Despite it being Saturday I set my alarm for the usual time of 6:30. It sure is easier to wake up without pressing the snooze button for a bike ride than it is for work. I left the house minutes before 7 with my mountain bike and gear loaded in the truck.
In the mountain bike parking lot at Mohican I ate a bowl of muesli along with a cup of coffee and at 7:38, I looked at the time on my cell phone while standing at the trailhead sign, I headed out on my first ever full lap of the course. With KT or Ryan I had covered the entire 25 miles but never all at one time. Having heard riding the course in 3 hours or less is a "good time", my goal was to get back to where I was standing in less than 180 minutes.
The temperature was perfect, about 60 degrees, as I started up the opening climb. As usual for me, it took a couple miles to feel somewhat under control. I felt like I was riding pretty steady, never letting up on the throttle until I stopped to take a picture of a box turtle on the left edge of the trail. Unfortunately, the cell phone picture didn't come out at all in the shaded and soft morning light, even for a cell phone picture.
While using the cell phone for the picture I noticed the time and after jumping back on the bike, I did the math to check my pace. It wasn't looking good. As I recall, I'd ridden about 7 miles in a bit less than an hour. At this pace I'd end up only covering 21 miles in 3 hours, not 25 miles in 3 hours.
After finishing the pace calculation I focused on increasing my speed. I began to ride one gear larger and made a conscious effort to reduce usage of my break levers.
Reaching the covered bridge I stopped long enough to suck down a gingerbread GU, leftover from the holidays. I didn't check the time but continued to the climb up Mt. Doom, knowing my pace was about to slow. It was a good climb for me in terms of keeping the bike under control and I reached the second mountain bike parking area ready for the peanut butter sandwich I had packed.
In less than five minutes I ate my PB sandwich, drank some fluids, and continued on. I made a time check but cannot remember what I learned, at this point I didn't make an effort to calculate pace. I was really beginning to think I was not going to crack 3 hours, but I figured I'd ride at my limit and see what happened. I knew the next section could be fast.
On the twisting, often downhill section through the fern forest I was finding my groove. No brakes, lots of speed, and feeling good. Until... my left grip and bar end hooked a 1" diameter sapling along the edge of the trail. I never even saw the sapling but I suddenly saw the ground coming at me in a hurry. Wham! I landed hard on my chest and right hip.
"What hurts?" I thought. My hip. I stood up, picked my bike up, jumped aboard and began to slowly pedal. After a few pedal strokes I thought "hip feels okay, let's go!"
Down through the campground and onto the last couple miles of trail. I was riding hard and had depleted my two bottles. I felt a sense of urgency as I kept telling myself it had not yet been three hours, unsure in the back of my mind if this was true or not. Popping out of the woods near the trail head I brought the bike to an abrupt stop and optimistically pulled out my cell phone... 10:28. Sweet! 2 hours 50 minutes!
The Good - met my goal of breaking 3 hours
The Bad - crashed hard, sore hip, but thankfully okay
The Ugly - after checking final time on cell phone, realized my seat bag had unzipped and was now completely empty. Lost items include inflator, multi-tool, tube, chain tool, quick link and tire levers. Doh!
(Sorry no pictures, turtle picture didn't come out well enough to post and I was "racing" to beat my time goal so I took no further pics.)
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