First Adventure Race in the Bag

Just realized I hadn’t posted a recap of the coolest race I’ve ever been in.  Gotta warn you though, this is a little bit of a long read – so if you’re at work, and bored, sit back and relax.  Here’s your recap:

The race was held at the Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX.  This is a working ranch – meaning people take care of herds of cows, sheep and goats out there.  In the race instructions they actually mentioned to make sure not to let the cows out of the gates if we opened them.  Ha!  The race was being setup as a duathlon – running and biking.  I registered for the long race so I would compete in a 4 mile run, followed by a 12 mile mountain bike ride, followed by another 4 mile run – all offroad.  I couldn’t wait to get out there!

The weeks leading up to the race I had been running and mountain biking a lot (mostly running as I was training for a marathon).  I had never done a race like this but I felt like I was doing an adequate amount of training for it.  I thought I would use this race as a learning experience since I had never raced in a mountain biking event.  I wasn’t concerned with winning, just giving a good showing and having a lot of fun.  Little did I know, the type of mountain bike riding I was doing wasn’t anything compared to what I needed to be doing….

The week before the race I flew out to LA for work and while I was gone, it poured rain all over the Texas Hill Country.  The race course was getting soaked.  Back in town the day before the race, I drove out to the course and was prompted to park in the mud pit make-shift parking lot where I sank in mud up to my knees.  This was going to be great….  I got my gear ready and set out to familiarize myself with the course and prepare for the next day’s race.

The start of the course was a moderate up-hill climb that eventually twisted around into some tight turns and transitioned into a fun little downhill section.  I was about a mile into the 12 mile course and realized that the course really wasn’t that muddy.  There were some slick spots, but over-all not bad.  Seems the water drained really well and mud wouldn’t be a factor in the race.

Since this was just a pre-race ride, I didn’t want to use up too much energy.  I spent about 90 minutes navigating the course and mentally plotting markers to help myself remember what gear I would need to be in to get through the section the quickest and where to turn when the course wasn’t marked well.  After 90 minutes, I was stoked.  Totally excited about the race the next day.  It was a fun and very challenging course.  It had everything from long stretches of level ground with tight fast turns at the end to very technical up-hill climbs over rocks to fast downhill sections with some small jumps at the end.  I did, however, start worry about 1 thing: I hadn’t been training for all the hills and most of the uphill sections were very long and very steep.  After running 4 miles, even though fun, this was going to be a lot more difficult than I had realized.

After finishing my pre-race ride, while loading up my bike, I got to talking with a girl, Jessi, who had just flown in for the race from San Diego.  She was decked out in race gear with sponsors everywhere and looked legit.  I had thought this was just a local race.  Apparently people were coming from all over the country to race in this event.  Great.  I picked a big one to learn how to race.  haha

The next day I woke up early to eat a carb loaded breakfast and head out to the course before the crowd showed up.  Too late for that.  The crowd got there even earlier than I did.  Oh well.  I started stretching and getting ready and happened to run into the same girl I had met the day before from San Diego.  While talking to her, the race announcer came over the mic and announced that they were happy to welcome Jessi Stensland – pro triathlete – to the race and asked that she report to one of the booths.  At that, Jessi (the same girl from San Diego that I was talking to), said she needed to go check in.  Ok, so not only are people coming from all over the country to race here, but there are professionals in this race too!  Awesome.  Hi, I’m Matt and this is my first time to ever race a mountain bike.

The start of the race was staggared.  The men’s long race started first, about 5 minutes ahead of the women’s long race group who was followed by the different short race groups.  I started off in the first group and watched the semi-professional men rocket ahead like we only had to run a few hundred yards.  I set myself into my race pace and was having a great time.  I felt great, the running course was fun and by the time I got to the transition area at the end of the 4 miles, I had actually made up some ground on the semi-pro group (ok, not that much ground but enough to make me feel good).  Jessi Stensland – the pro – had passed all the guys behind me and was now setting up to leave the transition area about the same time as I.

Sure enough, we started the bike course at the same time.  I was just barely in front of her and was riding a LOT faster than I had planned – pro or not, I couldn’t let her beat me.  About 2 miles into the course, one of those turns where I made the mental note about which way to go came up – the mental note didn’t.  I went the wrong way and led Jessi the wrong way as well.  Immediately I knew something was wrong.  I didn’t recognize the trail and then realized that the pro was following me.  50 meters later, and really embarrassed,  I stopped knowing I had to turn around and go back.  She stopped behind me, confused, and all I could get out was, “Uh…wrong way.  Trail back that way.”  Awesome Matt.  Nice job.  Talk much?

Back on the trail, she eventually left me way behind.  Oh well.  What was I thinking trying to keep up with a pro-triathlete?  Six miles into the race the hills took a toll on me.  I had used a lot of energy on the run and went out way too fast at the start of the bike course and now I was paying for it.  The hills were brutal.  They seemed to be 10 times higher than the pre-race ride, 10 times longer and 100 times steeper.  I got passed by a bunch of people and only passed a few.  The good time that I had made on the run was being lost here.  I was cursing myself for not doing more hill rides in my training.

Then I saw her.  The pro – walking her bike up the next hill.  I thought – oh wow!  Maybe I’m not doing so bad!  If the pro is having to walk up I must be doing a lot better than I thought!  I passed her and from that point on my energy was renewed.  Three miles later, I flew down the last hill back into the transition area and took off for the last 4 mile run.

The run was over the same course as before, but it was for sure harder this time.  My quads and hamstrings were cramping due to low electrolytes and I was out of fuel.  At this point, adrenaline was the only thing keeping me going.  All those people that passed me on the bike course – I passed them all back on the run.  The last mile of the run felt like my fastest of the whole race.  I passed a few more people and finally crossed the finish line.  Twenty minutes later, Jessi Stensland crossed.

After cooling down I caught up with her.  What I had seen as her being really tired and walking her bike up a hill, was actually her pushing her bike along the course as she RAN the entire thing – her chain had broken rendering her bike useless.  She ran the majority of the bike course and managed to only finished 20 minutes behind me.  That was, and still is, amazing.  I have no idea how she did that.  I guess that’s why she’s a pro and I’m not.

At the awards ceremony, I found out I actually won my age group and placed 5th over all!  This was my first race of this type and I was extremely happy with those results!  I learned a ton about how to race in an offroad event, how to train for one, what gear I needed/didn’t need – I learned a ton.  It was also really cool that I got to meet and race with a pro-triathlete known all over the world – even if I did lead her the wrong way on the race course. haha  It was a great race.