Well everything went down without a hitch. Well sort of. Pre-ride day left Adam with 2 nastily cut tires. We were just cruising some singletrack when all of a sudden down a really wet section, I hear hissing out of Adams tires. Upon inspection he cut the sidewall and side knobs on both his front and rear tires. They were nasty cuts at that. We drove to Hot Springs and loaded up on tires and Stans fluid. Adam decided on a Rampage front and XDX rear. The shop was Parkside Cycles and they were super cool and let us use their compressor. Thanks to those guys. They had a really nice and cool shop. We got back to the camp site and hung out and ate dinner. We headed off to bed to get some sleep before the big day.
We woke up to pretty gray skies. It was 6a.m. and cloudy. So it was a little dark and and looking like rain might be moving into the area. We headed over to Oden at about 6:45. We stayed at the Ouachita River Haven Resort which was a super nice little spot. It was located right in the middle of the race course and just 3 or 4 miles from Oden. We got there and picked up our race packets and headed to the car to get ready. It was really looking like rain at this point. We got over to the pre-race meeting and then headed to the start line. There was quite the crowd of riders. We aren't talking about Chequemagon big, but these two races are pretty brutal compared to that one.
The start rolled us out on some road for around 2 miles to gravel. Then on the gravel we turned into the sky and climbed and climbed. Once we were ready to dump onto some doubletrack it just kept going up. You could see peoples spirits drop when they saw that. My 32-20 had me spinning quite a bit on the road section, but once we hit the gravel climb and the doubletrack it was perfect. At the top of the climb we finally descended into some singletrack. I was really feeling good.
We road the Womble section I had ridden in the past and I felt like my pace was spot on. My gear selection forced me to take it easy which was great. I took one stop to grab some food out of my bag about half way through. At the end of the first Womble section 21 miles in was the first aid station which I just blew through. I had water and electrolyte drink so I just kept rolling. The legs were starting to twinge a little but nothing serious. This was my first serious singletrack ride of the year so it was going to get pretty brutal and I knew it. I rolled the next section pretty well. Adam caught back up to me and we hit aid station two at about the same time. I reloaded on water and this time some Cytomax, ate a 'nana and some cookies and rolled out.
The next section in store for us was going to be a long one. We were 38 miles in and the next aid the way I figured it was in about 22 miles. I was feeling fatigued now for sure, but I just kept on rolling. I knew that I had to stick this section as well as possible. I was worried about going to hard through this section, but I knew if I didn't I wouldn't make aid station 4 and the 4 o'clock cut-off. This section also had the first "real" hike a bike. There was a really good one in the previous section, but we knew one was coming up. We got to it and hiked for probably around 20 minutes it felt like. We got to the top and cruised for a while. By this time my muscles were really starting to feel some fatigue. My Ergon bag also decided to seperate from my shoulders in this section. Stupid short bolt. I knew I should have replaced it. Fixed it and kept rolling.
Adam started feeling a lot better through the end of this section and started actually riding the climbs again instead of hiking. Unfortunately my legs were way to fatigued at this point to even remotely think about attempting to crank even some of the lower grade rises. I came around a little towards the end of the section and rode some of the last grades and then popped off onto the fire road. Here we had an awesome warning sign for a dangerous descent. Finally! This race makes you forget what a descent is and puts climbing in your face all the time. I know you have to have descents, but it sure doesn't feel like it on this course. At the end of the descent I hit aid station 3.
I topped off with some water downed another banana and headed out towards Blowout. This section of trail had me hiking for probably around a good hour it felt like. Times can probably all be rounded down approx. 25% from what I thought it felt like. I didn't wear a watch (I forgot it) so I just kept one foot over the other. At this point, I had barely anything left in the tank. The decision to ride SS in a race of this distance and caliber this early in the season was kind of dumb, but a good challenge none the less. I know I would have been able to ride more of this race had I had a geared bike. Oh well. Should have bought a geared Superfly, not a single speed. Blowout felt like it took forever. It just kept going up and up. I just couldn't climb any of it unless it was a 2-3% grade. I just kept going into aid station 4. By this time at Blowout, I had some fellow single speeders around. We rolled into the aid together.
The other two I was with rolled out to Big Brushy ahead of me. I just got some Cytomax and headed the claimed 6 miles to the other side of the mountain to the last checkpoint. One thing about the checkpoints/aid stations the last half of the race was no one stationed at them that knew the actual distance to the next point. Oh well I just kept going. I knew that I was pretty much home free. I hiked a fair amount of the first two miles, but then it leveled out and luckily didn't go up the ridge. It just wound around the mountain so I was able to get back on the bike. My legs were spent but I hit that point where your body just finally shuts up and you mind takes over. I passed a couple of people in this section who were in bad shape. I was so happy to get to the top and start descending. There was a guy on a Specialized FS who was my carrot. We had gone back and forth earlier in the race a little and I knew the way I was feeling I would descend better than him. It didn't matter cause he got me back later.
I rolled up to the last checkpoint to find Adam standing there. He was just grabbing a last little hit of water from some bottles they had there. He had only been there a minute or two so I had made some ground back on him. He had a puncture before aid 4 and had to stop and pump it up there. We found out it was only 8.5 miles of gravel and road to the finish. We just cruised it in together. Adam was pretty cracked as was myself. My legs were just so happy to spin that it didn't matter that they were borderline balled up. I was hitting the climbs better than Adam, but I just waited up. We got into this mess together so we may as well finish it together. When we hit the gravel the major temp drop hit me pretty hard. About 1-2pm in the afternoon I put my arm warmers on to prevent sunburn and I was glad I hadn't thrown those in my drop bag to be returned to the school.
All in all we finished in 9 hours and 26 minutes. Slower than I had wanted, but we finished which is saying enough. The 80 mile race is designed for people not to finish. The amount of singletrack before the last 20 miles is great, but pounds you into the ground. The last 20 miles decides who is stupid enough to keep going. In the 60, they miss out on that 22 miles section of singletrack which is replaced by a road/gravel section that saves a lot of energy. I have no qualms with my slow time seeing as A.) I finished, B.) it was waaay early in my mountain bike season, and C.) this was my first race or mountain bike ride over 50 miles ever. There were a lot of people behind us that didn't even finish for any reason imaginable.
So I'm not sure if I got the bug for longer races yet or not. I hurt pretty thoroughly and even as I write this, I am thinking about driving to work. We'll see. I had a blast the first 40 miles and suffered pretty thoroughly on and off during the last 40. I will say one thing, I'll probably never go back and ride that race on a single speed. I would like to try it on a geared bike though.
I'm spent.
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