R&C'ers
A few years back Robert Herber started up the Racers and Chasers series. I've known Rob for years now as we used to race against each other back in the semi-pro days and we were both sponsored by Intense Cycles. He's a great guy and his race series seems to fill in all of the cracks for anyone that's into racing anything on two wheels, and who lives between the latitude and longitude of the OC and San Diego. He has even hosted a Motocross - Mountain bike duathlon at Cahuilla Park where you ride moto and then gear down and jump on your mtn bike. How cools is that! For an ex-moto guy (me), very cool.
Gearing Up
As usual, this was a totally last minute thing but I finally decided to race the week of. I collected a few items and started packing. Here's what I ended up with
1 26" tube taped under my seat (I always use a 26"tube in my 29" wheel - more on that later)
1 Big Air mounted to seat post
1 New pair of Smith Pivlocks (my old lenses were shot!)
1 Straightened rear wheel
1 Gel flask
2 coolers
8 Bottles of Hammer nutrition
8 Hammer Endurolites
2 PBJs (good old pbj's...)
Plan
Robert really puts on a great event and knows what endurance riders need to finish. He had aid stations set up every 10 miles on the course where you could have your bags and bottles sent to before the race. This is very important because otherwise you end up carrying 8hrs of nutrition on your bike, mixing drinks at water stations, and scrambling everywhere. I've done it before and it's not fun!
Race
The 100 mile guys started a few minutes before the 50 mile guys. The course started with a pretty hard uphill climb that was rocky and loose. Most of Pro guys cleared everything just fine, but if one guy made a wrong step, it would have been like dominos for the rest of us. The trail then shot down some fun 40+ mph fireroad descents and across roads (with traffic directors), and then into the parks full of single track, switchbacks, bridge and stream crossings. One of the coolest sections was the singletrack that followed Lake Hodges (see GPS map). The trail was windy and fast, but the best thing was the breeze was cool and refreshing.
Go time!
It was just after the lake section that things got seriously fast. The final 10 miles was essentially a flat time trial down a sandy double track.This is where a rocketing peleton consisting of the lead racers from the 50 mile race group caught up to us. We didn't really want to ride that fast that early, but it was a good chance to make up some serious ground on lead 100 guys that managed to sneak away earlier. Romolo and I hung in with them for about 15-20 miles but neither of us could keep this pace up with over 60 miles of racing left. When we hit the hills we backed off and let them battle to the 50 mile finish line. That was seriously taxing but fun.
Round II
When we crossed the start/finish 50 mile point, I stopped, oiled my chain and grabbed some fresh bottles. It was daunting to turn back knowing we had another 50 miles to go. Plus, it was near noon and it was starting to get hot. Looking at all of the 50 mile guys that just finished, it was very temping to just roll in and call it a day...
Upside Down and Inside Out
I've been doing this "endurance" stuff for a while now and I'd like to think I've got it down pretty good. Well, this time I faultered. I just switched to Hammer products and I didn't really have time to test mixtures and drinks before the race. I just went by the charts, but everyone's different and I knew this wasn't ideal. Anyhow, at about mile 60 my stomach was so upset that I had I couldn't ride any longer. Over the next couple of hours I actually stopped 4 times trying to deal with it and just took in as much water as I could. I'll leave out the gory details, but let's just say that I when through some tough times. It was the first time that I actually didn't think I was going to be able to finish a race.
Getting it done
The last 2 hours were tough but I was still hanging on. In the last hour I started to feel better again and even after all of my unplanned breaks I finally caught back up to Romolo and we headed to the finish line. In the end he edged me out on the last climb and I rolled in just after him. He finished 4th and I finished 5th. We were just outside of the money but it was still a great feeling just to have finished.
Details
100 Miles
10,000ft of climbing
40+ mph
<8 hours
0 crashes
20+ close calls
So how was it?
Overall this was a great race. SoCal doesn't have many out and back races, so that was a bonus. The course joined up a bunch of single tracks that lead through parks just south of Escondido, so the scenery was nice and the course was fun. The only issue was that you had to keep an eye out for two-way traffic and pedestrians on the park trails. If you are interested in trying this race, keep in mind that some of it was pretty rolling and fast, so if you were in a group or if you can hook up with someone, you could save some serious time and energy.
I'll definitely be there next year with my nutrition dialed in and all cylinders firing!
You can find out more information about the event here.
Next big endurance event is the 50 mile Fat Tire Epic at Vail Lake October 1st. Be there!
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