P36, AKA The Most Horrible Thing Ever, took place last weekend. I always have these mixed emotions when it comes to P36 weekend. On the one hand, I’ve been there and finished it, it was rough, It’s always rough. It’s an event that’s designed to push you beyond your limits. If you finish it will likely take you close to the 36 hour mark, figuring in some naps and whatnot. It takes place in the winter when it’s cold, the days are short, and the weather is unpredictable. Oh and finally it starts at midnight on Friday night just to mess with your sleep and normal rhythm’s as much as possible. The event also consists of 6 stages that bring you back to camp at each one, so you’re tempted to bail fairly regularly.

So why? I think the answer is somewhere between I can and I want to see if I can? I’m not real sure why I have the interest to get back out there again, but it’s there. Anyhow, it wasn’t panning out for me this year, but a good friend mentioned he was going to give it a go. Chris is a veteran of the event and past winner, but regardless of that P36 is the real deal. He mentioned he’d be up for some company at some point if I was so inclined. I worked it out with the family to head out Saturday afternoon and try to catch up with Chris and see what kind of fun we could get into.

Having done the event once before and studied it a bit before doing it I know that generally speaking there is going to be a long stage late in the day/night on Saturday. The stage that makes a lot of people question if they’re going to keep going. I thought I’d try and catch that one. I was due for a longer ride anyhow.

Saturday was a nice sunny day, which made the motivation a little easier. When I got out to the Cove Creek Campground I caught up with Eric, the race director, and got the low down on what everyone had done already. Stage 1 and 2 were both pretty big and Chris was still out on 2. Stage 3 was going to be pretty easy followed up by a pretty big stage 4. Then Stage 5 and 6 were going to be pretty straightforward. Looking at the time and the length of Stage 3, I was most likely in for Stage 4.

I did a short little out and back on Cove Creek Trail while I waited for Chris to get back, not wanting to just stand around, and it’s not often I get out of the house on a Saturday afternoon to ride bikes, so hey, why not. When I got back, Chris was there and readying for Stage 3, which could be really short if you were just after the mandatory point. Which was the goal, a quick ride up to the Long Branch/Butter Gap intersection and back, easy peasy. We headed out, I got caught up on his adventures so far and before we knew it we were back. Well that wasn’t the long ride I was after so I guess, I’m in for Stage 4.

Chris needed some food, a little time, and to shuffle some gear around, so it was going to be close to an hour before he was ready. The route was to head out 475, 475b, 276, 477 (to the stables), up Clawhammer, Buckhorn, South Mills, Squirrel, Horse Cove, Funneltop, 476, 1206, 276, 475b, 225, Daniel Ridge (soft side), 5046, 475, back to Cove Creek. I figured 5-6 hours or so for that given the amount of riding Chris had already done along with the cold.

As the sun went down so did the temperature and fast. We left camp right at dusk and it was getting cold quickly. I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I packed up my gear. While I brought a lot of my cold weather stuff, I didn’t get some of the best. One of the hardest things to keep warm were my hands…I have bar mitts…and I actually really like them…but I left them at home. Anyhow, we looked forward to the climbs (or at least I did), mostly because it was much easier to keep temperatures in the comfortable range with a slight incline. Any descent that lasted more than a minute or two got almost painfully cold.

We shot the breeze as much as we could, and rolled a pretty good pace for the most part. It was a pretty good cruising ride. Brilliantly clear night, stupidly cold, but riding bikes with friends. At Funneltop it was going to be mostly downhill from there, so just before the top, we stopped and put on whatever layers we had left. I had on a long sleeve heavy base layer, a jersey, a vest, a jacket, my nano puff, heavy gloves, tights, shorts over those, woolie boolie socks, winter shoes, and was still barely keeping warm on the descents. I will say I think we rode faster on some of the flatter sections just to keep body warmth.

We rolled back into camp around 1:30 am or so, leaving Chris some time for a little rest as well as stage 5 and 6. I quickly packed up and headed home to get in my warm bed. While I do hate to love P36, I do love getting in a nice warm bed. The two stages were a nice little way to scratch the itch of the wonderful misery that comes from events like P36. I’m glad these are still around. It’s an interesting group that decides this is what they’re going to do for a weekend.

Thanks to Pisgah Productions for keeping it real and thanks to Chris Joice for letting me tag along for a bit.