Short and Fat

or as Tara says, the Short and Smart. We were up and out of the Lodge early, packed up the van and headed to Cable. We put our bikes in the line up then headed off for some breakfast, we landed great starting spots. About 0900 I got dressed to ride and started warming up. The weather was mild a little chilly but not bad, the sky was overcast a perfect day for a ride. At least in my opinion, overcast days are better than sunny days in the woods. 

At about 0945 we located our bikes and prepared to ride! I met a super nice guy standing next to me, he has been racing a number of years and was going to race this year on a cycle cross bike.  I wish I had gotten his number so I could see how he did. 

1000 the gun goes off, I clip in and off I go. I knew from last year that I needed to pace myself in the beginning so I will have enough energy to finish. Goal #1 finish the race. Within the first couple miles I had to go around 4 crashes, one looked pretty bad, lots of people down. The first 3 miles are on the Randysek Rd, paved for a short distance then packed earth, rocks and gravel, and a continuous climb. I experienced a nasty cramp in my right leg that lasted a couple miles, I think until my muscles were sufficiently warmed up. It may have helped me in keeping my pace a little slower. We then turned left into the forest and started our journey to the finish line. The ride was excellent, it had rained most of the day on Thursday so the ground was packed, most of the sandy patches were in good shape and posed no problems for me. The only issues I encountered were downed riders and wet grass. It seemed like there were a lot of crashes on this ride. 

Big Bertha defeated me again :(  I will ride that hill someday and where I got the idea that it was a giant pile of wood chips I do not know for Big Bertha was no pile of wood chips she was a full on big ass grassy hill.  And the biggest problem for me was that there was no down hill to get momentum. You do go down a short hill but have to make a hard right turn in wet grass before you start to climb Bertha. I only saw one guy make it up her.  I took a break at the top to catch my breath and wash down an Accel Gel, which works much better for me than Gu. I jumped back on my bike and had a great down hill cruise.  I have to say my bike kicks serious ass on the down hills. There was one woman whom I played tag with through out most of the race, she would catch me on the up hills and I would pass her on the down hills. Fortunately she was not in my age group so she really was not the competition and I beat her to the finish line.

Big Bertha is at about the halfway point in the race and I was feeling pretty good, I had made it up all the other hills and was still feeling pretty strong. Around about mile 12 my right knee started to throb, not a good sign. I thought hell, there's only 4 more miles I can do this, just slow down a bit and keep pedaling. The pain went away and I had a great ride to the finish. There were some sections of this ride I really loved and some sections I hated but all in all I really enjoyed it.  I had a couple near crashes, a guy in the beginning of the race shoved me over into another rider and we almost crashed and I hit a big rock coming around a corner that almost toppled me, but I held on the kept on riding.  I met 4 out of 5 of my goals, I finished the race and knocked a tiny bit of time off last years time, almost 1 minute. I had hoped to knock off more time but I am happy with my ride. 

I don't know if I can convince Tara to ride with me again next year. She had a couple crashes one that threw her off her bike. I'll have to try to convince others to do it. And if I don't get into this ride next year then I am most definitely going to do the Ore 2 Shore race in Michigan. It would be great to do both races. 

I do have to give props to the Cable Nature Lodge, an excellent place to stay. I will for sure go back there. I would love to go back next Spring and/or Summer, stay there and do some riding. I have to figure out how to get up Big Bertha. It will happen. She is going down!