It wasn’t on my race schedule for 2010, but when I had the chance to join one of the three Remington MountainKhakis teams at Hidden Valley, PA for the USARA nationals, I jumped at the chance. Previous races I had done in the season had contributed to the overall team ranking, the number-one position going into the final race, so it felt good to be part of the last-ditch effort to keep our ranking. Also, being in a race with three teams would be fun. I felt that hanging out with eight other team members who you have either raced or trained with throughout the year was sure to be a blast.
Pre-race brief
Having said that, before heading to Pennsylvania I swung by the airport to pick up Sheila–someone I had never met nor trained with before. She was a last-minute sub for Cassie, who unfortunately had recently broken her foot. We were going to miss that mountain biking powerhouse we have come to know and love, but she could not subject her still tender foot to untold trekking miles on rough terrain. Seven days prior, through a chain of requests and a flurry of email, Sheila had bravely bitten the bullet and volunteered her time to come and join Jeff and me on our 24-hour adventure. To jump on a plane in Texas and come race with complete strangers takes some serious guts. Hats off to Sheila.
We arrived in Hidden Valley to find most of the rest of the crew had arrived and checked in. Maps were not going to be distributed until an hour before race start, which has both its advantages and disadvantages. It’s good in that you don’t stress about route choice and strategy all night long, but you have the added pressure of plotting, prepping, and heading out in a very short time frame. (Many would disagree and hate me for saying it, but I prefer the late map distribution.) After gear check, dinner, and the pre-race meeting we all hunkered down for an as good night’s sleep as your mind will let you before a race.Prolog O-Course
The prologue consisted of a short O course on the ski resort with an initial “sprint” up a ski run to get O course maps. We cleaned the course as a unit of three teams and headed out in bikes to the first main CP somewhere mid pack. At this point we split into our separate teams and continued on the initial bike section. Our route took us along fire roads to the top of Seven Springs ski resort and then more fire road before a section of single track to CP3. Route choice was key here, and hitting CP3 from top to bottom of the trail proved a lot faster than bottom to top. Luckily we took the easiest route. The next few CPs were along roads and fire roads. We found ourselves caught up with some of the lead teams and then missed a left turn onto a hidden trail and were alone in a mess of overgrown snow mobile trails. Obviously wanting to keep us company we ran into Mike, Dave, and Veronica, who also missed the turn. After about 20 minutes of fierce bush whacking (deepest thoughts go out to Veronica’s torn-up legs) we corrected our course and located CP5.
As we punched into CP5 a lot of things happened all at once. First Jeff realized we mis-punched at CP4 and Sheila, who was behind us merely seconds ago, was no longer with us. Jeff and I decided to punch CP5 in CP4 and also at the bottom of the passport. Doug, the race director, had mentioned something about allowing one misplaced punch, but we couldn’t quite recall the details, so we punched the “mulligan” spot too and hoped for the best. Next to find Sheila. We rode about 50 yards back up the trail to find she had taken a nasty spill. After straightening out her bike and patching her leg, we were off again but with Sheila’s confidence understandably shaken. We moved onward through more roads and fire roads through CP6 and CP7 to CP8 and the paddle section. Jeff in his true powerhouse style towed Sheila through the hilly section (i.e., the whole course). It is just insane how strong that guy is on a bike. He is towing and I am struggling to keep up and he is passing other riders on the hills like they are stationary.Paddling. Jeff and I feel the same away about this discipline: disdain. After paddling to the first water CP and experiencing a torrential downpour and witnessing 16-foot canoes being blown along the shoreline like my kid’s Legos, we checked the rules for method of travel to get the canoe checkpoints, found none staying you had to get them by boat and promptly took off on foot. We figured with our lack of paddling prowess this would be the best choice. As we trekked into paddle CP3 we figured it had paid off as we a caught Mike, Dave, and Veronica who we last saw at CP5. After picking up one more checkpoint, getting back to the boat, and returning to the bike transition we figured we cut about 45 minutes off our time. I am sure if we had paddled the whole thing we would have added at least an hour. The additional trek ended up being about 10k but give me that over being in a boat anyway. The big frustration was that Jeff and I carried paddles for the entire race and used them for about an hour total. Not doing that again.
Warming hut post O-Course
After CP8 I was on familiar territory. The next part of the race covered a large section of the same course that I had done about 8 weeks prior during the Lion Heart. A time trial up a rocky 5-mile trail saw us catching and passing a few teams. Light faded as we passed through CP9 and onto CP10, where all the Remington MountainKhaki teams were reunited. We decided to head out as one squad for the O course. This proved to be one of the most fun sections of the course. Although we didn’t manage to hit a few of the checkpoints as cleanly as we would have liked, we did clear them all. I can also only say that looking back. It didn’t necessary feel too fun at the time. The most memorable moments were locating OP4, wandering around the woods for quite some time, and descending the very steep reentrant to hit OP5. Dave did a good job taking the lead and navigating us around as what times felt like a herd of sheep. By around 2 am we were back to CP11 and the warming hut and out of the cold for a short rest before the ride home. Once again we split into three separate teams and rode the roads and trails for a while in our individual units but eventually all linked back up just before the final CP. The ride back seemed endless and the hills no less punishing or steep than the ride out. There were points where any of the three teams could have taken off on their own, but we all stuck together as nine riders strong. This was a great feeling and will probably for me be one of the most memorable for 2010 race season. Even though everyone was pretty tired, with nutrition and energy flagging, there was an underlying unsaid feeling of a strong team unit, all of us out there having fun together and fighting the personal demons that go hand in hand with this type of race.
I mistimed my nutrition for the last hour of the ride and was running on empty. A shared Snickers moment with Veronica got me through the last 45 minutes of riding. I totally appreciate that share. We rolled into the resort just over 24 hours since we left on our bikes the previous day. With still another O course to complete by noon we knew we did not have time or the energy to clear it, so we opted to first grab some breakfast and then head out and get some of the nearest points. The masters team for whom it was Jose’s and Pete’s first 24-hour race hit the showers and then took a well-earned nap. The coed teams ventured out again, picked up out two points, and finished at around 11am.
It was a great race. We unfortunately moved to second place in the national ranking, but there is always next year, right? The after party was fun. It was great to be with such a large number of like-minded folks and share the stories of the day.
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