MLMBC You're either with us or against us: FADE TO BLACK

10th Anniversary Lumberjack 100

Dub9 review:

After vowing to never do it again, when I signed up for LJ100 this year I vowed to do things differently. This year it was going to be on a rigid singlespeed. If I was going to suffer, I wanted the volume at 11!

Diesel and I got to the starting line earlier this year, accompanied by Mrs. Diesel, and picked a spot several rows back from the eventual winners. When the siren sounded, it was a mad rush. I was bobbing along with the other singlespeeders as waves of geared riders engulfed me. I averaged 125 RPM for those first 5 minutes. I was relieved to get on the trail and slow down.

About an hour in I caught up with Diesel and the KLM guys on the only road section. Shortly after Joey had a brake issue, so I handed my tool pouch. Only 6.5 hours remaining, and I now had no tools. I still had some Gu.

Somewhere along the line my wheel magnet got jarred, and my GPS had poor coverage, so there was no monitoring mileage. I just tried to cling to Brad Lako as we came through the first lap in about 2:25. I grabbed more gel, swapped bottles, and I was off again to try to keep Brad in sight. I wanted to change gloves, but forgot in my rush.

Lap 2 was quite open, and more passing. I never saw Brad again after these first miles, so I began meandering at my own pace. I think this is the hardest lap mentally, and I struggled to maintain focus. I was reminded of this when I broke concentration and found myself on the ground in a rather easy section. It was however a nice opportunity for a nature break. I finished the lap on the brink of cramping.

Lap 3 started with more of the same, but as I finished the long climb at the start, my legs came around. However the rest of my body was breaking down. My hands were feeling raw from the 5 hours of wet gloves, and my feet were tingling. I could feel my pace slipping, but I couldn't do anything about it.

At the halfway point aid station I received a pro hand-off of half a banana and continued on. It was surreal slowly passing other shattered soul barely turning the cranks, most of them with an entire lap to go.

The "gentle" climbs at the end took every once of effort to climb, and the descents were worse as I could hang on, and standing would cause my calves to cramp. I crossed the line in 7:42:35, and 11th place singlespeed. I wanted top 10, but did not have a time goal. I barely dismounted my bike, and stumbled back to the tent where I just wanted to lay down.

Diesel was not long after. He came in at 8:14:20 which was good enough for 50th out of 228 for the Open Men's division. Then it was time to eat, drink, and swat mosquitoes.

As much as I enjoy torturing myself in the name of fun, it is more enjoyable to share that misery with others, even the ones that won't publicly admit that you are friends.

It is Monday, the beer is gone, the pain is subsiding, and I am back to work. Soon this will all be a dull memory probably until 4 am sometime late next June.

Forever Forward.

State Games of Michigan

Youngblood review:

I arrived at Cannonsburg just before 8:00 ready for a 9:00 start time but when I went to check in, they had not set up registration yet. I found a worker who told me registration would be ready soon so I went to look around and noticed the start and finish areas of the course were not ready either. I really started to wonder how are they going to get all this ready in the next hour? It turns out they were not, while the web site said 9:00 for start times my actual start was set for 10:08. So what to do with an extra hour. Brad answered that for me by getting his Stryder bike out and having me follow him around while he made friends with every other racer who also had an extra hour to waste. Fast forward to start time—with only 9 or 10 of us on the line it felt like a very small group and we were ready to go. As soon as we started I jumped out to the lead even though I really did not want to, nor did I try but I guess someone has to set the pace for the first lap. The trail starts with a flat wide section giving us plenty of time to get in a single file line as we entered the woods and started the long first climb. Next comes a few miles of fairly tight single track that flow exceptionally well and trail conditions were excellent so a group of three of us started to put a little space between the rest of the pack. With about a mile and a half to go on the first of four laps we hit a new section of trail that was really loose and tight. It looked like it should have been very fast since it was a downhill switchback section but as soon as you tried lean the loose dirt would just push out and send you sliding so the trick was to stay inside on the turns and not go too fast. About halfway through lap two the guy who went to on win passed me and another rider followed him. The leader was able to pull away from us slowly but as soon as we hit the long climb on lap three I passed the other rider to get back into second. The rest of lap three and the first half of lap four were pretty uneventful but fun riding. But about halfway through lap 4 I could see the third place rider (a different guy than the one I passed) and he was slowly reeling me in. At that point I told myself it is ok if he catches up now, but there is no way you are going to let him pass you. With about ¾ of a mile to go and the new loose section behind us we entered the last bit of singletrack which was about ½ mile long were I decided I did not really care to try my hand in a sprint finish especially since the last ¼ mile was on a really sand two-track so I picked up the pace and put some distance between us. I felt safer about my spot as I left the woods and started my way up the two-track but it was not time to let up. As I crested the final hill with about 100 yards of downhill to go I looked back and noticed I had put a little more space between us. I crossed the finish line 9 seconds ahead of third happy enough with my performance. Time for awards and more chasing the Stryder speed demon.

Pix of the weekend:

Brian gained 2 pounds this season so far. Only sensible way to lose two pounds the week of a race is to replace something on your bike with a lighter part. Hence, a new RDO fork. Problem solved.