erich’s race report journal

I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride any of the course, but I was able to hike a section of the trail that came down off the mountain and through the state park. Part of that section has the “scree field” a section of trail (jeep road actually) that is nothing but fist to baby-head sized rocks. Luckily, that was only for a short section. Above the scree field, the jeep road was in very good condition.

Race morning. I woke up about 6:30 and had a big bowl of oatmeal with a banana, and a couple of cans of canned espresso. Although I was enjoying the caffiene buzz, I would regret drinking so much later. Weather was cool but clear and dry. We headed towards the race venue about 7:30, and got there shortly before 8:00.

Things were a bit frantic for me at the start area. It took longer than I expected to get ready. I ended up shedding my leg warmers before the race because it was warming up so quickly. I still had on a base layer under my DBW jersey, and arm warmers. I tried to be as prepared as possible for this race. In addition to the usual multitool and inflator, I also brought a an extra “big air” inflation canister, an extra slime tube, and an extra derailleur hanger, even. For nutrition, a Clif Bar, 4 or 5 goo packs, some Clif Blocks and a bottle of Hammer Nutrition’s “Sustained Energy” - about 3 scoops in a 20 oz. bottle. For hydration I wore my 70 oz. (2 liter) camelback. The Racer-X has only one water bottle mount, I wish it had another one.

There were 29 racers registered. The great majority were geared 26ers, but there were a few 29er singlespeeders. The race started on the paved park road. About 3/4 of a mile over rolling pavement before getting to the edge of the park and getting onto some downhill jeep road. A couple of riders I caught up to one the paved road quickly dropped me once they were on the jeep road. Although downhill and fairly straight, it was also covered with loose gravel, and I didn’t feel like bombing down a road with sketchy traction. After the fire road, the trail lead to some nice singletrack. Very similar to Terlingua, especially back in the hills.

The smooth flowing single track soon gave way to more challenging trail. The trail started going up and down hillsides. Most were rideable, some were not (by me anyway) usually because the trail was so loose in places. The trail seemed to change every quarter mile, from rocky and bumpy, to smooth. I had to walk a few of the dry creek crossings too. The soil erodes so that the walls of the creekbeds (locals call them arroyos) have vertical walls about 3 or 4 feet high. Yes, ramps have dug out, but some of them were too steep for me to ride up. Dismount, push, continue on….theme for the day.

Things warmed up quickly, I was shedding my base layer undershirt and arm warmers about 5 miles into the race, and was down to shorts and a short sleeve jersey. Climbs on this section of the race were fairly short, but plenty technical.

I finally get to the far west end of the course and find the jeep road. The course wasn’t very well marked here - I had to ride across another dry creekbed, but at least I knew the general direction the course was going. I soon found the course mark that directed me onto the long flat section of jeep road going north through “Anthony Gap” and around to the other side of the mountain. I ride about a half mile or so and see that there is more than one road. The jeep road that I’m on, and another very wide road that is obviously a paved road under construction. After talking with one of my fellow racers, we cut through about a 1/4 mile of desert to get on the wide “construction” road. We meet a couple of other racers and they assure us we’re now on the correct road. The road turns back into jeep road soon, and we continue around to the east side of the mountain ridge.

We turn off the jeep road onto the first section of singletrack on the eastside of the mountain. It’s slow and twisty, but luckily for me not much climbing. It does have a fairly agonizing section through a dry creekbed. It ends with a nice downhill headed back to the jeep road. There’s a water handup, some more rolling jeep road, then more single track.

We finally descend from that section of singletrack (the race’s namesake, the Puzzler trail) and come down to the water/feed zone before the big climb. I met Kelly there and she was shooting video of the racers making the climb just past the feedzone. I was expecting the trail to go to the jeep road that climbs over the mountain, but that wasn’t the case. Instead there was a couple of miles of the most challenging and technical singletrack on the course so far. Lots of climbs and tight turns, and all on rocky technical terrain. I did plenty of hike-a-bike. I was never so glad to get on a jeep road in my life!

Finally reached the jeep road that climbs over the mountain. My plan was to stay in granny-granny gear and just try to maintain a medium cadence. I was wearing my HR monitor so I could keep my effort at a sustainable level. For the first mile or so, it worked. The road was smooth enough I could maintain a slow climb with my HR staying about 150 ~ 155. But after a while, the road surface became more loose, and just slightly steeper. It wasn’t possible for me to climb in that low gear without spinning out, so I ended up pushing. I think the altitude was starting to get to me as well.

I started to get some cramping in my right thigh. I stopped and massaged it for a bit, then took my last electrolyte pills and ate some Clif Blocks too; that seemed to help. Tried to ride some more but got gassed very quickly and was back to pushing. The wind was getting stronger and it was getting colder too, even though it was only mid-afternoon. Up and up and up…finally the jeep road leveled out enough to be ridable, about a 1/4 mile from the summit (Mundy’s Gap). I had originally planned to stop at the summit and have a snack, but I was too jazzed about making it to the top, so I just rolled on and down the other side.

The descent was a bit sketchy but still fun. I was worried about my brakes overheating, but didn’t have any issues. I just rolled at a pace I was comfortable at. The view from the summit was incredible. The steep sketchy stuff soon changed to smooth jeep road, then changed again to the rocky scree field. I thought I could ride it, but after about 50 feet I decided to walk it. Probably just as well, I saw 2 riders that were behind me endo on that section.

Once off the scree field, it was back to rocky jeep road back to the state park. I had already resigned myself to missing the cutoff (3 p.m.) for the final 9 mile loop on the west side of the park. But when I rode back to the start/finish area, they stated they extended the cutoff time to 3:30 - I refilled my water bottle (but not my camelback) and expected a nice fairly easy 9 mile lap.

Wrong! The final loop started out nicely, with a smooth and fast slightly downhill jeep road. But then we hit the singletrack and started going over hill & dale. Again, more tight, twisty, climby, rocky tehcnical singletrack. Very slow going. I was quite fatigued at this point and was walking quite a bit. Frustration began to set in. I wasn’t sure I was even on the right trail. I knew the end of the loop would be the same as the start of the race, only backwards. FINALLY reached the section I recognized as the start loop and pedaled on. A picnic kiosk on the horizon meant I was almost there. Walked up the last climb before the pavement.

Unfortunately, I missed the big sign directing me onto more singletrack but instead I rode the paved park road back to the start/finish area. I thought something was up because I came in about 10 minutes ahead of 2 guys who had passed me earlier. I probably skipped a mile or so of the last bit of singletrack.

I was the last person to finish out of 29 starters. 17 finished, my time was 8 hours 20 minutes although it would have been more like 8:35 if I had ridden the entire course. This was the hardest bike race/ride I’ve ever done by far. I was at my very limit as far as fitness and technical riding skills.

IF I attempt this next year, I’ll need to be in much better shape. The extra weight of being a “clydesdale” is a real drain on a climby course such as this. The technical element was an obstacle too, it would have been nice to have a couple of practice rides with body armor on these trails to get more confidence on that loose stuff.

Trail course on Motionbased:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=4580250

Pictures of the race on MTBR forum: (registration required)

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=379431

I was hoping for a better race than my Camp Eagle experience 2 weeks earlier. I tried to be better prepared as far as eating breakfast early enough - and the right kind of breakfast (oatmeal instead of donuts), tried to make sure my bike was in race-ready shape. I hadn’t been training 0n the bike as much as I would like to the past month or so, and it showed.

The pre-ride went OK. Huntsville is similar to Tyler, plenty of sand and roots, and some climbing too, although nothing like the B loop climb at Tyler. But lots more climbing than double lake or RCP… The trail generally has nice flow too…with some straight fast downhill sections.

The race started out OK, I guess I settled in about 2/3 back in the pack after the start lane narrowed to singletrack. I was part of a train for a while, even passed a couple of guys. But about a half hour into the race I couldn’t sustain my pace, and a couple of guys I passed earlier passed me.

Then I had a strange mechanical…I bounced over a big tree root at the end of a landbridge. It’s easy to pedal, like it’s bounced onto the little ring. I look down and see my chaing just roll off my bike and onto the trail. I stop and pick my chain up. IT DIDN’T BREAK because I wasn’t even pedaling at the time - the bounce over the root slammed the chain and made the SRAM QuikLink come apart. Half the quick link was still with the chain - the other half was on the trail, I eventually found it, but not until Lexie rolled past me.

I got back on the trail and slogged on. My stomach felt full, like maybe I had too much water. Midway thru the 2nd lap I tried to stand up for a short climb and the quads began to cramp up. Cramps went away as soon as I sat back down, but just spun out for the rest of the race. Since I don’t get to ride in sand very often, I didn’t have much confidence in the corners without someone to chase.

I knew I did poorly (hey I was passed by a guy wearing jeans and t-shirt), but I didn’t realize how badly until the results came in. Damn. Miss a couple of weeks of hard riding and it’s like I never rode a bike.