Fast Albert's Loooooong Day in Michaux

Yes, I would say I had fun. I ended up riding with Larry Camp off and
on the entire race. I felt bloated before the race started and my
digestive system was out of sorts for most of the race. It actually
eased up over the last hour and 1/2. It was the only time in recent
memory that I wished I was running a suspension fork. It was at the
curse last year that convinced me that I would never ever want to use a
suspension fork - so there is always a trade off to make. I actually
broke my Badger rigid fork on Saturday and spent too much time unpacking
from taking Ian to Cub Scout camp for 4 days and working on my bike. I
thought I would be able to sort of relax Saturday afternoon. I ended up
replacing the fork, brake rotor, brake housing and cable, rear rim tape
and tube. Stayed up later than expected and woke up at 3 to make the 7
am start.

The course was really brutal - lots of constant pounding. Even the
downhill sections started to get fatiguing. There were a few trails
that were actually sort of buff that I hadn't ever been on. Sort of
long downhill sections with not too many rocks or roots. The only major
issues other than bloating in the first 42 miles was one flat and one
missed turn. The turn was actually well marked but on a steep open
section next to a deer fence. I thought I saw an arrow out of the
corner of my eye and after a few minutes I saw someone else and he was
coming back the other way so that saved me from continuing down the
wrong route. Tom Miller was manning the feed area at about mile 25 and
was multitasking like a fiend. Making sandwiches, getting people tubes,
carrying on 3 conversations at once, helping out with other items,
taking pictures - very impressive.

The last 20 miles were sort of surreal. My bloating started to ease a
bit but I started to cramp more. I took electrolyte pills each time I
started to cramp and they would go away within minutes. There was a long
fast fire road drop from Big Flat and then that long grinding climb up
to 3 mile trail. 3 mile trail felt like 10 mile trail. I was very
tired after that climb and it took some time to recover. My hands
started to cramp so I took it slow thru most of the technical section.
I started to cramp badly on the fire road after 3 mile but I could see
Larry off in the distance. I took more pills and ended up catching him
at the Deadwomen Hollow decent. He warned me that thing could get
sketchy and to watch my speed which was good advice. I followed Larry
thru Graves Ridge for a while and had fun following his line but he does
hopping moves that out of my league so I dropped off some and found my
own rhythm. The trail after Graves Ridge was actually more brutal than
Graves Ridge. No sweet line to find just mashing over rocks and huge
roots. I was relieved that the final 2 mile climb wasn't too steep and
it was fun to tag along with Larry up to the finish. We actually passed
a single speeder walking on the final climb. It was nice to see you and
Chris at the top of the climb as we crossed 233. It was also good to
see Don, Chuck, and Greg at the finish area.

Albert