This wasn't a mountain bike race per-se, it was an off-road triathlon. I did it as part of a team and I was responsible for the biking portion. There were 12 other teams racing.
Prep: I have disc brakes and I accidently squeezed on my brake lever while the front wheel was out. I had to pry the brake pads apart and no matter what I did, the disc brushed on one of the pads. THEN, I went for a brief pre-ride and rode into the transition area. My handlebars snagged on the orange fencing and I fell. In front of everyone. Men immediately rushed to my assistance, grabbing me by the arms and helping me up! I was very embarrassed.
Bike: I have ridden the race course once this year, but sections of the course I am very familiar with. It's 15.5 miles of technical, hilly single-track. There is only .75 miles of two-tracks.
Immediately there is a drop down a steep hill into a sandpit and then a technical section with lots of tree-roots around the lake. I love this section: even though it's bumpy and has really tight turns, it's flat. At the end of this section is a rustic log bridge you could knock your brain loose while crossing it. At this point there is the one and only water station--just 2 miles in to the race. I was passed by 3-4 guys. My swimmer was really fast, I was out of my league with the bikers this early into the race.
The next two miles have some steady climbs, lots of sandpits, and really tight sections. Somewhere in here I was passed by the first female of several over the course. She informed me I dropped my water bottle about a mile ago. Shoot! It was hot, humid, and a long way to the finish. I started to panic a little.
In fact, I actually prayed something like: God, you said if we came to you, we could drink the water and never thirst again--puhlease don't let me dehydrate! At that moment, I was getting passed again. This time by my friend, Jim, who had an extra water bottle. He was a saint!
I made sure to take in as much H2O as I could because I was coming up on the most challenging 6.5 miles of the course: climb after climb after climb followed by dead-man's curve into another steep climb.
Dead-man's Curve: By the time you get to Dead Man's Curve, you've ridden a challenging 8.5 miles. Your thighs are burning. Your legs are so wasted they can no longer hold your body weight. Your vision is blurred by the sweat pouring down your face. But its a race so you push yourself to the limit and get that butt behind the saddle, stand and hunch over those bars for the most hair-raising descent in West Michigan. Straight down into a blind left-turn onto a ridge.
You keep those eyes 6 feet in front of you on that trail. Whatever you do, you do not look down into the tumbling ravine on the right where you will immediately envision your mangled and bloodied body lying at the bottom. And you do not look to the rising wall on your left for fear of snagging a handle bar and crashing down the ravine to a mangled and bloodied death.
You follow that 2 foot wide ridge all the way around for a quarter mile until you face a stairwell of tree roots and erosion up to your salvation. Once you are able to claw yourself out of that ravine, you are free to puke.
The Rest: The last five miles is a walk in the park, comparatively. There are some awesome downhills, technical sections, and climbs but nothing that pulls your intestines inside out. I was enjoying this last section when this guy started hanging on my back tire. He kept whining that he wanted to pass me, but every time I moved to the right and slowed down, he didn't have the speed to do it. I was smoking him on the downhills and he was straining to catch up on the flats. I only had mild delight when, on a tight and fast downhill, I heard behind me a crunch and clang followed by a string of expletives. I didn't hear any more whining after that. In fact, I didn't see him again until he finished 10 minutes behind me with his tail between his legs.
I was passed by 3 females and one male during this section which was discouraging. I climbed up the last switchback and turned onto the .5 mile dirt road leading to transition. Imagine my surprise when all 4 of them were riding just 20 feet in front of me. I cranked into my big ring, pretended I had fresh legs, and dug deep. I managed to pass them all into the transition area. Someone had to help me unclip when I got there, but it was worth it.
The Results: I managed to take 8 minutes off my time from the previous year and was two minutes faster than my goal time. I am ecstatic. Better yet, I managed to do it without breaking or dislocating anything.
