Wilderness 101

2011 Mileage: 4,215
This post is long over due but I'm kind of glad I took some time to really let the experience of W101 sink in. It was by far the longest I've ever raced and with all that time in the saddle, most of it alone, I had a lot of time to go through some serious ups and downs.

The race started off pretty quick and almost immediately on to the first climb of the day. I knew that the climbing here would be something completely new to me, as in the longest climbs I had ever ridden, so my plan was just to stay within myself and spin up them. As the pavement turned to gravel and I continued to feel good just spinning my way up I was starting to gain a little confidence. Then shortly after that I felt my rear wheel start washing out and I knew I was losing air. I quickly hopped off and shot some air in with my CO2 inflator hoping that it would just seal itself back up with the sealant in the tire. No luck and within a couple miles it was doing the same thing again. Off the bike again and this time to throw a tube in. Too bad I wasted my CO2 on a failed attempt so this time it was using the hand pump to get the tire inflated. Good thing I decided to bring it as a back up. So about twenty minutes wasted and I wasn't even to aid 1 yet. Got to aid 1 and borrowed a floor pump to finish pumping up my rear tire and was back on my way. From this point on it was just riding past people and feeling good, trying to make up ground. I got to aid 2 before I knew it and my sister was there to greet me. While I restocked with a new tube, CO2 and took in some calories really quickly she refilled my bottles and I was back on the bike. Then it was back on the bike and I was still feeling great and I continued to pass people as I headed on to the long climb after aid 2. Feeling great turned to feeling good, and then feeling good turned in to "is this climb ever going to end." After I finally reached the top I couldn't wait for the trip back down. Then I headed down the single track descent and felt like the rocky terrain was going to knock my teeth out I was bouncing around so hard. It was basically more of this, long gravel climbs and long rocky descents, for the next 50 miles. Cramping hit me a little bit at around mile 65 but I just took in some more fluids and managed to push through it just fine. I started feeling good again and saw Kate again shortly after at aid #4. Right after my brief break there I immediately got punished by a long unmaintained road climb and simply dragged myself to the finish from there. But at least I finished. I had a time of 9:49 putting me 107th/234 in the Men's Open category. Definitely not a great result but I went in to this race with pretty much no expectations and just wanting to finish and I did just that. Only one crash, and two flat tires.

I need to give a huge thanks to my wonderful little sister for all of her help. She brought new life to me at the aid stations and it would have been a lot tougher of a day without her. She also nursed me back to life (well as much as possible) right after I crossed the finish line. I really miss having her as a next door neighbor.

Also congrats to my traveling companion Mike on his third place finish and a time that was 3 hours faster than mine. So he beat me by three hours and then drove the entire way back to Michigan right after the podium because I was too beat up to contribute. Talk about humbling for me.

If I would've been asked right after I finished if I'd ever do another hundred mile mountain bike race I would've said no way. After a week to think about it I've come to realize that I'll just never do W101 again, on a hardtail at least. I've already committed to do Cohutta 100 with Kate next year.

This weekend I've got two races on the schedule. Ore to Shore, a 48 mile point to point mountain bike race in Marquette, Saturday and Cherry Roubaix, the state championship road race in Traverse City, Sunday. It should be a great weekend, especially since Linz is making the trip with me.