Lumberjack 100 (Chris's Perspective)

The sunlight gleams down the road in front as the racers, myself included, are nestled in the shadows of the towering trees on Udell Hills road.  A Mile or so pave road start would begin the all day excursion in the Michigan backwoods as 350 racers would depart on 100 miles of singletrack.  Although technically the same 33 miles of singletrack done 3 times, it makes no difference to the body.  The pros are in the front behind the pace car, another 200 racers fill the entire road.  Eric and I planted ourselves behind them and the left outside of the road, then of course another 100 or so riders back in behind us.  The bullhorn sounded and 700 clicks occurred as we all mounted and began pedaling down the road.  I decided at this point I didn’t want to fight 200 people in the singletrack so I took off behind another rider gapping as many people as possible while on the road.  Of course I got that stare like, seriously, we don’t even have a quarter mile in of 100 miles. 

Regardless, I shut it out because I knew it would pay dividends in the end if I really did have the physical fitness for a solid ride all day.  By the time we reached the parking lot I was following two riders into the single track, minus the “pros” who were already long gone from my vision.  They are like the 14 point buck I never seen.  Everyone describes it with it all its glory, yet it always eludes me.  During these 100 mile adventures I have yet to see or talk to any of the pros.  And since they are long gone by the time I finish, I only hear about the legacies they leave behind.

But wait a minute, how the hell did I end up at Big M Saturday morning.  The weekend for a 100 miler always starts before the race day because of packet pick-up, logistics, and just stir crazy bad nerves.   I got up and worked on some of my Bar stuff, but it didn’t last long before all I could think about was racing.  Unfocused meant to me, why even try.  Just get on the road and get it started.  Once your up there you will be able to resume work.  I got up to GR where Eric, Rachel, and I would setoff for Wellston.  We got to Big M in the middle of the afternoon, grabbed our race numbers and headed out on the course for a quick easy spin.  I found out my rear brake was not working, causing me to overshoot a corner thrusting some dead fall into my ankle.  I decided at that point I needed to some how get some rear brakes for the race on Saturday.  We then headed back out, bombed down some fireroad, across some bench cut singletrack and back out to the car.  (The gas station is a quick shot of Musto, whom we ran into on the way up.  I figured all her pics at the race would end up blurry.)

From there we headed to Cadillac to stay at the Lanc Bed and Breakfast.  We chilled and bs’ed for an hour or so, until I got anxious knowing I had no brakes (my mom just called while I’m writing this and my cousin just engaged, Congrats Lish).   I went and worked on my bike for what seem like 2 hours.  Eric assisted in the end and I got my brakes good enough there was intermittent lever feel, and it at least would stopped my weight rolling down the driveway.  I called it good and packed the truck back up.  Aunt Doreen and Peter headed out for supper.  Rachel helped me mix and shake all my bottles and we all settled down for the night.

(Scotty settling down with us outback.) 

The alarm went off at 4am, but hell I was just staring at the ceiling waiting for it anyways.  I felt well rested.  Aunt Doreen already had the coffee prepped, so we just flipped the switch on the pot, made some oatmeal, dressed, and headed out the door.  We made it in good time, and didn’t have to use the overflow lot.  We didn’t have any issues and even Ben and his cousin Jesse came up.  They met us before the start, which I think his crazy, since I was racing and got up at 4am.  He was just coming up because he’s awesome, so he got up in Greenville at 3:30am.  What a guy. 

So that basically brings you up to the speed.  Seem a lot less disjointed now, but I think opening with something about glimmering sun has like a funny Dan Brown literary technique that just makes me chuckle when all your reading is the thoughts of Chris Patterson.  The idea was to capture you into thinking your were reading something awesome then slowly bore you about the race until you quit reading.  And of course if you have an attention span like me, minus the 7 other windows probably already open on your computer, I’ll save you some time.  I got 33^rd and Eric got 37^th.  I am proud of my finish, but most of all I so dam proud of my brother.  I was speechless when I found out I missed him finish because he was so close behind me.  Just freak’in amazing.  I might just start calling him Eatough Jr., he kinda has the hair color and cut.

Now for you racers.  The course was fast and in good shape.  None of the climbs were horrible and the single track, was …. Scenic.  I caught an excellent group (Thanks Doug from Eastbay Co?) on the first lap and paced them through till around mile 22.  The group started falling apart in the end as they trickled back realizing they might have went off a little hot.  From around mile 26 to 30, the course treats the legs to 3 punchy climbs, and two smaller moderate climbs that became a lot rougher on lap 2 and 3.  I elected to pass through the aid station with out stopping at mile 18 on the first lap and Ben and Rachel made a quick bottle hand off for me to head back out.  I rode alone until about mile 40 where Rob from Monroe caught on and we basically rode back and forth the rest of the race.  The final lap was rough.  At the start I officially retired from 100 mile racing, thinking the 60 mile races were more up my ally.  It wasn’t leg cramps, it wasn’t really anything but a lack of motivation.  My right side of my lower back was upset, but not enough I couldn’t block it out.  I just couldn’t get myself to push myself.  I grabbed water at the aid station from a worker and took off solely motivated by the fact pedaling harder would end this trip that much quicker.  I awaited the final 3 climbs like no other.  I seriously couldn’t wait, because I knew all I had to do was punch it up those climbs and I had an easy 6 miles to the finish.  I couldn’t climb the hills on my bike anymore because it was taking to much energy, so I dismounted at the bottom of each cross style and just ran up them.  I sailed down the backside and pushed it to the finish.  Either way it was an awesome day and a good race.

I appreciate all the help we get from our sponsors and the personal assistance from Rachel, Ben, and Jesse.  I would see them 4 times a lap, plus at the pit I think, hopefully I didn’t hallucinate any of my sightings.  It really means a lot.  Rachel did an awesome job keeping track of tons of other things through out the weekend and they all snapped tons of pictures and videos.  As with Cohutta, I learned a few new things I’m going to work on for my future races, but that has to wait while I take up Bar study full time.  I’m sure I forgot lots of other things, but you can’t believe the amount of stuff that happens in 2 days of racing, one including a little over 8 hours on the bike.  If your really interested, call me because I probably could talk for ever about it.