The Candle That Burns At Both Ends... 2014 Wilderness 101 Race Report.

The candle that burns at both ends...gets hamstring and quad cramps at mile 35 of the Wilderness 101 and gets to deal with them for the rest of the race. The 2014 Wilderness 101 Back Country Mountain Bike Race marked my second showing at the awesome Shenandoah Mountain Touring event. My previous race, the Stoopid 50, had not gone to plan and I crashed out with a taco'ed front wheel at mile 4, so I was anxious to actually finish a race. I had gotten myself a much more robust set of wheels and gone over my rig, stem to stern, at the shop before the race to ensure no gremlins could gum up the works.

The rig, ready to rip!

 I arrived at the race in the mid afternoon the day before and set up my camp. It went quickly and then I was off to acquire nutrients to fuel my endeavor. I rolled out and picked up a large pie at OIP in Millhiem a mile or so down the road for my traditional pre-race meal. Sausage, pepperoni, and black olives.

#pizzadome

I crushed about 3/4's of it in my tent and then went out for a little pre-race ride. I cruised up the Siglerville-Millhiem Pike at a fairly easy pace and stopped at the overlook to talk to another rider that was on his way back down. I invited him to follow me for a more fun way down than just cruising back down the pike. He followed me back up to the top and we rode Tower Trail to Poe Paddy Drive and then out to show him Penn's View. I pointed out the finish of the race from there and gave him some pointers on Fisherman's Path and the Coburn Tunnel.

Penn's View

After that we bombed down Rider Hollow and rode back to camp and parted ways.


I realized I needed some things from home that I forgot to pack so I drove back and got them. When I got home I took the opportunity to take a shower, got dressed, put on my running shoes and drove back to Coburn. The problem with this is I drove home in my mountain bike shoes, resulting in a third trip to my house immediately after arriving at camp for the second time when I realized what I had done. Luckily I only live about 25 miles from Coburn.

By the time I was done, it was around 11:00 PM and time to sack out. I got my drop bags together and placed them in the proper locations, said hello to my friend Jesse Stauffer and went back to my tent to go to sleep. It was going to be an epic day so I wanted to get a good night's rest.

I awoke the morning of the race at 3:00 AM with a strong need to use the restroom (I was definitely hydrated) to the sounds of rain pitter-pattering on the fly of my tent. It would drizzle all the way until just after the start. I got out of bed at 5:00 AM for coffee and breakfast, mixed my bottles of go-juice, double and triple checked my gear, and got dressed. It was very cool in the morning, around 60F, so I opted to wear my light rain shell for the start of the race. This proved to be a mistake that I believe contributed to my cramping early in the race. I got to my starting position about 3 minutes before the start and picked a spot on the left about half way between the front and the back. Then we were off! I decided to get up to the front asap and really went out hard and fast to get up to the front pack going out the paved road to the first climb. Once I was up there, it was easy cruising at 22 to 25 mph in the slipstream of the pros, the elites, and the overeager. Guess which one I am. I'll give you a hint: I'm not a pro or elite.

Once we made it to the first climb I decided to hit it at a slightly greater than threshold pace, and this is what ended up costing me big time in the rest of the race. I wanted to get in with a relatively quick group for the long gravel descent after the first big climb. The matches I burned on the climb probably weren't what really destroyed my legs, it was trying to hang in with the paceline I was with on the gradual descent to Aid Station 1. I really killed myself trying to stay with them and I was also feeling pretty good so I was pulling too much. Much of the group I was with were the lead singlespeeders, who really had no way of doing any work on the front on the long descent.

I hung in with this group to Aid Station One where I dropped my empty Perpetuem bottle and asked for a HEED. The volunteer gave me a water by mistake, and I was stuck with no electrolyte replenishment. I rolled through and didn't stop, leaving my rain jacket on unzipped. I was way too hot in that thing after the climb, and all the work I was doing to stay with that group didn't let me cool off on the descent. I lost the group I was with when I hit Thickhead Mountain and lost a couple places there. I had a ripper of a run down Detweiler Run which recharged me a little and I hit the Bear Meadows road climb WAY too hard. I think my VAM on that was something in the 900's, which is an absurd pace for me that early in a 100 miler. I then ripped into Lonberger Path. In my head, I could hear someone chasing me through that trail, but it turned out to be my mind playing tricks on me. When I got to Three Bridges I made the first two bridges, then stalled out in the middle of the third one, and promptly fell off of it. I landed softly, for falling off a 3 foot drop into a pile of rocks anyway, but got tangled up in my bike and immediately both my hamstrings cramped up. One of the spectators helped me get untangled and on my feet. I finally took off the rain jacket, but I had been sweating on overdrive for the first 2 hours of the race and the damage was done. I ran the last bridge and the following rock garden. The hecklers gathered there must have taken pity on me after seeing my fall as it was fairly quiet. I was quickly out on the Laurel Run Road climb and the cramps came back. I got my first taste of how over my head I was racing when BMC pro rider Aaron Snyder passed me at mile 35. I looked at my garmin, trying to distract myself from the pain of trying to stomp my way through some seriously bad leg cramps out of the saddle, and did a little math. I was on pace for a 6 hour 30 minute finish! That was some seriously bad news and also helped explain the leg cramps. From mile 35 to about mile 80 I would be in pure survival mode, always on the verge of cramping up.

I upped my water intake and trudged up Laurel Run. A singlespeed rider, Chris Joice, passed me on the climb and asked, "Do you ride singlespeed?" to which I replied, "Yeah, how'd you know?" since I was on a geared bike. He remarked that only singlespeeders climb out of the saddle with a low cadence the way I was. It was the only way that the cramps would allow me to continue to pedal the bike up hill. Maybe next year I'll do the race singlespeed. I did a lot of training on the single speed and I think It would have held me back a little, probably enough to let me have a better middle third of the race. Later I would run into Chris at the post race festivities and find out he was from Tennessee and is planning on riding the Trans North Georgia race this August. So looks like we'll be seeing each other again in Georgia!

I survived Laurel Run and cruised down the long fire road descent to Aid Station 2. I briefly stopped and mixed two Perpetuem bottles and grabbed more shot bloks from my drop bag and ate a fist-full of salt tabs. The cramps subsided but I was always on the verge of cramping and I could feel that annoying pre-cramp going on in my quads and hamstrings everytime I had to climb at a steady pace. After Aid 2 was the Greenlee climb. Greenlee sucked, I had to spin up it in my easiest gear occasionally shifting to a bigger gear for some low cadence out of the saddle work to stretch my legs and keep the cramps at bay. I got to the top only losing a place or two. I was with a group at the top and kicked a little bit to get into the Croyle singletrack descent first and I lost most of the group on that descent. Apparently my descending has improved dramatically since last year, I never got passed or even had anyone close to my wheel when going downhill and I entered singletrack multiple times with decent sized groups. I did a good job of taking advantage of this since I couldn't climb to save my life with my legs in the sorry state they were in.

Right after the descent on Croyle comes the Alan Seeger climb. Chris Scott, being the excellent race director he is, routed the course so you hit two Category 2 road climbs back to back with almost no recovery time, thanks to Croyle being so rowdy that it kicks your ass six ways to Sunday if you come down it fast. A great way to force selection by fitness for the front of the pack guys, nightmare for the guy who is racing over his head. I survived Alan Seeger and then hit the Ruff Gap Descent. Ruff Gap lives up to it's name. That trail would make for a great enduro segment and is even rowdier than Croyle, which was used as an enduro segment in the Transylvania Epic mountain bike stage race on Enduro Day (Stage 3). Going fast down that on a hard tail with your legs on the verge of cramping is terrifying. I survived it without crashing and made it to aid 3. I stuffed my face quickly with some pringles, Swedish fish, another fistful of salt pills, and washed it down with some coke.

I took off up the next climb, only to notice a weird rattle coming from my back brake. I looked down to see all of my brake rotor bolts were partially backed out and the rotor was loose. I rode back to the check point and my friend Misha was doing technical support. I borrowed a T25 torx wrench and tightened everything down again. I was missing a bolt, but I figured it would be fine until the finish now that I had really cranked down on it. After that it was off to the Rag Hollow Climb, a category 3 road climb, I had gotten a little rest while repairing my bike, and I decided to really back off going up Rag Hollow and recover a little more for Coopers Gap. Two of my favorite trails were coming up, Pig Pile and Lewistown Contingent.  When I got to the top I really wanted to put some grunt into riding the flat section of Sassafras and Sassy Pig but I could tell the legs just weren't there so resolved to just pedal it out on the flats to the downhill section, Pig Pile. I was riding with another guy, who I wasn't sure if I had run into earlier or not, but I suspect we had been leapfrogging a little because he offered me the lead on the descent, so either he knew I was a faster descender than him, or he was just very uncertain in his descending ability.

I ripped it down Pig Pile, that trail is always fun, and then turned up the juice a little down the fire road to Flat Road. On Flat Road I could feel my legs coming back just the slightest bit. I put some work in on that ending up in a group with three other guys popping out on to Lewistown Contingent, my favorite trail of the race. I was behind a rider going into it, but I was soon right up on his wheel. He let me pass at the first clearing and I led him and the rider following us through the trail, bobbing and weaving, hopping and popping through the ferns. That trail re-energized me a little and I had better legs climbing Cooper's Gap Road. I made the turn onto Beautiful Trail. I love Beautiful Trail when I'm just out for a short fun ride, but at mile 70-something of the 101, it's always too technical for me to handle in some sections, and I ended up falling once. Nothing serious though, so I soldiered on to No-Name Trail, another crazy technical super rocky downhill. Last year I walked most of it. This year I dabbed once and was pretty happy with my riding on that. No-Name has a bit of exposure and is extremely rocky and steep. It's probably the most risky trail in the whole race, so I was happy to get it over with.

I want to note that when I say something is rocky, technical, and rowdy here, it's coming from a central PA mountain biker. If I'm talking about a descent, it probably means the ideal bike for it would be a 6 inch travel bike or even an 8 inch downhill bike if you didn't have to pedal to the top. I've been to places like Mountain Creek and ridden the lift-served gnar there, and our fall line trails are easily just as rowdy and gnarly as that stuff.

After I came out of No-Name I was happy to have a relatively flat gravel and paved surface ride over to Aid Station 4 before climbing Stillhouse Hollow. I noticed my bars were a little off kilter so I stopped and wrenched them back to a semi straight position. When I got to Aid 4, I borrowed a 3 mil, to straighten my stem out properly, from Justin of Freeze Thaw Cycles who was doing neutral support there. I got two fresh bottles of water because I was sick of Perpetuem. I need to find a new drink mix, I can't stomach the taste of that stuff anymore. I still had two packs of shot bloks and a clif bar. I grabbed two packs of Perpetuem from my drop bag, stuffed them in my jersey pocket, ditched my rain jacket that was still my pocket into my back, slammed a coke and got the show on the road.

I survived the Stillhouse Hollow climb. It's a rough double track. Last year I had super bad cramps here and had to walk sections of it, this year I rode the whole thing. When I popped out on Sand Mountain road, somewhere in my body a switch flipped and I felt great! My mood lightened and my legs felt better, I climbed up to the dual-sport trailhead, catching a group that passed me on the Stillhouse Hollow climb.  I got stuck in behind them on the Old Sand Mountain road trail, but as soon as it turned back to doubletrack, it was time to attack! Hammertime! I ripped around the group coming out the singletrack and never looked back. I drilled it up to Sand Mountain Road and kept the pedal to the floor. I passed a few more people on the slightly downhill fireroad section, being very careful not to pick up any wheelsuckers. When I turned off on to the Siglerville-Millhiem Pike to climb to Panther Run, I passed a few more people. Once I got onto Panther Run Road I really started regaining some places. Being a bigger guy, I do well riding chattery loose stuff fast downhill. It just doesn't kick my ass quite as badly as it does the little guys and gals. I must have passed 15 people on Panther Run and Little Poe Road. That section is 5 miles of ass whuppin. It's not that technical or steep, and it's a wide double track and it's very rough. It's a section where a big guy can lay down some power and make serious time, so that's what I did. After the Old Sand Mountain Road double track, I never got passed again. One rider caught me while we were hike-a-biking Fisherman's Path, but once we got back on the bikes I dropped him and ended up putting about a minute into him by the time we made it to the finish line. I ended up finishing with a time of 9 hours 30 minutes which I'm pretty happy with, especially considering how much of a disaster my pacing was. My goal was under ten hours. I think next year I can definitely go under 9 hours.

The post 100 miler collapse

The most important equipment decision was going to a SRAM XO1 11-speed group instead of continuing to run the 1x10 setup I was on last year. Having that 42T cog saved my butt when I started cramping. That said, next year I might train to run single speed, as that will have a natural way of keeping me in check by only letting me put in work while I'm climbing. Also, it's more fun. Nutrition was good except for the taste of Perpetuem suddenly not working for me halfway through the race, but I had a back up calorie source that worked great so no problems there. I learned that it's definitely better to be wet than hot, so I won't make that mistake again. This was the first race test of my Brooks B17 Ti rail saddle and it was amazing. I had not a hint of chafing or soreness. I could have easily rode another 100 miles as far as my taint was concerned. My bike was way too heavy this year coming in at 26.5 pounds dry. Next year I'm going to find a way to get it down a little bit. Maybe ride rigid singlespeed. Finally, next year I need to dial things back a little in beginning. It's important to get a fast start, as the beginning of the course is very fast compared to the rest of it, but I can't get carried away trying to hold wheels I have no business being on. All in all, I learned a lot again this year and a lot of my experiences here are going to help with Trans North Georgia. That's it!