The start was a Lamond style start and the first one I have ever done. I really was not a big fan of it. For those of you who don't know that means you run (in this case about 1/4 of a mile) to where the bikes are, and then hop on. The idea is that this spreads out the crowed a little and creates less bottlenecks once you get into the single track. It's works to a certain extent.
Once on the bike I went out relatively strong and metup with some teammates and paced with them for the first half a lap. However they were on teams and not doing it solo and I was averaging about a 170 HR with them which was too high for my tastes so I dropped off. Probably a smart move, but looking back something I probably should have done right away. It took most of the rest of the first lap but I eventually found my groove and went for it for the next few laps.
The course had an interesting setup in that is cut through the campsite about 2/3 of the way through the lap. So I got in the routine of doing my refueling there instead of when I'd finish a lap. Alyssa was doing race support for me and I will say she was amazing. As soon as I'd pull into camp she'd be up and about running to grab me stuff, she's always such a good motivator. The first few laps I went for just hammer and cliff bar refuels but on my third time through I chowed down on some tortalini salad. I wasn't sure how it would sit with me but I didn't really have any problems. While eating one of my teammates who was also racing solo pulled into the campsite. I waited an extra minute for him and we headed out to do a lap together. One lap turned into the rest of the race, which was a really good thing. I'm generally a slightly faster xc racer than him but he is a much better endurance athlete.
Riding with someone else really changed the game, I didn't start playing any of the mental games I normally do and had a lot of fun. Later one when I started to cramp up and have issues having somebody else there didn't seem to make it nearly as bad. The cramps really started for me at around lap 5. I was doing a relatively good job hydrating and taking in as much electrolytes as possible (generally I was doing double feeds of hammer and taking in several endurolyte pills a lap). However at this time it was pushing 85 degrees and looking back at it now i really should have taken the time at the pit to put a second water bottle cage on my bike.
During this time I was really starting to hate those logs. Whenever I'd pull my legs up to bunny hop over one I would just feel the sharp cramping pain running up and down my quads. On the climbs too such sharp excruciating pain. Several climbs I was getting earlier in the race where not even conceivable at this time, as I trudged up them.
So in the end we pulled 7 laps, right around 60 miles. We actually crossed the finish line at 9hr 2 min but had we finished before the 9hr mark we probably would have still called it quits. I was shooting for about 70 miles but given the temps, humidity, and that it was a slow moving course I was happy with this finish. It put us in 16th and 17th place out of around 40 solo open people. Not bad considering there were a lot of pros there. The downside is, although I was able to race the entire time, and have matured a lot with my endurance riding since the Allamuchy days I still don't think I'm ready for Wilderness 101 this year. I'm disappointed in that but I want to do it when I'm completely ready both physically and mentally.
Here is a GPS log of the race, http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=8536324 the batteries in it died on the last lap.
