Rayburner 100K

Last Saturday was the 2nd running of Team BUMS' Rayburner 100K. Last year we did 10 laps of what was supposed to be a 6.3 mile loop. It turned out the loop was closer to 6.8 miles. So this year the event mastermind, Scott Nelson, set to work revamping the loop to try to get things closer to 62 miles. What he ended up with is a 5.6 mile loop so we'd be doing 11 laps this year to get us in the ballpark of 62 miles. I took advantage of a break in the weather on Fri and pre-rode the course. It used a lot of the same trails from last year although in a different order. "Bumpy Town" was replaced by a new trail I like to call "Swampy Town" and an actual hill was put in. Note, I didn't say climb. We don't have any climbs on our local trails. We have hills and this was about as big of a hill as you'll find in Rayburn. It was maybe a quarter mile but at around a 9% grade it was steep enough that you'll notice it. Especially as the laps wore on. All in all a great little lap. Scott put a lot of work into it and it showed. The other reason for the pre-ride was because I had swapped rear wheels (for one with a new tire on it) and wanted to make sure it shifted fine. It did and with the anticipated sloppy conditions I was happy to have some fresh tread beneath me.

I'm not sure how much the fresh treads helped, but they certainly didn't hurt

To make up for the great weather we had at both the Weeping Willow and Glocester this year, mother nature dealt us a heavy dose of the ugly side of May with spitting rain and temps in the mid 40's for Sat. Absolutely perfect weather... for lying in bed. Well, at least for most people. While I won't deny I was plenty happy in my warm bed, there's something about lousy weather that makes me one to get out in it. Especially if it's any sort of an event like a race. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I've convinced myself I've got an advantage since everyone else will be more miserable than me or perhaps I just don't want to be that person who doesn't show because conditions are a little crappy. Whatever the reason it wasn't too hard to get up, make some banana, walnut oatmeal and beat juice and get ready for the day.

I had very little energy on the pre-ride so
I was really hoping for the beet juice to work its magic this day.  

I packed the bag the night before so I was much better at getting out the door near the 7:15 target I'd set. By this I mean I left around 7:30 instead of 7:45 like the year before. Between the tents, tarps and other forms of rain protection people were setting up our staging area was starting to look like some sort of shanty town.

I thought about bringing my tarp, but it's full of holes. Fortunately, Jess Bly let me toss my stuff under his which was a much better set-up than covering my bag with my rain jacket. All set up, I headed over to the scoring table to sign in and drop off my surplus food. This year's selection was blackberry, mint & chocolate rice cakes, strawberry and cream rice cakes, and some beef and sweet potato turnovers. The turnovers were straight out of the new Feed Zone Portables cookbook. The strawberry and cream rice cakes were a bit of an experiment to make ones my daughter, who can't have cows milk or cane sugar, could eat. the sweetener was a little bit of maple sugar and just a little mild goat cheese provided the creaminess. They were pretty damn good if you ask me.

Last year my plan was to carry two water bottles and enough food so I only had to stop every 3 laps to reload. This year, with the slightly shorter lap, I took a lighter approach with just one bottle and planned to stop every other lap. I carried food, but had no intention of eating while I was riding. It was only so I'd have it with me when I stopped each lap to record my time rather than having to stop a 2nd time at my pit to grab it. Did it make a big difference time wise? Probably not, but psychologically having a plan and feeling organized made a huge difference. That and if I did forget to eat, which I did once, I would have something with me.

8:30 rolled around and 14 brave souls lined up for a long, cold, wet day in the saddle. A quick little racer meeting and at 8:35 we were off. The start was semi neutral for all of 20 seconds before Matt Chandler and went to work putting a little gap into the field. With conditions likely to deteriorate during the day, my strategy was to really push the pace early and try to establish a lead while the riding was good. I had a feeling as the day wore on conditions would make it harder for someone to make up a significant amount of time. I thought Matt was going to keep me company through this but he faded a little bit about halfway through then disappeared entirely. It turns out he got a flat on lap one and had to battle his way through the rest of the field for the next lap or two.

The first couple laps were uneventful. The legs felt good. The trail and weather were holding up nicely. You really couldn't ask for much more. There was a guy, Jim I think, manning the scoring table who giving me the gaps back to 2nd place. After turning a pair of 34 min laps to start things off I had a nice 5 min lead over Steve Witkus in 2nd. The course actually passes by the scoring table at a couple points during the lap and 1/2 way through the 3rd lap I learned the gap out to 7 min. Then things got interesting. I hit the ground for the first time on this little right hander in a new section in Scott's Small Intestine. If you couldn't guess from the name this is a tight, twisty trail with a lot of corners. For some reason this was the only one that deteriorated and I went done in a heartbeat. Fortunately it was soft and loamy and no damage was done (at least not to me). Not more than 2 min later I was down again. this time on a sweeping left hander on another new connector trail. It was become clear the combination of wheels and water was starting to take it toll and sections you rail a lap ago were becoming treacherous. The rest of the lap was fine until I got onto the last bit of single track. It turns out one of the times I crashed earlier, probably on the right hand turn, I bent the derailleur just a touch. There's a short, steep section right near the end and as I got ready to go up it the bike over shifted and stuffed the chain in between the cassette and the spokes. It was in there pretty good and took way too long to get it out. As I was on the cart road back to the scoring table I could see Steve on the trail I had just been on. Between the stop for water at the beginning and my "issues" during, lap 3 was 40 min and what had been a 7 min lead was now more like a minute and a half. So that's how it's going to be.

I managed to stay upright through lap 4 but the trail was definitely getting slick in spots. My split was back in the 34 min range and the gap was back out over 4 min. My next trip around the circuit I was starting to figure out the puzzle of where you could drill it and where you had to dial it back and just ride efficiently. Well... I thought I did. Perhaps I was a little overconfident in how much I had figured it out when I came to the rocky stream crossing after the big downhill. I had been riding this smoothly but must have come into just a little bit off line and the front wheel slipped of the first rock and I went down hard in the rocks/stream on my left side. Instead of just being wet, I was now soaking wet and had hit my left knee, hip and hand pretty good. Thankfully, this would be the last time I hit the deck for the rest of the day. I gingerly finished up the rest of the lap and headed out for hump lap. My knee and hip weren't bothering me too much and I turned a 36 min trip around the course after my crash induced 38 min previous lap. Unfortunately, the other Steve had turned a pair of 37s and my lead was hovering steady around 4 min.

By lap 7 I finally had it all figured out. Where to go hard, where to go easy, the set-up for the mud pits and the rock walls, I had it all dialed in. The course even felt like it was drying out a bit. By the end of the lap the lead was up to 8 min. Then it started raining and the temperature started dropping and things got interesting once again. My fingers started getting numb and I was getting cold, uncomfortably cold in fact. I had started the race with a polypro baselayer under my jersey but it just wasn't cutting it. I had a jacket back at the pit, I just had to get through the lap.

There were quite a few people hanging around shanty town when I finished up my 8th lap. Some people who had shown up to put a couple laps in, some who had just shown up to support the idiots who decided to race bikes that day. I spent a little extra time to eat and get my jacket. With just one to go after my 10th lap, I wasn't going to be stopping and wanted to make sure I had everything I needed for the last 3 laps. the real bright spot of the stop was when Karen Potter told me she was moving her Amherst epic to Monday (better weather). While I might enjoy the challenge of crappy weather riding, I really didn't want to spend another cold, wet day on the bike on Sunday. Jess and I tried to petition her to get us some hot coffee, but she politely informed us that once she got into her warm car, she wasn't coming back.

The last 3 laps were an exercise in finding traction. There were two uphill spots in particular where it was being sold at a premium. There was a short little uphill on the secret condo trail that was particularly difficult because the small trees the lined it prevented you from riding the edges that hadn't been ridden during the day. The other section was at the exit from swampy town (what was the start of bumpy town last year). Here you had a few more options taking alternate lines that involved pricker bushes and slippery rocks that still provided more traction than the mud. I didn't know what my lead was, but I felt like I was riding as well as anyone would be given the conditions. As long as I kept the bike upright and avoided any mechanicals I should be able to bring home the win.

My last two laps were almost identical with splits of 39:23 & 39:15 respectively. The total time for 11 laps was 6:56:45 only a couple minutes faster than last year despite the shorter course. Steve Witkus finished up in 2nd with a time of 7:11 while Matt Chandler rallied after his flat to finish in 7:21:57 good enough for 3rd.

Boy did it felt good to change into some dry clothes. I had my chocolate milk and fried rice and waited for Steve and Matt to finish up. After a while I started to realize enough layers for comfortably hanging out in the cold and wet and started thinking a coffee run my be in order. One of the little games we like to play here at the Higginchuk household is secretly turning someones heated seat on and seeing how long it takes them two notice. This is particularly entertaining in my car because the highest level, 6. if uncomfortably hot. Even when it's 0 degrees out. Let me tell you, 6 never felt so good on the ride to Dunkins.

Seat set at 6 and the heat at 75deg.
I see what Karen meant about not getting out of the car once she got in

 After our previous end of lap discussion it was only fitting that Jess Bly was finishing up just as I arrived with a Box O' Joe.

At this point we had 4 finishers and 5 people still out on course. A couple of them would still have 2 laps to go their next time through! The coffee kept me warm enough to cheer 3 more people to the finish including the evil genius behind it all, Scott Nelson. Unfortunately, some shivers started setting in and I had to call it a day before everyone finished up.

Big thumbs up to you, Scott.
Thanks for everything that went into putting this on

On the way out I did get to cheer/heckle Kevin and Mike as they finished up their penultimate lap. In the end 9 people completed all 11 laps and a host of others put significant time on the trails that day. Thanks and congratulations to everyone who came out. Extra special congratulations to Mike and Kevin who spent over 11 hours in the woods just because some knucklehead decided we should do 11 laps.

Results
Steve S       6:56
Steve W       7:11
Matt C        7:21
Jess B        8:24
Rick N        8:40
Scott N       9:04
Jim N         9:15
Kevin         11:02
Mike L        11:20
Russ          8 Laps
Laura         8 Laps
Pete D        6 Laps
Bill D        6 Laps
Brett         2 Laps
Karen         2 Laps
Mike C        2 Laps
John & Max B  1 Lap (maybe 2, it's hard to tell from the score sheet)

I thought about hosing the bike off while it was still on the car because I didn't want to handle it dirty again but the only hose that is currently set up wouldn't reach.

Obligatory dirt bike shot

I hosed off the bike, clothes, shoes, you name it. I got the laundry going, took a hot shower, sat down to a big plate of food and felt pretty satisfied with the day. I was particularly happy to know I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn and do it all over again on Sunday.