12 Hours of Insane (aka 12 Hours of Tsali)

This race is always one of my favorites. For the past three years I have done this race as a member of a 4 person team. I have always thought that the people who did this race solo were a little insane.....

Its a pretty simple format: the race lasts from 10 am until 10 pm. Teams or individuals try to get as many laps as possible in that 12 hour period. 1 lap is around 11 miles. This year I decided to go solo. My only goal was to get in 10 laps. Lots of local folks had come out to this race. Team Pumps n Hose was competing in the 4 woman team category (Catherine James, Nina Elliot, Kate Ross, Christy Keely). Elizabeth Brady was joined by Ann Moore on team Go Pig, a 2 woman team. Steve Sperry was there as Brady's pit crew. Paul Mills and Rodney Dender had decided to go solo as well (Paul 12 hour and Rodney 6 hour). The Team Globalbike duo of Noah Metzler and Ben Renkema took on the duo category. It was cool to see so many Greenville folks.

The race began with a Lemans start, not my favorite. I ran the 1/4 mile to my bike at a leisurely pace, no need to be in a hurry. Pacing is very important when attempting to ride your bike for 12 hours. Go out too hard, and you will pay for it later. It may be 5 or 6 hours later, but you will pay for it. I rode a steady pace for the first few laps, never venturing into the red. I had no idea how I was doing. I would check out the #'s of any ladies that I saw. Single digit #'s were my competitors. I didn't see any until around lap 3 or 4. I caught a girl on a climb, and she was struggling. I kind of assumed that I must have lapped her, because she was going way to slow to have been ahead of me. On the same lap I passed a girl who had stopped on the side of the trail, and she had a single digit #. #7, that's what I started calling her. I immediately went into competitive mode. She ended up catching and passing me later on in the lap. If she had come around and pulled away from me, I probably would have let her go and not really have worried about her. A funny thing happened though, something that pretty much changed the race for me. She slowed up. I caught back up to her, and sat on her wheel. "Do you want to pass," she asked. "I'm good," was my response. I sat on her wheel for the last 3 miles of the lap, and  I figured out that she climbed better than me but I was faster everywhere else. Game On!

This course suited my riding style a little more than most. Most of the climbs were short, and there was lots of fast flat singletrack in between the climbs. The trails aren't super technical, but they still reward those that know how to handle their bike. Most of the turns are bermed, and if you know how to ride them then you can carry a lot of speed through them. I tried to push it on the climbs and recover on the fast singletrack sections.

When we got back to the start finish, I went to my pit to grab a fresh bottle. I lost track of #7 . At the end of the next lap, I caught her again. The battle was heating up. We were pretty much neck and neck for the first half of the race. I still didn't know if we were battling for 1st, or if someone else was ahead of us. I tried not to think about it and just focused on pacing/eating/drinking.

On lap 6 it started to rain. Lap 7 was pretty darn muddy. I came into the pits and everyone asked what I needed. I really wanted to change my shorts (mud in the chamois is no fun), but I was worried about losing time. I didn't know where she was, so I opted for no chamois change. When I came through on lap 8 Catherine told me that I was in 1st, but only by 2 seconds. Arrgg, I was angry that #7 was making my life difficult. I need to go to the bathroom, change my shorts, eat some real food.......but no, I had a race to win. I grabbed a bottle and left.

Lap 9, Paul Mills gives me my light and another bottle. Deb Whitmore cleans and lubes my chain. All of this is done NASCAR pitcrew style! Sperry asks if I want a coke on the next lap. Kudos to my impromptu pit crew! I am pretty confident that I am gonna win at this point. I finish lap 9 and 10 and am feeling good. I have time for one more lap (this one is totally dark). I see strange birds with glowing red eyes, which I later learn are Whippoorwills. The trail is covered with frogs. I try to avoid them, but almost wreck a few times. I decide to just squash them :( During the last few miles, every time I see a light coming up behind me, I think it is #7. I kill myself on the last lap trying to stay ahead of these unknown competitors. When I come to the finish, a crowd has gathered. Most people are already done, and they are hanging out and cheering the finishers. I hear "Debbie does Tsali" and "Yeah dirty Debbie" as I cross the line. The announcers says that I am the solo women's winner, and I am relieved. I ended up doing 11 laps in around 11 hours and 40 minutes. #7 gets 2nd with 11 laps as well, but was about 20 minutes back.

Team Pump n Hose destroyed the 4 women's team field, lapping the 2nd place team. Brady's team was the 1st women's team finisher in the Duo category. Team Metzler/Renkema finished a close 2nd in the very competitive Duo category. We pretty much dominated, and fun was had by all. The promoters that put this race on are my favorites. They do everything they can to make their races fun. They always have great prizes/payouts. They always have podiums/food/music. Don't miss this one next year! Check out goneriding.com for results.

Cohutta 100

This past Saturday I did my first ever 100 mile mtb race. The race was the Cohutta 100, the first race in the National Ultra Endurance (NUE) series. That means that this race would be stacked with fast people. Racers that I now believe come from another planet. More on this later.

This race is touted as one of the easier races in the series. The reason for this is that the entire middle section of the course is gravel roads (other races have more singletrack). I am here to tell you that this is no easy race. Coming in to this race my goal was to finish in less than 12 hours. This would also be another opportunity to figure out nutrition and pacing before Leadville. In the weeks leading up to this race, I began to think maybe I hadn't put in enough miles. Would I even be able to finish?

Jon and I went up the day before. The race started and finished in Ducktown, TN. We did an hour pre-ride of a section of the course when we arrived, and I was feeling good! I started to believe that maybe I could finish in closer to 10 hours. I only need to average 10 mph, not so impossible I thought.

The race started at 7 am on Saturday. Usually that seems way too early, but I was excited to race. I got to the start line, and it was a little weird. Normally, everyone is pushing and fighting to get a position on the front. The only ones that cared about being up front were the pros, everyone else was spread out all over the parking lot. I pulled up right behind all of the serious folks at the front. I decided I would push myself a little harder at the start than I have at past endurance races.

                                                           The calm before the start

I am not going to give you the play-by-play, here is a brief synopsis. I maintained my 10 mph average until the half way point. The climbing got to me. At around mile 62 there was a 9 mile steep gravel climb that destroyed me. About 1/2 way up I stopped caring about finishing at all. I even vowed to quit when I got to the next aid station. I knew Jon was at that particular aid station, and I thought I would just quit and go home with him. The climb took me 2 hours! At the top there was a left turn, and I was on one of the sweetest sections of singletrack I have ever ridden. It was almost totally downhill, and fast!!! After that and a little more gravel, I was at aid station #6......75 miles into the race. Jon was there, and he was telling me that it was mostly downhill back to the start. That news, combined with the adrenalin from the singletrack.......I couldn't quit.

The next 25 miles were not all downhill. It didn't bother me so much, but a few of the people I caught up to were not happy about it. One dude was having a melt down. Every time I would get near him, he would rant about how stupid this race was, or about how this was mostly uphill, or ask how far to the last singletrack section. It was kind of entertaining, and I was glad this crazy guy was riding with me for these last few miserable miles. When we finally reached the right turn which would take us to the last 7 miles of singletrack to the finish..........let's just say it was awesome. Even the climbing was more bearable when it was on singletrack. I got got to the finish line in 11 hrs and 35 minutes. That is a hell of a long time to be on a bicycle. Even though I had a pretty slow time in comparison to the winners (the women's winner finished in around 8.5hrs!!! She is definitely from another planet.), and even though it was miserable for most of the ride, I found myself thinking about what I needed to do to be faster by Leadville. I think I can do Leadville in 10 hours, no problem!!:)

                                        This is how you look after riding your bike for 11 hrs!

And for those that are curious:  http://app.strava.com/rides/7571848