When I bought my shifty/squishy bike back on July 3rd, one of the first things I thought about was getting one more sub-9 hour Shenandoah Mountain 100 and mebbe a podium in the 50+ class (something I imagined I'd try to do after I turned 50). I was already signed up for 2021 because I didn't wanna end my SM100 "legacy" with a DNF last year. I was just starting to go back to work every week after more than fifteen months of working every other week and riding my dick off when relieved from my occupational duties. As an added bonus, I was going to take two trips out west in the two months before SM100 and ride at elevation for a week each time.
I probably couldn't have had a better run up to the race...
Oh, yeah.
Then I had my Plunge off the Plunge on July 16th that kept me off the bike for awhile, and then the Breck Wreck four weeks later that put me deeper in my sad hole.
Regardless, I went up to Stokesville with a "positive attitude" and a shifty/squishy bike and a limp and a taped ankle and a certain lack of fitness. Sub-9 still on the brain, sub-10 would be acceptable, but beating my first SM100 was the real challenge, I guess... because I made it so?
I got a pretty good position for the start. 45th (9th row of five) outta 350 racers. From the neutral start to the pavement and then "go" and all the way till we banged a left on the first fire road. It seemed effortless to stay in contact with the front aided by all the shifty bits. I didn't have to suffer the 300 RPM, maxed out heart rate, and slipping back through the field that I'm so used to in the past.
Get to the first single track, and I kinda hold my own. With only 350 riders this year and not 500-600, things opened up kinda quick, and I had clear trail all the way down Tillman. When I hit the first gravel and was all prepared to hop on a geared train, there was no one around. Meh. The shifty bits made quick work of the gravel, and when we hooked a left up the paved climb, I was able to stand and climb on my locked out squish like my body is used to doing.
Take a another left, start going up, and that's where the wheels came off the bus.
As I'd hoped, I was able to use that fat stack of gear options to stay on the bike as things got steep. I was aware of the fact that normally I can walk as fast (or faster) than someone tryna Eagle their way up the hill, but my walking game is shit. I normally walk faster than most humans all the time, but at work the last few weeks, I was finding myself getting smoked on the sidewalks and in lobbies. I can only get my right leg/ankle/foot to limp so fast.
So, there I am Eagling away on the slippery climb, and I find myself losing it a little in the slippery bits. I need to unclip my right foot and get it down, but I find that it doesn't quite work that way. Since my calf isn't fully functional, getting out of my pedal takes a bit more thought and a slightly different method.
I almost fall off the side of the trail... for the first time that day.
I'm in walking/limping mode, and... well... it's not so buenos.
It's rare when someone can walk up a hill next to their bike faster than me, and at best, mebbe match my pace. I'm a 130lb man with a 31" inseam. When it comes to walking, I haul. Now I'm having to find spots to the side of the trail to jump off and let others walk or Eagle past me. All the way up Lynn and over to Wolf Ridge.
This is definitely not going the way I envisioned on July 3rd.
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