Here's the recap:
Thankfully it was a nice chilly but dry morning. It was supposed to reach low 80's by mid afternoon and the roll to the start was in the mid 40's. It was chilly but the first few miles would warm everyone up really quickly. I rolled to the line, found a nice spot on the left side of the front row and went out with 600 friends for the day. It was obvious really early on that I had no warmup as the legs would just not go. I hit the first hill and started to fall back in the crowd and I was ok with that. I knew I would have plenty of time to make up for it in the singletrack. Once we entered the singletrack it was super frustrating. There was a roadie ahead that could not ride the trails. Obviously he did well on the road section to start but was holding back a line of 20+ of us. It took what seemed to be a half hour to finally clear this guy and really start moving. I hit aid station 1(of 5) and was feeling pretty good. I had goals written out on my top tube for an 8:10 finish. I was hopeful if I felt really good I could hit that number. Here's what my goals were. Aid 2, mile 34 - 3:00, Aid 3, mile 46 - 4:10, Aid 4, mile 72 - 6:15, and Aid 5, mile 92 - 7:45.
Feeling pretty good I rolled into aid station 2 at 3:08 and I figured the slow singletrack and my lackluster start was the deficit there. I was still close so that was good. But the next few miles started to hurt and the cramps were starting to twinge. Then my stomach started to go bad. I wasn't feeling it. In between aid 2 and aid three I found another guy riding the same pace and rode with him. We were both hurting. We stayed together for a while and kept on it although I had pretty much given up on racing the race at this point. I kept eating and drinking to try and get things back to normal but it wasn't happening. I hit aid 3 at 4:18 and was still keeping my +8 minute mark for checkpoints, so that was going ok. Between aid 3 and 4 the wheels really started to fall off and my stomach was not feeling good at all. My legs hurt already and there was some super steep short climbs in the singletrack that I had to jump off and walk. The worst part of this section is a 12 mile rail trail that ends with 4 miles of 3% false flat up and then 4 miles of 3% down. I tried to work with another fast masters racer on this one to get it over with but he was too strong. I took a couple of pulls and popped off. I couldn't hang. I just wasn't feeling it. So I limped to the next aid station and just wanted to get it over with. I hit aid 4 at 6:23 and was still on my +8 mark even with not feeling well. That kept me hopeful if nothing else to have a somewhat short day.
After aid 4 my memory of the course is good and I knew exactly what was coming. I started to push harder just to see what the body was doing and try and get to the finish line. I knew there were 5 climbs coming up. I hit the first one ok and limped to the top. The next one I actually enjoyed and rode it well, the third climb is a super steep gravel climb and the only thing that made that enjoyable is seeing all of the 100k racers that are finishing the race walking as I was able to ride through them. The fourth climb is a road climb I know well and at this point I started to feel better knowing exactly what effort I had left to do. I rode it hard and topped out to the last section of road to aid 5. I hit aid 5 at 7:53. I hit the next section as hard as I could to try and salvage a somewhat decent time. I sprinted when I could and rode had to the end. I crossed the line at 8:20 in 23rd place in the open and super happy to be done. I am pretty surprised I rode an 8:20 considering how bad I felt for 40 miles in the middle of the race. I'll be back for more next year and hopefully feeling better I can get back in the 7's where I know I can be. I'm really happy with this being my first 100 back after knee surgery and the baby.
Oh and the best part, something was going on with my front brake. The rotor was dragging and making noise all day. Not the best thing you want to have happen in a 100 mile race...
