Cohutta 100 Race Report-the last 80 miles

Ok, where did I leave off?

Oh yeah, I had just decided that I was going to finish the race...even if I had to pedal with one leg.

Once I actually crossed the bridge, the course entered into more singletrack with a few climbs. My left leg was throbbing and my muscles started spasming. I had a few weak moments where I started to wonder if I actually had it in me to ride the whole 100 miles.

It was still raining off and on, and mud was flying everywhere. I kept going and eventually made it to the dirt road climbs. I was hoping that I would be able to settle into a nice rhythm, and start to gain a bit of speed. But alas, it was not to be. I felt like crap. Everything hurt so bad that I felt nauseous. I could barely eat or drink which certainly wasn't helping anything.

I did manage to pass a few of the female racers who passed me during my "bridge time." However, I didn't ask time splits or anything at the aid stations. I didn't want to know how far ahead the lead females were. This time the race was all about me making it to the finish line.

I was able to ride with my friend Michelle for awhile. She kept trying to talk to me, and I was so miserable I could barely answer in complete sentences. I wanted to tell her that I was trying to hold back puke so I couldn't talk, but that would have taken too much of an effort.

Eventually she had to stop and fix a flat, and I kept pedaling on. I was hurting both mentally and physically. Physically because I felt like I had a bowling ball on my knee. Mentally because I couldn't help but think about how great I felt last year, or even this year when I was pre-riding with Namrita. I didn't go into my granny gear once then, but during the race I couldn't get out of it. I decided the best thing to do was just shut off my brain, keep pedaling, and stare straight ahead until I saw the finish line.

At one aid station a volunteer told me that Floyd "only" had a one hour lead on me, and that there was still time to catch him. Ha! The thought of me trying to catch him in my granny gear made me laugh. The only way that I would ever catch him would be if he had a bike without pedals...and only one wheel.

After what seemed like forever, I hit the last bit of singletrack, which started with yet another climb. Seriously, why is that one so hard??? At the top I looked down and saw Michelle at the bottom. I knew that I had at least 9-10 more miles to go, and started to gun it. There was no way that I wanted to get caught again during the last couple of miles. My legs were cramping so bad that there was no way I would be able to do a sprint finish.

I ended up crossing the finish line in 6th place, with a time of 9:14:08. To tell you the truth I was surprised. My time was a lot longer then last year, but not as much as I expected. They called up the top 8 women to the podium, but I was by my car icing my knee and didn't know that it was happening. Next time!!! I'm really happy that I was able to finish. Driving 12 hours to race only 10 miles would have sucked. However, I definitely wouldn't have continued on if I thought that there was something seriously wrong. That would have been even more stupid then how fast I took the bridge :-)

Once again, I can't say enough good things about this race. It was incredibly well run, and all of the volunteers were phenomenal. Thanks to everyone who came up afterwards to make sure that I was OK. I know I've said this before, but I'm really lucky to race with such great people. I also have to send a huge thanks to SS Paula, Dan, and Matt. Not only did they do all of the driving on the way home, but they also packed all of my stuff. I owe them lots and lots of beer.

Now I'm working on major recovery. Lots of icing, lots of elevation, and lots of liquids. And most importantly, lots of chocolate.