After dinner we retired back to our hotel, kicking ourselves yet again for forgetting swimsuits. A dip in the hot tub would have been a nice way to relax. But we were in bed fairly early, and we were up for the hotel breakfast (we <3 waffle bar), and back to the room for lazy a Saturday morning. She napped, and I put some more time working on a solution concept for a problem at work. When afternoon came we packed up, and headed over to Nine-mile Forest Preserve to pre-ride the course.
We found parking in the shade, applied liberal doses of sunscreen, and I saddled up and headed out into the woods. Rich, one of guys I ride with on Monday and Wednesday night, had been talking up how much he likes riding at Nine-mile since I met him last spring. It was partly his feedback that led me to choose this race instead of going up to Rhinelander two weeks early for my second WORS race of the season. He ran into us on Saturday as I was getting ready, and talked about how this year the Sport course was easier than it had been in the past because they were routing us away from some of the most technical rock sections.
Rich went off to ride some of the non-race trails, and I headed to the starting line to drop into the official course for the race. It was the first WORS race I had been to when the race did not begin with a hill climb. It faded downhill, and took a sharp left into the woods. I tried to keep the pace easy for my first lap, especially the first 20 minutes as I had just gotten onto the bike. There had been no warm-up. The forest was deep and luscious as it rolled by, the blotches of shade and sunlight on the trail made it difficult at time to differentiate between rocks and shadows, causing a disconnect between the anticipation of being jolted and the actual occurrence. Rocks I couldn't see hit me hard, and shadows that looked like rocks faded without so much as a whimper. As I rode I tried to pay attention to the features of the course, to learn it's ins and outs. My garmin struggled in the first 10 minutes of the ride to get an accurate bearing. Ten minutes into the ride my map still showed a flashing question mark in my Chicago neighborhood, but the miles still accumulated.
I was a little taken aback at the midpoint when I hit a fairly steep climb. It was unexpected given Rich's assessment of the course. Then things got a little rough. Giant freaking boulders rough. Really skinny guys blowing by me on 29ers while I get the stuffing knocked out of me, rough. Then things got long. Normally a pre-ride practice lap takes no more than a half an hour for a five mile loop. I hit a half an hour and then some. I was starting to wonder if the course was every going to finish. As advertised there was plenty of double track, but easy? I was starting to question Rich's sanity.
Finally I arrived back at the finish and found my girlfriend waiting at a picnic table with a water bottle. She had been talking with riders coming off their laps, and everyone had said the Sport course was 5.1 miles. My garmin said 7.58. I told her about the problem getting signal, I checked my rear wheel magnet, and shrugged my shoulders. I reset the Garmin, and returned to the woods to try a second lap. The course was the same, I was more warmed up but still kept my speed relatively slow. Again I found myself thinking, "Gee...this is hard" and then "Gosh, this is long." I finished the second pre-lap, and again my garmin came out at 7.48 miles. I was seriously wondering if I would be able to ride that course 3 times at race speed. I'd have to go out super chill if I was going to be able to finish with any steam at all. It was going to be a long race.
We ran into Rich in the parking lot, and were talking about the pre-ride. I told him he had a strange definition of "easy" there was at least one serious climb, and some really rocky sections. Also? It was long, seven and a half miles. He said "7.48 miles? You must have ridden the full expert course."
Facepalm.
The girlfriend, "I TOLD you that everyone else was saying the sport loop was 5.1 miles".
Facepalm.
The next morning we were up early for breakfast, and to the race course by 8:30AM. I geared up to head out into the woods to find some places to shoot the Juniors in the singletrack, and she stayed with the car to "rest". I came back after shooting some photos, helping a waylaid Junior with a mechanical get back on his bike, and helping the MTB Patrol get an injured kid out of the woods. Justin took a handle-bar in the stomach, and was in tears. We walked him out of the single track, and by the time we got back to double track he was ready to saddle up again.
I returned to the car, and once again time started slipping away. I was able to stay better organized this race and not destroy the car, but the decisions about camelpak vs water bottle with hand-up, and getting everything in it's proper place still took time. My mom arrived as we were getting ready, so there was some greeting and chit-chatting to be done.
Once I was ready I headed up to the starting line and tried to find my wave. Things were a little bit less organized this week, and it took a little bit more time to find the rest of my wave. I was there in time for the national anthem, but not in time to guarantee a spot on the line. They were doing call-ups, but my name was not called. Winning the first race and skipping the second did not give me enough points to make it to the line. No worries though, it was a long race today. Three full laps of a 5+ mile loop.
When Don said "GOOOOOOO!!!" and the pack surged forward I maintained my place in about the third row for the first 50 yds, then I made a break to the outside and put on the gas to pull ahead of most of the pack. When we started to narrow down and spread out there were only two riders ahead of me from my wave, neither in my category. We all settled in as it was going to be a long race. I was content holding their wheels, as at Iola both of these men finished ahead of me. So we looped around, and I noticed that certain features (e.g., the steep climb, the rock garden) were noticeably absent. I thought I did a really good job of not staying stuck behind slower riders from earlier waves, which was in part pacing myself appropriately so I had energy to squeeze by guys in the single track, and part of having the confidence to know how and when to pass. Not that passing was a big deal at Wausau. Half, if not more, of each lap was on double track cross country ski trails, so there was plenty of room to leap frog slower riders. This of course plays into my strengths (i.e., low-end torque + good legs) as I could spin my way up hills and still make up ground. I was surprised how quickly we came into the pine trees near the finish on the first lap. I remember thinking to myself "wow, that was a LOT easier" (than my pre-ride the day before). I smiled and looked forward to the rest of the race. I was still dogging the wheel of the leader of the C40+, and was content to follow him around the pine trees and back down to through the finish. As we made our way through the second lap we were overcoming more and more riders from earlier waves. The wide double track made easy work of passing and maintaining my momentum, and the single track offered short respites to catch my breath.
I had a few dicy moments making my way through some of the more gnarly obstacles, with a foot down here, and lost momentum there. At one point on the first lap the trail curved to the right and I lost my balance and had to put a foot down and ended up straddling a stump just to the left of the trail. I tweaked my ankle a bit, but was able to get back onto my bike without losing speed, and the guy behind me cheered "That was a great save". It was not a flawless race, but it was still a fast race. As we came to the end of the second lap, I still had plenty of gas in the tank and overtook the leader of the C40+ as we made our way past the start. I burned a little match to get around him, and he did not challenge. The third lap was about as smooth as the first two. Not perfect, but was able to maintain speed, pass when I needed, and pick off slower guys on the double track. As I came back into the pine trees near the finish I came up on another rider from the 45-40 age group. I followed him through the pines and up around the loop into the finish straight. I got out of the saddle and started hammering, and he did the same. We ended the race with a full sprint to the finish, and I took the not one but two riders in front of me before crossing into the shoot and being waved to a stop. I was huffing and puffing something fierce, but when I caught my breath I had a little time to enjoy the moment.
I was pretty certain that I was the first Clydesdale across the line, and the results, when posted, confirmed the expectation. I was pleasantly surprise to see that I had also moved up in the Sport field overall. Last year when I finished first at Treadfest in my category, I was 96th overall in the sport field, and finished 10+ minutes behind the leader. This race I was 36th overall, and a scant 5+ minutes off the leader. I am looking forward to CamRock next weekend, as it will be the first MTB race where I have a direct (contingent on weather) comparison between last year's time and this year's time. Hopefully I can avoid the crash and injury though.
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