8 Hours Cannonsburg (Ben VanHoose)

Following the normal routine of race morning, I woke up plenty early and had all my stuff packed the previous night so I was able to relax and eat a light breakfast. I headed down to Cannonsburg with my family’s dog, Pace, who would be hanging out in the pit area with Chris, Eric, and Rachel. I took the dog sitting duty since both of my parents were leaving to different states to run marathons and I had three dog sitters while I was going to be racing. Pace and I arrived at the ski area a couple hours prior to the start and claimed our pit spot. Chris, Eric, and Rachel weren’t too far behind with the tent, which ended up being a test of our teamwork abilities. After getting the tent up we had what seemed to be quite a bit of time to sit and chill.

Shortly before 10 am it was time to line up for the start for the 8-hour race. I had told Eric I would like to make a push for 16 laps, 1 lap more than last year. Once the race was underway and I settled in around what seemed to be the middle of the pack. The first 5 laps were all sub-30 minute laps and things seemed to be going really well. After the first couple laps things spread out and I seemed to be by myself except when passing or being passed. I had quite a bit of my family showing up during the first few hours and cheer me on through the pits. My Aunt had made up some signs which Eric and Chris can be seen holding in some of the pictures which really made me smile when I came through for another lap. It is so nice to know that I have such great family and how much they always come through for me.

During those early laps I was switching out bottles every other lap through the pits. I also had a Camelback on and was drinking a lot of water since it was very humid during the first half of the race and I figured I was losing a lot of fluids to sweat so having the Camelback was a nice addition. On top of that I was taking in electrolytes pills and also having Eric putting them in my drinks. I started to have some hard times around the 3 or 4-hour mark, but I was still able to keep my lap times in the lower 30’s (around 32 minute laps). I was still maintaining a good a race pace but I could still see my goal of 16 laps slipping away as my laps were hitting the low to mid 30's and I knew that I had maintain sub 30 minute laps to achieve anything above my last years performance.

Around the time I was running low 30 minute laps, not sure what lap or what time, I found myself riding with Dana Baurhenn. It was funny to be riding with her because I had met her and rode with at 6 hours of Stony only a few weeks prior. She offered to let me pass but I assured her I was already use to riding behind her as I did most of the time at Stony. We were talking about this and that and riding along. Somewhere around the middle of the loop (1 lap was around 6 miles) on a sweeping downhill left turn, something happened to Dana and she fell down. She was down and her bike was starting to flip over; which in my eyes looked like her bike was going to pancake her. I slammed on both my brakes and reached out and grabbed the rear wheel of her bike as it was flipping to land on her. I caught it right there and held it until she was able to get up. I have no clue how I was able to do it…..maybe I have some super ninja reflexes or something but the only thing I can remember being said between the two of us was her saying “sorry” and me saying “you’re cool, you okay?” After that I rode on and she was able to do the same after assessing the damage.

From this point on thing started to get a little ugly. I started to get some signs that some serious cramping was going to be on the way. I remember during one of the climbs my hamstrings started to cramp up so I stood up to finish the climb and my quads started to cramp up instead. Unfortunately the rest of the race was a constant battle with cramping when I hit the steeper climbs. Luckily I was able to hook up with Adam Swann and ride a little with him which was a big help to have someone to talk and ride with since my mind wasn’t thinking about how much I was hurting. In the end I kept hanging on and rolled through the finish for 15 laps which was the same as last year. I ended up winning the age group which this year had a declined number of participants from last year but was the 3rd overall solo rider out of 22.

I should also note that this was my first race on my new Fuji Outland 29 from Freewheeler bike shop. Since I just got it a week before the race I had only been on the bike for 3-4 hours to break it in before the 8 hours of Cannonsburg. I love my new ride and look forward to putting some more rides and time on the bike. Now on to cheer for Eric and Chris for Lumberjack 100 this upcoming weekend.