SCOLETRAIN

3 Strikeouts

The CURSE (possibly from our Amish groupies?) of  miserable 100 milers this season continues as the Mohican 100 gets tossed into the trash can along with the Cohutta 100 earlier this spring and a handful of non-recyclable bike parts.  Before my next long road trip to race I'm going to be somewhat smarter and study the long term weather report better.  This would have been possibly my 3rd completed Mohican 100 in as many years, but from the end of our pre-ride on Friday it seemed that the weather Gods had something else in store for the race.  Not even 5 minutes after getting the Amish women checked out of the cabin we were waiting to stay in for the weekend and we were be pummeled by hail the size of golf balls followed by high winds and a thunderous downpour.  We were not damaged by any of this, but Chris's new truck ended up with hail damage on the hood and tonno cover along with other racers running for cover looking like they were being fired upon in a battle.
 

Thankfully for dinner we had a monster pan of Michelle's awesome lasangne to make thinks better heading into the night before with only a few glitches with the garlic bread.  Once comatose with a full belly we all finished last minute preps for the race.   To make matters worse with the weather, we lost cable TV and had to resort to a sappy Larry the Cable Guy DVD for entertainment.  Not a good choice!  Lack of pre-race night sleep for me continued until the morning alarm sounded at 4am with the constant pounding of heavy rain on the steel roof of the cabin.  3 years in a row now with heavy rain the night before...what have I done to deserve this?  After pancakes, boiled eggs and coffee, we rolled the mile plus to downtown Loundonville for the 7am start.  The sun did appear briefly to brighten up our spirits for a few minutes, but what was waiting for us on the course and in the woods would quickly snuff out those thoughts with the first hike-a-bike hills that we came upon.  Sometimes you can ride yourself through bad conditions and the thoughts of why we do this to ourselves, but for this Mohican after my 2nd attempt at trying to take soil samples with my head and with still not feeling up to par after a few bad past weeks I decided to pull the plug at checkpoint #1 and safely roll back to the cabin to collect a big DNF for my weekend.  Destroying another $400 worth of bike parts in the mud weighed heavily in this decision also as the Cohutta 100 race haunted me.  Not a result that I'm proud of, but in the long run probably the wisest choice to make with the race season just beginning and daddy needing to be in one piece at home to be able to run around with the kids.

I think my brother said it best on his blog post, "Sure hurting is part of the game, but being totally miserable is not, at least for me. It's a hobby, it should be somewhat fun!"  When the fun of mountain biking is taken away, it's time to re-evaluate a situation like this even if you over analyze your decision a thousand times like I have already done.  Should've, would've, could've!  Time for me to file this race away and move on...

After getting back to the cabin, my thoughts were on how I could help Mark & Chris with their epic battle to survive for 100 miles.  Once cleaned up I grabbed towels, water, tools and other supplies to try and find and offer some assistance at one or two of the aid stations out on the course.  Unfortunately, on my drive just a mile or less from the cabin I see this mud covered racer coming towards me and at first I though it was Chris, but was optimistic that it couldn't be, but as I sped past I barely could see part of the Adventure 212 jersey graphics on his cleaner backside.  Once turned around I startled Chris as I pulled along side him in his truck and he followed me back to he cabin to change and shower before heading out to find Mark to offer him some aid station assistance.  This was probably the most entertaining part of the whole day for Chris and I as we witnessed riders barely moving out on the back roads and many trashed bikes barely rolling into aid station #3 at 47 miles.  At the five hour mark only a few of the top twenty 100 milers had rolled through...not a good sign.  Brakes were worn out, spokes broken  and chains were being sucked up between the chainstays and crankarms causing severe drivetrain damage.  Many spectators were waiting like we were for their racers to come through, only to realize that they were probably casualties of the conditions earlier out on the course.  Chris finally left me out at the aid station after Mark failed to appear by a certain time and we realized that we had forgotten to hide the cabin key after leaving to find him since it was with us.  As it played out, Mark pulled the plug at aid station #2 after suffering for over 4 hours covering just 36 miles through the mud and climbs while not making steady progress to finish by a certain time.  Mark was safely found at the cabin just before the weather Gods again open up on us with t-storms, high winds along with flood and a tornado warning being issued for the county we were in.  I was eventually retrieved from out on the course after helping a few racers at the aid station with their bikes and cheering for others who labored along towards the finish.  Less than half the field finished this very epic event.  Not the best weekend for race results from our team, but overall it was a good weekend with my Adventure 212/Specialized teammates and a big thanks goes out to all the sponsors that make it possible for me to participate in this sport that I enjoy 99% of the time.  The Lumberjack 100 is up next and for this race I've already decided that it can only be better in my home state of Michigan two weekends from now.  Lets hope so!  Pedal on...