The weekend started on at 4:00pm on Friday for me. That was the time registration opened for the Big Bear Ultra. The rain was pouring outside and lets just say Friday's' registration was a little lite due to the weather. However 3 guys from Virginia did come in to sign up for the race and asked me the same old question I hear everytime it rains at a race. "Is the race still on?" The three must have thought I was an asshole because of the look I gave them.
After the Virginia guys left the WV Night Club guys showed up. Chris and Andy paid their fees and then headed out the door, but before exiting Chris said, "you coming over for the keg?" I knew the best thing for me would be to go back to my camp and get some sleep for the big ride the next day, but sometimes logic doesn't always prevail. After registration closed I found myself over at WV Night Club HQ. In the last week or so the Night Club has gotten some bad press for partying a little hard. Now a days I don't tend to drink all that much and stay up late. I did plenty of that growing up in Morgantown. However on Friday evening I found myself doing 3 keg stands
(stated to be Ultra race training on Cycle Dumb Training)plus drank my fair share of Jagermeister and beer. At 2am it was time for me to head back to my camp and get some rest. When I finally crashed down in bed I half expected myself to just pass out, but then I started to think about the race. I was nervous now, and it was keeping from falling a sleep. I wonder how I was ever going to ride 50 mile of trail before tonight, and now that I am only going to get 4 hours of sleep I was doubly worried.
Sometime in the wee hours of the morning I finally fell asleep and awoke to the alarm at 5:45am. I would have loved to have hit the snooze bar and went back to sleep but registration opened in 15 minutes and I had to get down there and get ready. The folks over at
Team Bi-atch gave me some advice on how to prepare for the race, one was eating a big breakfast. Well I really didn't have any food to eat for breakfast because of bad planning on my part. Thank goodness I was able to find a blueberry muffin and a bottle of Gatorade. It is not the breakfast that I was hoping for but it was least something. Registration was once again lite and sadly only 39 folks showed up for the race. I wasn't to surprised though do to the down pour of rain the day before.
After a few last minute people signed up for the race I had to get everything moved from inside the community building over to the finish line area and setup for the race. At most of the races this is a major pain in that ass because I don't get to warm up and I am a little stress about getting it done in time for the race. However this time is was a blessing because I didn't have anytime to think about the race and get nervous before the start. When I made it over to the starting line I got to hear a little of Mark's racer meeting then we were off.
Suck in that gut!
I watched as the others tore off down the trail and I was amazed. They started off much the same speed they would at a regular cross country event. I wasn't even think about going hard at all, if anything I rode the first 15 miles way to easy. My plan was to just go slow and finish. The first 8 miles to check point #1 I rode with a guy named Jim. He was not a technical rider and actually crashed in front of me a few times, but I always stopped and waited for him because he had rode in a few 100 mile events and kinda knew what he was doing. At the first check point I stopped to fill up my water bottles but Jim just kept going. I didn't need to stop but I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to top everything off. It only took me a 1/2 a mile to catch back up with Jim and once again found myself slowing my pace. It was another 8 miles to the next check point with a few miles being on new trail. I have to say I really hated the new trail. Not the kinda riding Big Bear is famous for. One mile from cp#2 Jim got a flat. I asked him if he needed anything but he said he was good. I was not going to wait for him any longer. I rolled in CP#2 felling good but I knew it was 16 miles to CP#3 some I put on my camelpack even though I can't stand wearing them. I usually drink 2 bottles of water every 8 miles so there was no way bottles would work for me. I also tried to eat a little at CP#2 but it wasn't so easy. After stuffing a few bites of trail mix in my mouth I was off.
Look at me sweating out the beer at mile 4
Things were going pretty well I didn't fell tired, my legs didn't hurt and the big thing for me was that my ass didn't hurt. At about mile 28 I started realize that I didn't remember much of the last 2 or 3 miles. That's weird I thought. The 16 miles from cp#2 to cp#3 was a long haul. I saw no one the entire time and a few times I had wished I would have slowed up for Jim. When I hit mile 30 I couldn't stop thinking about what I wanted to eat at cp#3. I can't remember if it was Gunnar, Betsy or Chris but one of them told me to pack pringles. OOOOO! Once that popped in my mind I was so excited. PRINGLES!!! Once I arrived at cp#3 I had been on the bike for 32 miles. At that point I was on the longest trail ride I have EVER been on. I have been on my road bike for 82 miles and even rode my mountain bike for 45 miles on a rail grade but this was all single track. As I sat down for a moment with my pringles in hand, I smile that I had made it so far. I was starting to get tired now but I was only had 18 miles left to go and I figured I could do it. On a side note, the aid station workers told me that a few people had mention how good my pringles looked when they hit the cp. I WOULD HAVE BEAT YOU WITH THE EMPTY CAN IF YOU WOULD HAVE EATEN THEM! LOL!
I took off from cp#3 felling pretty good but then something weird happened. I started to break down mentally. This next part my be a little hard for those of you who don't know me real well to understand so just bare with me. For the last few years I have had some major issues with anxiety and most of it has to do with my health, or thinking I am going to die. OK I know that sounds stupid but there ant much I can do about it. So I am riding along and I started thinking to myself, "am I over working my body", "maybe this will cause me to have a heart attack!". I know that sounds crazy and it is but that what was going through my head. My riding started to suffer as well. I was having trouble with every obstacle that I encountered. I also started think I was done and could not go on for another 15 miles. Considering I was in the middle of no where I had no choice but to just continue to petal. Then after another few miles the thoughts just disappeared as quickly as they entered my mind. How weird! I was once again felling like I was going to make it, and my mind which had been kinda blurry was clear.. Again how weird was that!
Rolling along at mile 30
I rolled into cp#4 with 38 miles of riding under my belt and was feeling pretty proud when I got to the cp because iPlayOutside founder Don Parks and Mark Schooley of Big Bear were both there. Mark said he was surprised at how good I looked because he said some people had looked terrible. I told him I felt good also but that I had a melt down a little was back but was ok now. Mark said well I closing the course. "What?, NO, I got to finish!" I told him. I think he was a little surprised that I wanted to continue because at that point I had been riding for 7 hours. Also when I told him I was planning on riding a few days before I could tell he didn't think I had a chance of finishing. In his defence I don't think he knew how much I been riding this summer and that I had stopped smoking. He then told me he couldn't let me go on. I was super sad. I still had to ride another 3 miles back to the finish area and that gave me a grand total of 41 miles on the day, but I was kinda torn about it. Yes I did just go out and ride for 7 1/2 hours (41 miles) but I failed to what I set out to do. Ohh well! Mark later said I needed to be 30 minutes faster and I could have finished. I pondered the rest of the night what would have happened if I wouldn't have followed Jim for the first 15 miles. Because in the last 26 miles I put over an hour on him.
Rolling into check point #4
After getting cleaned up I was walking around the parking lot just chatting with folks when Betsy spotted me. She was acting like she was up to something. Her and gunnar kept walking to their car and back to the community building, and they would tell me go here, then go there. I couldn't help wonder what they were up to. They finally decided on tell me to go back into the community build where they presented me with a large cupcake cake (6 cupcakes in a circle with ten pounds of icing on top). They said it was finishing my first Ultra (kinda "my words"), stop smoking and for some other stuff. I heart the Shogren's. It was really touched, but I think gunnar knows by now that I not big on compliments especially in public. I think he likes embarrassing me. I later found out that Betsy and Gunnar had to drive all the way back to Morgantown after they raced because they forgot the cake at home. Damn, then I really started to fill bad about not finishing.. Thanks guys that meant a lot!
So now it Sunday and I feel fine. I must say I am kind surprised. I would have thought I be pretty sore today, but I am hungry! I am writing this post in Sirianni's and eating a fat cheeseburger at the same time. I think this was the last race for my this year maybe going to do the Creek to Peak in a few weeks, but will see. However I am really starting to get addicted to competition again. It not that I want to try and beat someone, it has to do something with competing. Every time I complete an event I am filled with a big sense of accomplishment. So with that in mind I plan on putting time in on the trainer this winter and doing a fair bit of xc skiing this winter get in better shape for 2009.
Photos of the night before with the WV night club
