It has been a while since posting, having missed posting the Litchfield Hills 100 ‘Win’, I will not be remiss in not posting the Shenandoah 100.

 

Spike and I raced this epic Mountain race this year, and by all expectations, we will be back for another round.

 

Spike had business in VA this past week, so on Monday he picked up all my gear and headed south. I on the other hand waited till Friday and headed south via Amtrak. I meet up with Spike at the Hilton Hotel in Old Town, VA. We then headed out for an awesome ride along the Patomic River in both VA and DC. Spike and Rhonda had spent some time here post-graduation, so Spike knew of all the great places to ride and drink. After finishing our ride and bike repair, we headed out for dinner in Old Town.

 

We settled into our chairs around 7pm in a place known as Murphy’s. Well needless to say, after many pints and a lot of Irish drinking songs we headed home around midnight. (Pictures to be posted later). Well, if you know anything about me, you know that I am not known as a drinker. So, after the bed spins stopped and the Advil kicked in, I had a restless sleep interrupted by Spikes alarm on Saturday morning. We headed out for a ride around VA, prior to breakfast. Well, as you might expect, it was not a very productive ride. However, I was able to burn some of the EtOH out of the system.

 

We arrive back in Old Town, shower and check out. Now onto Stokesville, VA…..well you know that you are in rural VA when the Garmin GPS can not find Stokesville. Needless to say, we finally arrived at the campground, established camp and waited for registration to open up. Registration opened at 4pm and we were two of the first people. We got our laminated, color, personalized number plates, along with Hammer gel flasks and a t-shirt. Nice! The best registration I have ever seen in 20+ years. We head back to the site, take the doors off the Jeep and head out for a ride and then onto the local market. If you never have had the pleasure of shopping in a local market in NW VA., please try it…..

 

After finishing our second dinner of burritos, we headed to bed, awaiting our 5am wake-up call. The campground starts to come alive around 5am as the riders start to awake to the knowledge that they will spend ALL DAY on their bikes. Around 5:30 am, a volunteer ran around the campground, banging on a Ziljain symbol. What a wake-up call. As 06:30 approaches we start to line up, the start is to be neutral, as the exit road is dusty and soft. Spike and I bump fists and the motorbike pacers set off. We feel good about our position, in this mass start race, until we get out on course only to notice that we are almost in last place. Spike and I spend our time during this first salve, driving ourselves into the upper third of the 550 rider field. We’re flying and the climbing starts. As someone told us on Saturday, the SH100 is a race of 5-climbs. For every foot in elevation you gain, you get it back in an equal descent….nice….unless you can not descend.

 

Spike and I stayed together for the first 15-20 miles until Spike threw in the white flag. This course is my kind of course with loooonnnnngggg dirt road climbs. I was able to put time into others riders at the expense of Spike. After waiting for the third or forth time, Spike finally released me from our pact. I climbed off, never to see him again.

 

I was flying. Everything was clicking, and the newly purchased 29er HT was the perfect bike for this course. During the road sections we were pace lining and then the climbing was just awesome in its vistas and duration. The longest climb of the day was a sustained 18-mile ascent of a local mountain (~90 minutes of sustained climbing): pavement, dirt road, jeep road and single track. This is where I know that things were going my way, for every rider I saw on this climb I caught and passed: 15 or so in all.  Sadly, I could not keep all of these riders at bay on the protracted descents, mostly on hard-pack single track. (I have never descended for such long stretches). Making the descent even more fun was the large black snake, looking like he was very mad……..

 

I hit the last feed station, #6 at the 88 mile mark feeling okay. The body was sore and my arse was killing me. Earlier in the race, while waiting for Spike, I had taken air from my tires and from the front shock….big mistake, as I did not realize how quickly the pressure would drop. So, I essentially raced without a front shock, so the body did the work the shock did not….

 

I pulled into the last station to top off the bottles, get the shock pumped up and the chain lubed….yes they would lube your chain…and off I go. 12-miles to go. I hit the bottom of the climb with my new found friend, DOC, who races from Team Saddleblock. I drop Doc and head on out. Near the top, I am burning the legs badly, the back is locking up and DOC is catching me. We crest the climb and now there are several miles of descending to go. I crawl through the last few miles, always looking back over my right-shoulder for Spike. Thankfully I did not see him.

 

I enter the finishing shoot and head for the line. Not sure of my placing or my time, I gave it my all and crossed the line. Doc was there waiting for me and we celebrated our ‘victory’! I paused for a minute and then hooped on the bike to ride to our tent. I have never been so spent in my life. I washed up while talking to the Doc, waiting for Spike to finish. A few minutes later he arrives, looking refreshed and happy…What a day!

 

To finish the story we headed to bed around 21:30 while riders are still finishing, some 15+ hours after starting the day….ouch!

 

We both awoke at 02:30, unable to sleep due to injuries and restless legs. We decided that sleep was out of the question, so we hit the road at ~03:00 and headed home.

 

We both completed our goals: Sub 10-hours and top 100 finishers:

 

Me 9:24:00 (66^th Men’s Open)

Spike: 9:37:00 (79^th Men’s Open)

 

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/11th-national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-7-shenandoah-mountain-100-cn/results