Fool's Gold '08

Flashback one year ~ Fool's Gold '07 was my first bike race... I had been riding mountain bikes off and on since high school but never felt the need to be competitive. Mountain biking for me was an excuse to get out of town and play in the woods... observe nature, have fun with friends and do something healthy. Most of my rides were compromised by hangovers and the need for rest stops. I signed up for FG'07 with a group of friends that I had been riding a good amount with. We were riding nearly every weekend and we just wanted to see how far we would get on the 52 mile Bull/Jake Mountain course (this is one of our favorite trail systems). We camped at the top of the mountain and barely made it down to watch the field of riders moving up the first gravel road climb. We were late - but who cares... I'm just in it to finish. It was over 80deg as we mount the bikes at 7AM for the start. The temps quickly rose to over 95 and I struggled through most of the day. Roughly 6 hours and 20 minutes later I surprised myself when I finished the race and actually did ok at 18th place overall (out of ~80 riders). It felt so great to be finished and to think of all of the suffering and how my body was able to overcome and perform. The experiences of camping and the friends and the beer afterwards were all heightened because of the race... I wanted more events like this... I think I'll do more races... and I did this year. I believe I did 12 mountain bike races this year and I actually wish I was at the Black Bear Rampage this weekend for some more.

FOOL'S GOLD '08:

I had been looking forward to this race all year. After doing the entire Georgia State Championship series and some 12 hour / 24 hour team events I was ready for an endurance race. All of the races I had done up to this point in the year were basically just long sprints. Give me 50 miles and all day and let me just have some fun. I was also curious how my time would compare this year with last year's first effort. My goal was to improve by at least 20 minute and finish at sub-6 hours.

I took a half day off work on Friday and we went up to Dahlonega to find a prime camping spot. We arrived around 3PM and the spots were filling up and racers were getting registered and comfortable. We wanted to go have some fun while we waited on the rest of our crew to come in from Atlanta that evening. We rode up the mountain to a swimming hole we had found over the previous year. The water was freezing and I was getting demolished by mosquitoes. We decided to explore down stream but didn't bother putting shoes on... then... I stepped on something painful. I lifted up my foot and found a squirming yellowjacket. He got me right between the toes and my foot was swelling immediately. The plan was to get the rest of the crew set up once they arrive and then head into town for some dinner... By the time we left for dinner my left foot was about twice the size of my right. We made a poor choice and ate dinner at a horrible Italian spot right across the street from another Italian restaurant that we later heard great things about. We still had fun though. On the way back to camp we found a CVS and I scored some benadril and ointment for my throbbing and huge foot. Seriously - any time someone looked at my foot they would laugh. It looked like a cartoon foot and I was getting worried.

The benadril helped me sleep and I woke up at 5:45AM feeling good - but my foot was still huge. I grabbed some breakfast and got ready. I do the best I can to strap my left shoe on and ride over to the start line. It was dark and almost chilly. The weather was going to be perfect for the race, especially compared with last year. The high for the day was 80ish! Also - we found out that the course was rerouted a bit to get the mileage exactly 50 miles - and the section eliminated was the toughest from the previous year. There were some useless horse trails used last year that were completely rutted and stair stepped and un-rideable. I was glad to hear about the weather and course, but now I had to adjust my goal of sub-6hrs. What should I shoot for... maybe 5 hours and 30 minutes? That's a 50 minute improvement - no way!

We line up at 6:50 for the 7AM start and there is a ton of people. Apparently this race had blown up and we now had ~300 racers! The whistle blows and we are off... the first 12 - 13 miles of the course are a gravel road climb with the first 5 miles being straight up and getting steeper along the way. Groups begin to form and I'm not satisfied with the pace. I move up the mountain and find a group of 3 to ride with. They were pushing it and on some sections we could still see the lead group that was about 12 deep. I didn't want to climb too fast and not be able to hang for the final 40 miles, but I didn't want to sit back and wished I had ridden harder either. I was tough to gauge considering I had not done any long rides or endurance events all year. We keep pushing and start to absorb some of the guys who could not hang with the lead group and we also get passed by a few folks. I was still feeling ok and felt even better knowing that there was probably only 15 or so racers ahead. AH!!! It is only 5 miles into the 50 mile course - I can't start thinking about that!! So... I calm down and just enjoy the ride.

I skip the first SAG stop and fly down the other side of that 12 miles of elevation gain. It was super sketchy with loose gravel and a smoke screen from the riders ahead. I'm trying to keep my tires on the ground when I hear someone next to me giving a "yo A! looking good!!" what the hell?? who would ride up next to me on this crazy 30+mph frightening descent? it was none other than the same dude who beat me at every GSC race - Robert! He nailed it and took off through the dust to catch the leaders. I reach the first section of singletrack and was loving it. This race was going to be fun!

I knew that I had about 10 miles before the next rest stop and my bottles were doing ok. I thought I could also skip this stop, but my bladder didn't agree. I'll spare you the details, but I held on till SAG2 so I could empty the bladder and top off my bottles in one stop. The volunteers were throwing a party and offered PBR and cookies - I settled for water and a cookie for now. I head back to the trails and they just kept getting sweeter and sweeter. I was seriously loving it! I finish off this 15 mile loop section and come across SAG3, which by design was also SAG2. They are still partying and I turn down another beer. I make a new bottle and stuff my pockets because I don't want to stop again until the finish. I leave and I'm feeling great still. I'm pacing myself and wondering if I should begin to push it a bit more.

Not sure what else to say - except that I was loving it! Still loving it! One thing that was a bit strange was that I kept having to reach down and tighten my left shoe. I was wondering what was going on but was having too much fun to care if my shoe was falling apart... then I realized that the swelling in my foot was going down. I had totally forgotten about my big throbbing foot!

I skip past SAG4 and head into the final section of the course. I try to increase my pace and realize that I had actually been working a bit... I felt like I could maintain this pace all day, but when I would try to accelerate it would hurt. I passed a few people and wondered how far up the trail that lead group was. Could I break into the top 10?? I had been riding back and forth all day with a Dedicated Athlete rider and he was ahead of me as we dipping back into some twisty singletrack. He crashed right in front of me and told me to go around - something about needing to chill for a minute.

This was a super fun section of trail that must have been the bypass of the horse trails from the previous year. I pass the waterfall and come out onto the last section of doubletrack before the creek crossing and final descent into the finish line. As soon as I come out of the singletrack there is a group of horses coming right for me. The trail was tight and I didn't want to spook them... I make it past the first 3 and then the 4th horse completely falls down right next to me. We spooked the hell out of each other and I felt terrible about it. The horse right behind him spun around and I thought he was about to kick me in the throat. This was ugly and I wasn't sure what to do. I slid through and hoped for the best. I cross the final creek, bomb down the gravel road we had climbed at 7AM and then take the finish re-route over some trees and through the camp. I finish at 4 hours and 42 minutes and just in time to get slapped across the ass by Ritchie. An improvement of ~1.5 hours and 12th place overall. I honestly wanted to ride more... this is the fun stuff!

Full results:
http://www.55nineperformance.com/Results_2008.htm

This guy took some amazing photos throughout the weekend:
http://pa.photoshelter.com/package-show/P0000lfSaqD5aWI8

Me... http://pa.photoshelter.com/img-show/I0000g8Y2hRUgIIA