Black Bear Cycling Presents: 2015 Bear Scat 50 Endurance Mountain Bike Race: June 7, 2015

Well I finished. Only took 7 hours and 15 minutes. Toughest physical challenge of my life but worth all the sacrifice and weeks of training. Mile 0-25 felt awesome. Miles 26-37 was a bit of a mind f*ck and had me questioning whether I could finish or not. Mile 38-50 was torture with various degrees of leg cramps, total body exhaustion and bouts of delirium. I'm not ashamed to say I broke down and cried when I reached the final road stretch and saw my wife and 2 sons screaming and clapping for me.

Thank you to the organizers and the awesome volunteers, especially the aid station guys who took care of me when I could barely lift my arms.

See you next year!
Maybe.

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Explaining to my 6 year old that, "No, I did not win. But I am still a winner!"

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My crew from NYC.

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The last 50 yards.
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a.s. said:
Well I finished. Only took 7 hours and 15 minutes. Toughest physical challenge of my life but worth all the sacrifice and weeks of training. Mile 0-25 felt awesome. Miles 26-37 was a bit of a mind f*ck and had me questioning whether I could finish or not. Mile 38-50 was torture with various degrees of leg cramps, total body exhaustion and bouts of delirium. I'm not ashamed to say I broke down and cried when I reached the final road stretch and saw my wife and 2 sons screaming and clapping for me.

Thank you to the organizers and the awesome volunteers, especially the aid station guys who took care of me when I could barely lift my arms.

See you next year!
Maybe.

IMG_1662_zpsse7jpfh4.jpg

Explaining to my 6 year old that, "No, I did not win. But I am still a winner!"

IMG_1660_zpsu05hopmy.jpg

My crew from NYC.

IMG_1661_zpsxaa5uag5.jpg

The last 50 yards.
cleardot.gif
Click to expand...


The fact that you willed yourself to finish proves you're a winner! Great work out there!
 
a.s. said:
Well I finished. Only took 7 hours and 15 minutes. Toughest physical challenge of my life but worth all the sacrifice and weeks of training. Mile 0-25 felt awesome. Miles 26-37 was a bit of a mind f*ck and had me questioning whether I could finish or not. Mile 38-50 was torture with various degrees of leg cramps, total body exhaustion and bouts of delirium. I'm not ashamed to say I broke down and cried when I reached the final road stretch and saw my wife and 2 sons screaming and clapping for me.

Thank you to the organizers and the awesome volunteers, especially the aid station guys who took care of me when I could barely lift my arms.


IMG_1662_zpsse7jpfh4.jpg

Explaining to my 6 year old that, "No, I did not win. But I am still a winner!"

cleardot.gif
Click to expand...

I heart this reply...
 
Thanks to Black Bear for an awesome and well run event! I went in knowing I could at least do one lap, planning on doing 1.5. The prolog was longer than I thought it would be, and I wasn't sure if I would make the time cut off to do a second lap. That ended up not being a problem, but I figured there was no way I could get to the aid station on lap two in time. I got there with ten minutes to spare, so figured I had to finish at that point.

With no more time constraints, I knew I could make it even if I had to walk up every hill. I ended up only having to walk up half of them. I rode the second lap almost entirely on my own without seeing anyone. With about seven or eight miles to go I caught up to some guy in a Dark Horse jersey (Luis?). We walked the same climbs and basically dragged each other to the finish. Best part was being handed the finisher's prize while on my bike finishing the ride after 7 hours 37 minutes.

Course was marked great, volunteers at major intersections, super helpful people at the aid station, awesome bbq after, and obviously the incredible trails and course layout = winning. I'll be back next year, although I don't want to think about going back to wayway for a while.
 
Anyone have a GPS profile for this race? Also heard there were a lot of DNFs. Does anyone know how many registered racers finished / did not finish? Thanks.
 
Ahhhh....the Monday after BearScat...humbling experience. First, a big Thank You to Black Bear Cycles for setting up, sponsoring, and offering aid for this terrific endurance race! Congratulations to everyone who finished the two laps (that is an amazing feat), and kudos to those who just even tried, whether 1 lap, 1.5 or even 14 mile aid station. This event is a true test of endurance - moreso than the 24 Hours of Allamuchy. I finished lap one in 3:51, had plenty of time to start lap 2 but I was gassed, needed more hecklers to urge me on, lol. Felt good first 20 miles and passed a lot of riders going uphill so that was good, but unfortunately know the trails too well and started counting down the climbs to the start/finish. Great event, I will try again next year...
 
Rode the course yesterday , i was really shocked how clean the trails were , on sunday they were littered with gu wrappers and tubes, etc. I was amazed that cyclists just toss that stuff on the ground . Thumbs up to the clean up crew !
 
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