After the lap race/midnight challenge we decided we were going to head out of the woods to sleep in beds, eat a real breakfast, and let Andy get some more food for riding. Unfortunately it was just after 1 when we got back to the house and in order to be there for mandatory roll call at 6 am as well as have breakfast we’d need to be up by 4:30(ish). So not a lot of sleep was going to happen, but it was warm, dry, and really good. I still think it was worth it. The Bacon Texas Cheesesteak at Waffle House was also pretty spot on.
Andy was feeling a little rough at Breakfast and really didn’t eat very much, which definitely had me a little concerned. I figured we were in for another pretty tough day if we wanted to try and compete with Chris and Gary for the SS win. It appeared that we would have to have a really special day to snag one of the overall spots which I was oddly ok with being slightly out of reach.
Anyhow, mandatory roll call at 6 am, pretty much everyone is there but half of them aren’t ready to ride. I guess roll call just means you have to be present, not that you actually have to ride. So a bunch of folks went back to bed or still had to get ready. All of the contenders however were there and were given our instructions, another prologue lap before passports. This time it was a little more trail, up Cove Creek, out 225 to the Daniel Ridge Connector, Daniel Ridge Clockwise, and back on 475. Not a bad little loop. Getting started was rough but about halfway up we passed Chris and Gary, then Tristan and Scott, it was a slowish but steady pace.
We made it back and realized we were one of the first teams, if not the first team back…how did that happen. Anyhow, we get the passport, one mandatory again and like I suspected it is at the top of Farlow Gap (no easy way to get there). However I look through the rest and honestly most of the riding isn’t hard to get these. To get all of them would be a big day but mostly mellow riding. I also noticed there were about 6 that were fairly close. Andy still wasn’t sure how he felt and at this point I wasn’t really sure either, so we made the call to go straight to the Mandatory. Which in hindsight had one minor flaw but it was minor.
Heading straight to the top of Farlow meant a LONG (almost 8 miles and over an hour and a half) climb that only gets steeper as you go. On the way we spent some time talking with Mike and Keith (Mike was 3rd in KOP and they ended up winning double dare) they were going for all of them, which I figured. That chit chat actually helped me roll along the climb pretty well, I realized I was started to feel some life come back. I stayed on it for a bit but then looked back and realized Andy must not have been feeling it quite the same. I held up a little, we had some snacks, then continued on to the top. We got our picture and turned around to head right back down where we just came from. We had decided not to go down Farlow as there were two points over on Butter Gap and we didn’t want to have to climb back up to Gloucester Gap.
Descending the gravel climb we started to run into the rest of the teams, a few folks I didn’t know, Chris and Gary, Thomas and Nick, as it would turn out we actually got a pretty good start. We made short work of the descent and headed over to Butter, just a short climb up and a fun trail descent. I decided to see how I felt up the little climb and realized I had some gas, which was nice. I backed off but it was nice to know I wasn’t totally destroyed. Down Butter, up Long Branch, back down to 475. One more point to get with the bikes then we were going to the Hatchery for the special Hike up to John Rock. The last point on the bike was up Daniel Ridge, which is a nice gentle uphill until it gets rocky. It’s really a pretty short out and back, so we went for it. The descent down the rocky part is one of my favorites, its just chunky enough and spread out enough that it’s a blast. It’s also absolutely gorgeous in there, a good sized stream just tumbles down the rocks on the side of the trail, fall colors, light blasting through the trees, kind of made for a magical scene.
At this point we’ve got 4 points and there is a 2 point bonus for heading up to John Rock. We had to lock our bikes at the hatchery and hike up. Which really is a nice change of pace. There is also water at the hatchery so we could take a full bottle, food, and just have a nice time. My feet hurt but oh well. This time we actually got some questions as to what in the world we were doing, but most everyone was friendly.
Back to the bikes and time to head to the Barn, it was only about 2 pm at this point and when we got back we had the most points of anyone back so far. Chris and Gary had not made it back yet, I was sure they had an idea of where we were going and would be sure to pick up one more point than we had. Not much for us to do but wait, so we went and grabbed some lunch at Blue Smoke and went back to the campground to wait.
Finally Chris and Gary roll in, I overhear they only got 6….which ties them with us on points, but we’ve been back for well over 2 hours. Which means, we won the SS category. I was pretty surprised but I’ll take it. Now we just have to wait for the others to get in for awards and make sure they make it back in time.
Sure enough everyone gets back in time. Two teams have the same amount of checkpoints and it actually comes down to about a 1 minute time difference. Which is pretty crazy after close to 24 hours of riding and two very different routes.
After it was all said and done it was actually a lot of fun. It wasn’t a complete misery fest which I thought it might be and really turned out to be some good riding with a good friend. Our gear largely worked out, I feel like I have the nutrition aspect of these real long days fairly figured out, and these are the kinds of days where I tend to feel pretty comfortable. I may not always be the fastest but there’s not a lot of quit in here and I know how to get into a decent pace and stay in it. Like most of the events this year I learned a lot in this one.
Major thanks to my Dad for coming up to help out with Lizzie and a huge thanks to Katie for a couple things: 1. being supportive and allowing this kind of shenanigan even with pretty poor timing 2. Bringing the pizza and treats out to the campground, this was a life saving game changer I’m not sure what we would have done without it. 3. just being overall amazing. One more race this season, a much much shorter one, then some time off the bike for a bit (well at least less time on the bike) and no more events for a few months
