Lumber-freakin'-JACK

ED has been at it again. This time round 3 of the NUE 100 mile series in Michigan and ED's first attempt at the SS for a hundie!! Of course it was no problem as he finished with a time of 10 hours and 30 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Freakin' stud-boy. I've told him that he could do it and in some ways riding a SS is easier- lots more coasting and when you're pedaling you are moving on, getting climbs over with faster. To prove that the apple dosen't fall far from the tree, Elizabeth (daughter of ED) went back for another go at the Lumberjack and finished ahead of HIM at 10 hours!!! She was on the podium, but I have limited knowledge of all the details as of right now. Very cool stuff.

Go ED go!

Last weekend ED traveled to Chattanooga for the Cysco Cycles 6 hour race at Booker T. trails in the 'noog. Hot, hot, and hotter lately (still better than cold and snowy!) made for classic Ed- 5 laps, then some car time sittin' in the A.C. with a bit of "recovery". Turns out, he went so fast on those first 5 he was easily keeping up with the other SS racer- yes he's back on the Al stumpy SS-style (the one with the cool ass zebra stripes). Break done, he rode two more laps much to the dismay of said other SS racer and easily won- by two laps over someone more than half his age and supposedly a "pro" riding for Lynskey!!! I'm starting to think that Ed needs the hook-up, especially because if he likes something he will tell everyone about it and if keeps beating people that are "sponsored" he is most definitely worthy. Next stop for Ed is this weekend in Michigan at the Lumberjack 100, round 3 of the NUE series and will be his first hundie on a SS- go ED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes things just work out.....

So, if you haven't figured out by now me n' ol' ED like to do long, dumb mountain bike races. Well, round two of the NUE series was at Mohican in Ohio last weekend and because of scheduling conflicts, etc. Team Ed was not in attendance. I found myself working as a wrench for one of the rest stops at the Tour de Cure, which ended up being alot of fun. Some familiar faces and alot of new ones and its always fun to "save the day/ride" for someone by doing something that is simple but keeps them on the road. Big plus was post-ride food was provided by Moe's!!
Ed found himself at the 8-hour race at Haw Ridge put on by our good friend/mountain bike endurance racing freak of nature dholmes. Ed true to his outstanding form, shunned the geared plastic wunderbike in favor of the Al single-speeder and ended up 2nd in the ss class!! Hot and humid, and a great course for Haw and luckily the rain didn't come till most of the racers were done. Come to find out Ohio, specifically race day, had torrential rain, wind and hail so it sounds like we were in the right places to at least not have another Cohutta-type bike-trashing experience. Hopefully, Ed won't have rain at the Lumberjack.........
Sure would like to hit the Stoopid 50 this weekend but it sure is a long drive for a 50 mile race. We'll see.

Hey Seuss!

And I don't mean the good doctor, I mean it only in the most biblical of senses. I swore up and down that after the last solo 12 hour race at haw ridge (a long time ago) combined with my first big loop event, that the lap thing may never happen again. Part of my love for hundies, especially SM100 is the big loop format- gotta keep goin, no reason to stop. The multiple laps give you a chance to a) get bored and b) quit easier. Not into to quitting, but mentally tougher for me to keep going in the same circle. Anyway, due to scheduling conflicts it started looking bad for another shot at the Mohican 100 in Ohio, so given that I (and ed somewhat) was a fired-up after Cohutta there needed to be something long and painful to fill in the gap. Since I am always looking at race calendars just to see if there is something interesting that we haven't done and because I know a very flexible schedule is the way to succeed in life, finding the 12 hour race at Tsali seemed to be the perfect fit. Only a 2 hour drive, and for me a trail system while very fun, somewhere that I had not ridden in several years which the idea was, would keep the boredom at bay. Thankfully a long-time friend from the neighborhood was going and had done this race before so he could answer all my little questions regarding rules, the start, etc. Plus, he got over there early and got a great campsite and had a giant pile of firewood. Drove over Friday night through a few showers, but it didn't look like it had rained all day, so the hope was trail conditions would be o.k. Nice thing was no pre-dawn start (11 am) bad thing was it rained some before sunrise and a little more before the race started. Oh well, at least once it stopped that looked to be it on the rain, not like at Cohutta where you knew it was coming to kill you at some point later in the day! Silly ass greg lemond start, running up a gravel road for 1/4 mile, then on the bikes to start the 11 mile loop- up county line road (gravel, climbing 3 miles) then around on the right loop (singletrack!). Shaggy of SCO/bike zoo was there also doing 12 hour solo SS, and we hooked up immediately and seemed to be perfectly matched pace-wise. Our pace seemed a little ambitious given we had to ride all day and that it was muddy, but it was hard to go slow- the trail is very fast in many spots, so we just let it rip. Talkin', jumpin' making motorcycle sounds- we were having a blast and I'm pretty sure we were running first and second for those first few laps. We each had small spills, and going into lap 4 finally eased off the gas a bit to try and settle into a more reasonable pace. Bad thing for Shaggy was when he crashed, he caused some cramps and he never was right again- it would have been really fun to have ridden with him all day. Somewhere along the day the 6 hour folks finished- Sean, also of SCO/bike zoo- who got 5th place! and our own ED- who rode SS (no separate class) to 15th overall!!!! He was coming off being sick and was smart about doing 6 instead of 12 and rode the SS just cause (he's a badass). This was good because once they got cleaned up they were around our pit area and helped keep me motivated- funny how doing this makes you tired at some point! Only dumb rule for this race was they had a mandatory time for you to have your light, so I rode two laps with my light but didn't need it at all- not that those few ounces mattered but I'm just saying........ Seemed to be in third, but the guy behind me had some kick left, and I was just riding to at least do a hundred miles (9 laps) and then decided to actually get a real night lap in where I used my light and went out for number 10. Had time to start an 11th lap but it would not have changed my position, so I easily stopped at 10:20 pm for a grand total of 110 miles off-road (new most ever mtb mileage in one day for me) and 1 billion calories burned. Crazy thing was to ride that many miles and it was only good for 4th in SS, but that was 6th overall solo. Fast people out there everywhere! Great event (Gone Riding puts this on) trails got super fun as the day went on and they dried out a bit and I got yet another ultra under my belt- eye on the prize come labor day weekend!