Fat Tire Challenge June 21st, 2009

The Fat Tire Challenge is a 14.5 mile mountain bike race in Clear Creek State Park, located in Brookville, PA. It’s the first of three in the “Bike the Wilds” series that my Dad, Paul and I are doing this year. That Sunday morning, we surprisingly left the house only 10 minutes later than we intended too; much better than our standard ½ hour late. 2 hours we finally made it there and I could feel the butterflies building up in my stomach. We registered, got ready, and went to wait in line for the race to start. I was at the front of the pack and had noticed that all the female riders had moved towards the back of the pack. Fine by me; I’m still going to start as close to the front as I can.



Just standing there, my heart rate is rising: 115, 117, 120, 122. The race director gives us the usual info: some of the trail marked w/ pink ribbons, some of the trail marked w/ orange paint – got it. And 3, 2, 1, GO! I have a little stumble at the start with getting clipped into my pedal which costs me a few seconds and 1 female rider passes me; shoot. I manage to hang on to the front group as we turn from the gravel / dirt road and onto the trail. Immediately we are met with section after section of mud, a result of the prior weeks worth of torrential downpour. Still in the pack, mud is kicking up in my face from the riders in front of me and splashing up on me as I ride through. It’s in my face, my eyes, my lips and my mouth. It’s slowing me down and I’m wishing I hadn’t put 50 pounds of pressure in my tires prior to the race.

I try to make up for lost time once we reach a semi-dry, flat section. I pick up the pace, pass a guy on my right, and hit a slick patch. My bike goes down and I literally fly out of my pedals, face first onto the trail and slide into the mountain laurels. I quickly get back up, embarrassed that they guy I just passed is now passing me, and get back into it as fast as possible. This sets me back and I’m now riding with the middle group. They’re going pretty slow through a very narrow, slick, technical section. I can’t keep momentum but keep trying to get back on my bike. In hindsight, I should have just run my bike through that entire section. As we come into a clearing, I settle into a moderately fast pace, cautious of what happened previously when I tried to go all out. I pass one or two people and then hear someone coming up behind me. I hear a female’s voice call out, on you’re right! NO WAY, I am NOT letting her pass. I immediately pick up the pace and start hammering, putting a good distance between me and her.

I have a good rhythm now and am feeling more confident. I come to a bridge that’s bottlenecked because it’s slick and everyone is walking their bikes across. I make it over and get back on quickly, hoping I still have a gap on the chick behind me. I was following a group and as we came up to a stream crossing, everyone started turning around; they thought they may have missed a turn. I couldn’t understand why because the trail clearly went across and I could see trees marked with orange paint, so I continued across, as did a few other guys.

What came next would be the most grueling climb I never want to experience again on a mountain bike. The approach was steep and narrow and I couldn’t maintain any momentum coming in; I pushed as hard as I could but had to jump off. As I turned the first corner I saw in the distance that the trail went up and up, seemingly endlessly. There were parts that I could ride but many that I had to hike. At one point the trail was so steep, I had trouble even pushing my bike up. Just hiking, my heart rate was near threshold. I continued looking back and saw only one guy behind me. I started to become concerned that I was on the wrong trail. How could they possibly expect people to ride up this? This may be an awesome downhill, but up? No way. It was discouraging not knowing, not seeing anyone, not having anyone to talk to. I finally reached the top after what had seemed like miles and saw riders coming from the right, which confused me. Was there a loop I was supposed to follow to the right that would bring me back around? Were these expert riders? I asked a few passing by if there was a loop I had to take but none of them knew, so I followed the race course to the left.

I didn’t know what had happened but taking the wrong turn threw my entire game off for the rest of the race. I battled with myself about whether it brought me out ahead or behind where I should have been. I would have to disqualify myself for going off course. The race didn’t really mean anything then, it wasn’t really a race anymore, I was just going to finish. I was torturing myself, riding mainly alone, for the rest of the race. Occasionally a rider or group of riders would pass me and I’d ride with them for awhile, only to be dropped when we got to a muddy or rocky section. I really need to work on my technical skills; even when (and maybe especially) it’s wet.

I came through the last major rock garden and there were people there snapping pictures. I managed to push through long enough so they could take my picture while I was still on my bike , until I couldn’t hold the line anymore and had to run through. “Just about a mile to go”, they said, YES! I was so relieved to have this race over with. I came back on the gravel road, gave it all I had left and sprinted to the finish.

I finished 2nd overall in the female sport division with a time of 1 hr 53 minutes. After speaking with the race director, they decided that I didn’t need to be disqualified for the route I had taken and my points were safe for the Bike the Wilds series. This was a very challenging course, both mentally and physically. I look forward to facing it again and winning it next year!



Race Stats:

Standing: 2nd overall female sport
Course Length: 14.5 miles
Finish Time: 1 hr, 53 minutes
Heart Rate – The majority of the race was spent in zone 4 with 23 minutes spent in zone 5.

Dash for Cash, Sarver, PA June 6th, 2009

I had a much different attitude starting this race than any other mountain biking race I’ve done before (and there haven’t been many). This race was different. This season is different. Before I had been racing just to see if I could finish, I was now racing to win.

Standing in line to pick up my packet and number, I perused the crowd to see what other female cyclists were there. Other than my two friends who were riding in the beginner race, I didn’t see a single other woman. I got to the front and they told me I was the only female racing in the sport division. I was a bit disappointed to not have any competition. A few minutes later I look up at the line and see this chick totally decked out in her Trek racing gear and accompanying Trek bike. She totally looked the part and I was intimidated! I decided rather than gawking from a distance that I’d introduce myself, so I walked up and said “Hi, I’m the competition!” After talking, I later found out that she was racing expert, not sport. I have to say I was a bit relieved but also bummed at the same time. I did find out later that there was one other woman racing in the sport category, so that gave me some incentive, but mainly I wanted to ride the race as fast as I could. My goal was to finish the race in under 2 hours.

As we were standing around at the pre-race meeting, I heard a pssshhht coming from Paul’s bike; he got a flat just standing there! What luck. He ran over to the tent and changed his tube in record time, and minutes later we were both standing at the starting line. 3, 2, 1, we’re off!




Immediately we both took off and headed out toward the trail. We were on the road for a short stretch, about 25 meters, and I happened to glance down at my heart rate – 170 – just 15 beats below threshold and we had just started! As we entered the single track I told Paul good luck, I knew there was no way I’d be able to stay on his wheel and didn’t want him to hold anything back.

The first 5 miles of the trail is extremely technical. I discovered this, thankfully, during the pre-ride. Rather than taking my time though over the obstacles, as I had done during the pre-ride, I continued to go as fast as I could, riding recklessly and falling often. I soon realized that while I wanted to go fast, it was much slower and painful to fall and have to pick myself back up, click back in, and get going again. I was losing a lot of time this way. So, I decided to take it a little easier over the hard stuff and go fast when I felt more comfortable. It wasn’t long before I came up to Paul on the trail changing his tire; I felt so bad for him! On one hand I wanted to stop and see if I could help in any way but on the other hand it was a race and I knew he’d want me to keep going. He said he was ok and I flew past, hoping he would catch me soon. Shortly after that I came up to a bridge leading over a mud bog. I didn’t recall having any issues with this bridge during the pre-ride. With no one in front or behind me, I came barreling down the hill at the bridge but as soon as my tire hit, it slid from underneath me, throwing me into the bog below! The entire right side of my body was covered in mud; sloppy, stinky, disgusting mud! I love mountain biking and enjoy getting dirty when I ride but this was like nothing I’d experienced before. Fortunately I had no time to think about how disgusting I was and just looked forward to that first stream crossing so I could rinse some of the slop off my body.

Before I knew it, I had gone across the first stream crossing and came out to the road where the beginner course ended. Only 10 miles to go! I looked down at my watch to see how long it had taken me but my stopwatch had stopped after 13 minutes. Oh well, should have attached it to my handlebars. Heart rate in the 180’s for the first 5 miles; I wonder how long I could keep this up? I started in on the first climb up an access road, about ½ mile climb. This is where I started making up time and gaining on riders. My strength is in the hills and in endurance and boy, did it feel good to be passing the guys! I passed a few riders on the hill and more as I rode along. I must have passed 10-15 guys during the course of the race, and not a single one of them passed me again! This was my favorite part of the race and kept me going strong. As I came upon a hill I would see a rider in the distance, attack the climb, and set my sights on passing him.

Not once during the race did I let up. I remember as I passed two guys standing on the side of the trail, they were commenting on how most guys start out strong and die down half way through because they can’t keep the pace they set, “except for her!” they said, as I passed them! I am proud of my performance and how strong I rode. I didn’t walk down a single hill, which is a great achievement for me – there were some sketchy descents. Yes, there were some technical sections that I had to push my bike through, but I ran, rather than walked. And at the end even though I had to push my bike up many sections of that last killer climb, I still kept getting back on and riding strong to the end and sprinting to the finish.



Race Stats:

Standing – 1st overall women’s sport division
Course Length – 14.9 miles
Finish Time – 1:58:30 (yea!)
Heart Rate - Don’t know because my watch stopped 13 minutes in, but every time I looked down it was at or near threshold, in the 180’s and sometimes 190’s.\