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!

Cohutta Race Report

I know, I know seems a little late to be speaking of that race still but I feel obligated to a least make a stab at a real race report even though it is mostly just for Tarik. He was the inspiration for the whole SS thing and continues with the best race reports/recaps ever.

Everyone knew it was going to rain in large quantities it was just a matter of when. Drive down Friday afternoon saw sunny skies and warm temps. Set up camp and checked in with ease, ate dinner and at some point the drops started hitting the tent. Thought alot about whether to race if it was full-on raining at the start and decided to wait and see. Morning brought wet ground but no rain as the pre-dawn ritual of eating/drinking/getting your crap together to ride in the woods all day started. Got to the start and still no rain- this was good. First trail is Brush Creek known for being soft after rains, however we were greeted to wet but firm trail surface- thank goodness! Rolled on and back to the WWC and more trail then rest stop #1 before the gravel/dirt suffer-fest started. Things were looking good, peeps of sunshine even, but I knew it was coming sooner or later. I hoped to make it to the mid-point of the race, which is also the highest elevation as well, before all hell broke loose. Climbed and climbed forever, started getting foggy but still no rain. Rolled through rest stop #3 pretty quick, with one more climb to the top before VERY long downhill. First funny person I met up with was some geared fool who when I caught said "where is the f-ing top?!" I just laughed as I passed and said "soon come" and thought " if you looked at the elevation profile at all (dumbass) you would realize there was one more UP before actually being at the top" Oh well. He caught up just as the big dh was getting ready to start as I was getting the jacket on because the rain had to be coming soon and the dh long enough that if I got wet and cold I would have died for sure! He rolled up and it literally started with light rain and some thunder and he actually said " I can't believe its f-ing raining! Do you think they'll call it (off)?" Again laughter from me and all I could think was "No, it's not a baseball game..." Then as I pedaled off thought " did this guy not look at the weather, they have predicted doom and gloom all WEEK and we should feel lucky to have ridden for 5 HOURS with NO RAIN (moron)!" More laughter, big downhill started, VERY fast fire road and then it really came. Hard rain and wind almost instantly and even though I was off the top of the ridge proper, still at pretty high elevation. Sideways rain, wind blowing me across the dirt road, can't see anything- it was fantastic and truly epic weather. Down forever and finally to safer elevations but rain continues. Rode on and up the climbs back towards the WWC and really started getting tired at the 80 mile mark. Just kept pedalling and knew at least that the last 10 were on singletrack and at least that would be fun. Last real climb up the trails, Alex from K-town caught and passed me with the "I'm almost done and happy buzz even though I've been riding all day" At first I was disappointed because I really wanted to be the first one back from K-town, but I was so tired that I didn't care. He also said " oh by the way, you just got passed by a 60 year old dude with a broken collarbone" What? I guess it was the guy that had just gone past before Alex that was climbing strong and muttered "what up dawg?" when he passed me. Crap. Got to the singletrack and it was in terrible shape- monsoon rains and lots of traffic made what was normally fun, an exercise in just staying upright. Finally got to Thunder rock, the last downhill and it was still fun- knowing I was almost done and in somewhat better shape. Safely down and then up the side of the highway into a 20mph headwind to finish- Ouch! Finished in 8 hours and 50 min. only 9 min. slower than last year which was under PERFECT conditions. Pretty darn happy with that and was very glad to get into dry clothes and sit in my car with the heat on! Waited for ED in the car and shot that video as he was finishing ( 11 and 1/2 hours!) and then we waited for T-flo, hoping he was o.k. and sure enough he finally came in and true to team ed tradition (mostly ed) he missed a turn near the end and probably did an extra 10 miles still finishing in just over 12 hours- well done T-flo! Eventually a real shower at the campground and since cooking at the very wet campsite didn't seem like a fun idea, we drove to Ducktown and had some thickburgers because that is all there is in Ducktown and they were SO good! Drank a few beers back at camp and finally went to bed (there was a brief respite from the rain around dinner). Got comfy in the tent and then the REAL rain came- harder than the hard rain we raced in. All. Night. Long. Hats off to the MSR hubba as I stayed dry all night- best tent ever! Of course, Sunday morning the sun was out and it was beautiful.

Next up 12 hours of Tsali, a week from Saturday.

Check it out!

Before anymore stories of Cohutta are told if you know or care about ED check out today's edition of knoxnews.com and you will be inspired to keep doing dumb things aboard bicycles for many years to come!

Cohutta 100

Big day in the woods, half under good conditions, half under way worse. The epic rains came as predicted and I was so glad to be past the half-way point when they did. ED did 11 and a half hours-ish, T-flo 12 hours-ish (probably rode 110 miles since he missed a turn near the end!), and me 10 min. under the 9 hour mark. Plastic SS bike sooo good, and sooo trashed. There are good stories- probably tell some soon. Until then, a few pics.

Co-freakin-hutta 100!

For now a short video of ED finishing- there is cursing. You have been warned.

Been forever

So what. Mainly that means lots o' riding. Finally spring has sprung so no more snow, booties, giant gloves and the like. Warm temps, not much rain, and no question the most perfect dirt that East TN has seen in years!!! Been to the Bahamas for R and R, but right back to it with big dumb rides most notably at Tanasi, mostly getting ready for Cohutta which is only one week away now! Team Ed racing season officially started yesterday with the very local Ocho 8 hour race at Panther Creek State Park. The results are posted yet but Ed texted and said he did 7 laps in 6:50, so it sounds like he is kicking it just like always- Way to roll it ED!!

Dirty South Tuesday night beat-downs have started as well, with the first being what I expected but maybe with a different cast of characters than I would have thought. Bhann strong as always, jason is always ready but I haven't seen him alot, JoelM from work was in there and is VERY strong as was evidenced by everyone when he beat them down at Knoxiecross, and Sean a very accomplished XC racer and up and coming endurance racer too. Good fun and very fast!

Time to rest and eat and drink lots of water this week and see if the winter riding pays off on Saturday. BTW, lest I forget Duncan is in the almost great white north or maybe just New Jersey, but at any rate is racing and flying the Team ED colors and hopefully giving those yankees the beat down! Go Keith!