Mohican non-race report

I drove down to Ohio late Thursday afternoon with Scott's farm-team-mate JoeFro. JoeFro was really fun to travel with and it was nice having someone to share the driving. Actually, now that I think of it, JoeFro drove the whole way down!

Once we arrived we grabbed a bite to eat and then I headed off to find my old Kenda teammate Amanda, since we were sharing a room again. Our room was seriously light and sound proof and I slept like a baby.

The next day was pretty relaxed. I went for an easy hour spin with JoeFro and we made it back just in the nick of time. Not only did it start thundering and lightening, but it also started hailing...like crazy.

I think some of the hail was on steroids....
It rained off and on for the rest of the day and night, but stopped just in time for the race start. I was really excited to race and put on my new lucky race socks (which incidentally match the pockets on my new jerseys from Twin Six).

And then we were off! Our start went straight up a paved climb before heading into singletrack and my legs felt pretty good. I was doing this race for training and my coach gave me several different goals. The biggest one was to get a hundred miles in without completely frying myself. Sadly that didn't happen.

Within a mile of the race start I started having shifting problems and bad, bad chain suck. I was certainly not alone as half the field seemed to be walking backwards, but that doesn't mean I wasn't bummed. I'm not going to lie...I shed a few tears out there. However, some random guy on the trail stopped me from having a complete pity party. While riding past he asked, "are you ok Hoss?"

I've been called a lot of things, but never, ever Hoss.

I stopped at both the 1st and 2nd aid stations and completely washed my bike, but nothing helped. I also tried riding SS style, but my chain still kept getting jammed between my front rings and chain stay. Finally I stopped being stubborn at the 3rd aid station and accepted the fact that it just wasn't my day. Luckily my bike is OK, but the entire drive train needs some major TLC.

And I think I need some new argyle socks that aren't brown...

It was a bad day to debut my new jersey from Twin Six, but the mud all came out!
Once I made it back to the finish area I coasted on my bike over to Joe's car. I knew that he would still be out on the trail for a while, and I wanted to shower.

And that's when I heard a familiar hissing sound...

No effing way. I ABSOLUTELY could not believe it. There was a family of Geese standing in the middle of the bike path and blocking me from where I needed to be. I was still in enough of a FOWL mood (ha ha, get it? Fowl??) that I decided that I was not going to back down. We had a mini showdown, the geese and I. There I was, dripping wet and covered in mud, and yelling out loud for the geese to get out of my way. Once I realized how crazy I was being I started laughing!

We hung out for a while after JoeFro finished, and I was once again reminded of why I like endurance racing so much. Everyone had mini-adventures to talk about. Some were good, many were bad, but that's part of bike racing. And while I'm still very disappointed of never getting to really race, I can at least say I have perfected my cross dismounts! I think I practiced it at least 40-50 times and that's no exaggeration! And I also got some more practice riding in the mud. When I started riding on big wheels I promised myself that I wouldn't start preaching about how much better they are, but guess what? They freaking ARE better. My Mamasita saved my life out there a few times when I was trying to make up time on the downhills. Holy Moly...I will never ride anything else.

So there you have it. My first non-race race report. Now it's time to get some more training in. The good news is that my legs feel great right now. I guess that's what happens when you only ride 52 miles in 7.5 hours.

But don't stop reading just yet...

Check out my blog post on the Salsa website. I'm always bugging Namrita for nutrition advice, and she knows what she is talking about. In fact, both JoeFro and I tested out her suggestion for a pre-race breakfast this past weekend and it was awesome!