So the High Cascadeds went off yesterday. Michelle and I took our 3:45AM wake up call directly on the chin and drug our carcases out of bed. The morning started with some blueberry pancakes, eggs and a cold brewed coffee from Backporch coffee roasters! That last one is not really recommended! From there we loaded the bike, the clothes and made our way to the start. Rolling up towards Mt Bachelor the temp continued to drop till the thermometer on the truck was reading a not so balmy 36 degrees while rolling into the parking lot of Wanoga Ski Park. After checking tires, shocks, and finishing kitting up it left not more than 15 minutes till go time. I opted for leg warmers, and my jacket for the start with my arm warmers on as well.
At about 5:40 AM the lead truck pulled out in front of us and the day started! It was a nice roll out while talking with Troy Berry and Josh Tosatado, a couple nice guy regulars on the scene! Then right before the crest of the hill I opened it up a little just to make sure I was placed towards the front of the group going into the 4 mile, washed out descent. It worked well and by then the sun was starting to peak out. With the sun coming out and knowing that there was a good climb coming ahead I decided to drop back behind the group of 6 or so and take my leg warmers off so that I would not cook on the first climb of the day! I no sooner finished getting them off and Josh decided it was time. He took off with myself and Carey Smith in tow. We entered the first section of singletrack and already had formed a gap between us and the rest. The pace remained high, but I had good legs and settled in for the long day ahead. Just as we crested the top of our first climb I decided to through myself on the ground in the first banked switchback. I popped up, grabbed my bottle and computer that was laying on the grund and took up chase. I could see the two maybe 10 seconds up so I was calm and knew I could get back on. That is when the bike gods struck. Not sure what it is with the long races, but luck is not on my side! A stick came off from my front wheel and took the rear derailleur right off the bike. I stopped and started to fix my bike, yes I do carry a spare derraileur pin for my bike. On the new epics it is a shear pin set up so the derraileur hanger is never the problem, you just change the bolt. My tool was being a pain since the allen key was not long enough to allow me to get a full revolution of the bolt. By now almost 2 minutes passed before the now 3rd place rider went by! We had a good gap for it only being 45 minutes into the race. I struggled getting the new bolt started but finally did and got the derailleur back on. I then went to put my wheel in and for some reason the skewer was not tightening in?? Who new, the threads on the driveside of the bike are held in with the deraileur hanger bolt!! I proceded to look around for it in the dirt. I finally found it and after about 10 minutes of monkeying around I was off again. By now I am guessing I was back in the 40's and I just put the hammer down! I was passing people left and right and by the time I had hit aid station 1 I had moved upto 19th place. I kept the pace high and between the 8 miles between aid 1 and aid 2 I picked off 10 more riders to move into 9th place.
Now the fun part of the trail starts with just fast, flowing singletrack that begs for you to go fast! I rallied this getting one more rider. I then stopped at aid 3, 57 miles in, and got 2 more bottles before the next 10 mile uphill section. While climbing I saw Gerry Phlug up ahead on the climb and he was climbing well. We stayed about the same gap for the entire climb and I caught him just before the descent down to Tumalo Creek, which is this fun switch back descent that drops you almost a 1000ft in less than 2 miles. I kept going and rolled into aid 5 pretty blown and looking for some nurishment. Luckily Michelle was there and had my bottles ready to go. I rolled out with her telling me that 4th, 5th, and 6th were no more than 2 minutes up and were riding as a group. I decided to drop the hammer and go for a podium spot. All was going well and I rolled into aid 6, where Troy Berry was standing there getting a new wheel after geting hit by a leasure cyclist going the wrong way on the race course. I grabbed a coke and my last bottle and headed out for the death march back over the mountain. I kept the pedals turning but by now it was 8 hrs and 30 minutes into the race, and for me I had the hammer down the entire way. Then at about mile 93 the wheels came off! Troy came flying past me and I tried to just hang with him but that was not happening so I settled back into my off pace. Then just before the last descent of the day, Gerry came back around me. I kept my wits about me and just kept the cranks turning. I made it up the last climb on the road section with no one behind me and knew I was in the clear for 8th place. I was happy with that after over 9hrs in the saddle and the bonk hitting me hard. That is when I came to the dreaded turn with less than a mile to go and I went the wrong way!! You have got to be kidding!! Anyway I wandered around a bit, loaded the GPS files I had on my Garmin, but still could not find where to go. By now there were 4 of us wandering around looking for the finish!! After finally making it back out we found some arrows and started to follow them! We rolled the last mile down the road and there it was!!! The finish!! I was so over my limit I could not barely stand! I immediately just fell off my bike and tried to catch my breath! Was not happening. Michelle went off in search of nurishments and came back with water and licorice! Sweet. So after the epic 9 hr and 44 minute day I ended up in 17th spot. Pretty upset about it cause I had good legs and think I had a good shot of the top 3, probably not enough for the win cause Cary was riding really well but for sure a top 5.
I guess now with 2 occassions of wrong turns in the hundreds, maybe I should put my request in for the seeing eye dog to get me around the course! I am blind in one eye so maybe they will take that into consideration!!
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