Cohutta 100 Race Report

I'll try to keep this short....at least as short as I can for a hundred mile race.

Bonnie, Paula and I woke up much to early so that we could get ready in time for the 7 a.m. start. This was the first race for the National Endurance Series and the women's field was really strong. In fact, the entire last years womens podium from second place down was there, including Carey Lowery...who is fast, fast and more fast!

The start was just the way that I like it, with a long paved climb. I caught Carey drafting off of another girl and wasn't sure if I should try to stay on her wheel or keep going. I decided to keep going and hit the singletrack behind another women who I didn't know. My legs felt super good so I decided to pass her too. I trained through this race, but my coach had me take a few "poison ivy rest days" off the previous week, so I wasn't completely fried.

By the time we reached the first gravel climb I was in first place but I could see at least three girls at the bottom of the hill chasing after me.

Fast forward through about 10,000 feet of climbing....

Mile 65: Still in first place. I still felt good and really wanted the win. My stop at aid station #4 was probably 25 seconds...the volunteers working the aid stations were awesome and always had everything waiting and ready!

Mile 66: I hit the wall. Literally. I think that I was slightly dehydrated from my lack of fluids early on, and the flat gravel road that I was on seemed to last forever. All of a sudden I was passed by a guy with a women drafting behind him. They started to pull away as we started a long climb and I could hear him telling her that I was catching them and to ride faster. They kept looking back at me and I started to get very, very grumpy.

Mile 75: No one in sight. My legs started to come back and I decided to go after the "racing duo".

Mile 80: All of a sudden I could see the girl on the top of the hill in front of me. I could tell that she was suffering, but so was I. It seemed like our legs were moving at the same pace but I eventually caught her and passed her. I was out of liquid again and knew that I couldn't stop at the last aid station. I ran into Andy Klumb and he gave me his water bottle (for which I will be forever grateful!)

Mile 98: Almost, almost there. I was riding through the singletrack, practically tasting the win, when I heard someone say "for a flat-lander, you sure are fast." It was a female voice....and none other then singletrack superstar Carey Lowery.

Mile 99: Carey and I both pulled out of the singletrack at the same time. She said something like "it's you and me to the finish" but it was all a blur. I heard the click, click, click as we shifted into our big ring and we were hauling up the last paved climb. I drafted off of her and realized that my legs felt good so I decided to try to pull ahead and drop her. She just jumped on my wheel so I realized my biggest fear was going to happen. A sprint finish. I've never had to do one before (except in my head), and I wasn't too keen on having to do my first one after 100 miles.

We hit the bridge at the same time and my mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do. Luckily my body took over and I took the win....by two seconds. I really haven't stopped smiling since :-) Out of all the races that I've ever done, I'm the most proud of this one. I dropped a total of an hour and 20 minutes from my last years time.

My Ripper was the perfect bike for this course. That thing is a climbing machine. I felt a lot stronger and I owe it to my coach Kevin Lippert for being completely awesome, and to Jason for kicking my butt into shape with weights. I also have to thank Ted from Velo City for a flawless ride. Gracias, gracias, gracias!!!!

Here are some pictures in no particular order...

The Mens podium

Mark celebrating 7th place

Hi, my name's Bonnie and I make the podium at every race that I go to...she rebounded from a nasty crash to get fifth place in the 35 miler.

SS Paula finishing up!

and drinking a post-race coke....

The women's 100 miler podium...and Chris


BFF's Dan and Joe taking a stroll together

SS podium

Michigan girls

Yeah, we had some good views!

Bonnie's parking job

Mark and Dan....

Tinker...

Namrita sporting her awesome twin six jersey

Eddie's new mohawk