I've got some catching up to do.

Well... I've fallen way behind in the writing of the race reports. In my defense I've been busy building a chicken coop and trying to find a job.

The coop is finished. The job??? Rumor has it I'll hear something this week

Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been racing. About a month ago (has it really been that long?) I hopped in the MBV and took a ride down to State College, PA with Thom Parsons for the Stoopid 50. Other than multiple stops at Dunkins and one lunch stop at the Wegman's in Wilkes Barre the trip was relatively uneventful. We rolled into Atkins Cabins around 6:30, set up camp in daylight and head out for a little pre-ride to flush out the legs and see the course. Neither of had done the race before so Thom got the lowdown on a "short" loop we could do check out the start and first piece of single track.

The course starts out with a modest 3.5 mi, 500 ft climb before you take a left turn onto the Tussey Mountain Ridge trail and climb another 150 ft.  I had been told be several people that it is critical to get a good start as the trail is technical and narrow with not a lot of passing opportunities and they weren't kidding. What no one had told me was just how spectacular this trail is. In addition to the rocky, technical goodness and the mountain laurel in full bloom, there's an extended section where, courtesy of a fire a few years back, you get to really appreciate you're riding a mountain ridge that's maybe 20yds wide with steep drop offs on both sides.

Taking a picture of Thom taking a picture of mountain laurel

I made it through all the tough stuff without any incident and the legs were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, it's not the tough stuff that gets you. It's when you have that momentary lapse of concentration through something simple that you get bit. In this case I had my front tire slide out on a rock as I was about to hop a small log. Instead of clearing it, I stuffed the wheel into the log. In the process of trying not to go OTB I strained the rib cage muscles on my left side. This is the 4th time I've done this in the last 10 years but the first time it happened the day before a race. In fact, I had just gotten over a similar injury to my right side and that had kept me off the bike for 5 days. Needless to say I was not happy. Of course, when you're in the middle of the woods late in the day, what do you do but get back on your bike, keep riding and try to tell yourself it's not that bad. After riding the length of the ridge we hit a super fast, swoopy, bench-cut downhill, some more climbing with technical sections and then another fast downhill before dropping out onto a dirt road. Here, the course turns left, but we went right to follow the dirt road back to camp. Our short loop ended up being just under 17 mi. Probably half of it was road so it wasn't that long, but more than what I've typically done the day before a race.

I don't think I was all that much fun to be around that night as I just couldn't get my mind off of wondering if I was going to be able to ride in the morning. I even skipped having a beer hoping to avoid waking up in the middle of the night to pee. That ended up being another failure as light shower rolled through and woke me up at 3:00 am. Between not being able to get comfortable with my now aching rib cage and my mind racing thinking about what I was going to do about it, I didn't fall back asleep. When 6:30 rolled around and I finally gave up on sleeping I had zero motivation to race bikes. By 7:00, though, I had convinced myself to give it a go. I didn't drive all this way to not race. I tried riding the bike and didn't have any sharp, stabbing pains. How bad could it be? Besides, if I was completely miserable I'd just bail after Tussey and do the same ride we did Sat. After another hour or so of psyching myself up, I was actually getting excited to race.

I was a little slow getting to the starting line and most people were already staged. Fortunately, coning out the driveway for the camp put me maybe 6 rows back. Not ideal, but not terrible. The start is pretty neutral for the first couple of miles. I don't think it was until the road turned to dirt that the pace picked up and gaps started opening. I had done a good job of working my way through and closing down gaps and was still connected to the lead group (it was still a large lead group) when we made the turn into the single track. I'll guess I was maybe top 30 when I got my turn to hit the trail. There was jostling here and there as people bobbled on some of the rocks, but I was with a good group that was going at a descent pace through the first section. We got stacked up a bit when we hit the first big technical section. I managed to ride it and get by a couple people in the process. I could see the next technical section was a complete log jam and chose to preemptively dismount and run through the rock pile on the right. By the time I jumped back on I had passed another 6 or 8 people and had some clear trail ahead of me. Better yet, the legs felt good and the ribs weren't particularly bothering me. I picked off a couple more people before I latched onto a group moving at a descent clip. I took stock of the effort needed to stay with them and figured my legs were probably writing checks they wouldn't be able to cash at mile 40 but I didn't care. I was loving it as we were railing the first downhill. That is until I heard the sound of air rapidly leaving my rear tire. I quickly found the cut in the middle of the tire and went through all the gyrations of someone trying to get the Stans to seal it even though I knew it wouldn't.

There's an equally large slice at the bead. Brand new tire too

Although it only felt like a couple, the GPS says it took me 4 minutes to put the tube in and get going. Not too bad, though, I could still have a good day. The only problem is I'm now racing with a tube in the rear. A tube that lasted me all of 10 minutes before I pinch flatted on the last downhill to the dirt road. My thoughts of having a good result were quickly vanishing. They disappeared entirely when the valve broke on my other spare tube (yes I started with 2 tubes). Now I'm fishing through my tool bag for some stick on patches. I don't have high hopes given the  tube is covered in sealant but maybe it will be enough to get me to the first aid station. This stop lasted me a good 10 minutes. When I did pop out on the road there was someone there with a floor pump. I made another quick stop and filled the rear up to almost 40 psi. There was a brief moment where I considered turning right, heading back to camp and drinking all of Thom's beer, but I really wanted to see the rest of the trails. I forged onward.

It didn't take long before the tire was getting soft. Fortunately for me, someone took pity and gave me a tube. Thanks again whoever you were. I'll spare you the suspense and let you know this was the last time I had to change a tube that day. When I got going again I found my legs wanted to take out their frustration on the biggest climb of the day. My angry legs propelled me about 2/3rds of the way up the 3 mile climb until the pitch kicked up into double digits, we took a right turn, and it became clear we were still no where near the top. Reason took over and I settled into a more sustainable pace. At this point I just wanted to finish the race without flatting again.

You can tell the "race" is over for me when I'm spending the time to take pictures

Everyone was very helpful at the first aid station. They gave me a spare tube and also pumped my rear tire up to 35 psi. It made for a bit of a bumpy ride on the hard tail, but it did keep air in tire. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful consisting of semi-conservative riding through the awesome technical single track and pushing the uphills trying to just get the day over with. The finishing downhill was a bit of an adventure. It drops close to 600 ft in 0.8 miles with a relentless parade of rocks to negotiate. So much so there was really no line picking. Just try to keep the bike upright and get over what's in front of you. I made it down in one piece. I even caught up to a couple people, but no passes were made.

We cruised through the finish line right around 5:20. Not exactly the finish I was looking for, but I did finish. Which is a lot more than I thought I might be doing when I woke in the morning. Although I've been paying for it for the last couple weeks, the ribs really weren't a factor during the race. I felt them a couple times but they certainly weren't the limiter that keeping air in my tires was. I went back partook of the post race food and beer. The results got posted and said I was 66th out of everyone. There's always next year I guess.

This race is an absolute blast. I'm happy I got to see the whole course and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I was told the Chris Scott races are extremely well organised and this lived up to that reputation. Thanks again to all to all the volunteers and everyone that helped make this race happen.

I was completely useless on the ride home. I don't know how the hell Thom did Wrentham to W. Virginia to Vermont the following weekend. Thanks again for the ride.

Now let's see if I can get the Gnar Weasels report up before I head to the Millstone 12hr.