Fool's Gold in My Eye

Ready for another NUE Series "It was so muddy and heinous" report? It's not funny anymore. Not that it was ever funny but I am now 4/4 for east coast races and mud/rain/tornadoes/biblical weather events. I guess I just have to apologize in advance to everyone for the weather when I show up at east coast races. Can you believe I am actually still having trouble seeing because all the mica in the soil did a number on my eyeballs?

Singletrack...or River?

For a recount of the destruction here's cyclingnews.com's race report for the official story.

The Fool's Gold 100 was a do-or-die situation for me. Not the ideal way to approach a race but I went in feeling really good, well rested after 5 days a sea level and ready for a long, hard day in the saddle. It rained during the entire hour long drive up from Gainesville and so I knew I was in for another doosie. It was okay. I actually quite like riding in the rain and mud. But only when I can stop myself. More on that to come.

Anyway, I skipped my typical 45 min. warm up and instead just planned to try to warm up on the first climb. Cheryl Sorensen and I rode together for the first 3 miles and tested each other out a few times. The queen of the mountain was at mile 4 and I decided to go for it. I got a huge gap and that was the last I saw of her. I felt great and it was such a relief after feeling not so great at Leadville. Looks like that planned peak may have come a week too late.


Okay, I've established that it was raining in the biblical kind of way, so I don't need to explain how treacherous it was out there. But what was unique about this race vs. other muddy conditions was that Georgia dirt eats brake pads because of the mica (aka Fool's Gold) that is mixed into the soil. I had brakes until almost the last 10 miles of Mohican and decent brakes until the end of Cohutta. Here, when my brakes started squealing on the first downhill, I knew it meant trouble.

I lost my rear brake at about mile 10 and most of my front by about mile 25. Then, it was metal on rotor the rest of the way. A post race examination of my brake pads showed that I had not only worn through both the pads and the backing to the pads, it was actually the pistons that were dragging on my rotors. Not safe.

What got me through the race was the mantra "strong when you can, smart when you can't" meaning I was pushing as hard as I could on the uphills and being overly cautious (i.e. SLOW) on the rolling and descending terrain. That strategy worked...sort of. My technique was a blend of cyclocross handling and using the terrain to slow me down. The trick was to not get going that fast in the first place. But if I did, I used mud pits, corners and rough lines to slow me down. And then when I got going slow enough I would do a running dismount - ala cross style - and avoid going face first into a tree by running. I am wicked sore from all the downhill running but at least I still have all my teeth.

Women's 100-mile podium

I spent the last 10 miles of the 50-mile loop devising a plan to finish the race as not finishing wasn't an option. Quitting just never entered my mind. That plan basically involved more of the same; running a lot, riding as hard as I could on the uphills and taking it slow and steady on the rollers and slight downhills. Seeing as I had been practicing that strategy for most of the race, when I crossed the line at the start/finish to get to my cooler I was hellbent in my head that I was heading back out for another 50-mile lap no matter what. Instead, Eddie (the race director) told me that the race had been called off. At first, I just couldn't believe it. But once it set in, a wave of relief rushed over me. It was getting really dangerous for everyone out there and people were crashing like it was a roller derby. Calling off the race was definitely the right call, no questions asked. I'm a broken record with this saying but it is still just a bike race.

Jeff and I King/Queen of the mountain got a Yazoo Growler. This gluten free gal happily gave it to her host, a beer connoisseur. He definitely appreciated it more than me!

We had a nice post party during which I had to carry around a bottle of saline solution and wash out my eyes every 5 min so I could see who I was talking to. I think the best part of the race was the overall people experience. From my gracious hosts in Gainesville (Thanks Anne and Matt!), to new friends and old (Brad, I don't know how it is that I ride every 100 with you but you are a great riding buddy), I am glad to report that southern hospitality is alive and well.

Major dork alert here: I admit that getting to meet and hang out with Sue Haywood was the highlight of my weekend. If she only knew how much I admired her career, how much of a badass I think she is, and how many times I have watched Off Road to Athens on my trainer she probably would have run away immediately looking for a restraining order. But seriously, getting to meet one of my mountain biking mentors was rad. Discovering that she was one of the nicest people on the planet was for me just icing on a big fat piece of mountain biking cake.

Brenda and Sue showing off the Georgia red clay

Oh, yeah, I crossed the line first in 5hs 2 min, giving me the win I needed to stay in contention for the overall NUE Series title! Now, it's coming down to the final race the Shenandoah 100 on September 5th. Let's not even talk about the weather forecast, okay. I'll bet getting an over sized saddlebag so I can carry brake pads and arm swimmies for this last one.

I got home last night, but only after arriving in Denver Sunday night, driving to Whole Foods in Ft. Collins for dinner and to finish a graduate paper due at midnight in their cafe, and driving home to Idaho yesterday. There really is no place like home, especially after being away for almost a month. There's a bit of fall in the air and I'm okay with that. Anything is better than Georgia in August!

Don't think, just go

That's how I got myself to get on a plane 3 days after Leadville to go out to another 100-miler. No thinking, just go. It's a good thing I have the distraction of preparing for another long day of racing because quite frankly, Leadville hurt. The entire experience took a lot out of me for more reasons than I ever imagined and I am happy that I am not at home stewing over all that went wrong and why. Instead, I am in Georgia getting ready for the Fool's Gold 100. Thankfully, my legs are recovering a lot faster than my head. Maybe it's because there's so much oxygen here in Georgia. I arrived in Atlanta last night and almost fell over when the wall of humidity hit me as I deplaned. But you know what? It actually felt good. Really good. It literally hit me like a ton of bricks that I am in a new place for a new race and there was a new day waiting for me outside the airport. No thinking, just moving forward. Oh, yeah, and singletrack!

Call me crazy (I am used to it) but I came to Georgia for the 7th race of the National Ultra Endurance series so I can try to go for the overall title, meaning I have to do 4 of the 8 races. With that goal in mind I had to come here and race 6 days after Leadville. Will I be ready? There's really no way to tell, but I do know that I cannot wait to be able to breathe deeply, hit my normal HR max and actually ride some terrain that mountain bikes are designed for.

Today I put the monotony of the Leadville course behind me and tore up 20 miles of sweet Georgia singletrack at the Chicopee trails at the Elachee Nature Center. Man, it felt great to turn and handle my bike! I have good friends putting me up in a wonderful house in Gainesville and it seems like this week is going to be all about enjoying a great ride. Tomorrow I'm heading up to preview the course and can't wait to see what I am in for.

Post-Race

Well that was a rough day on the bike. I figured I should put my typical post race insomnia to good use this morning and jot down a few thoughts about yesterday's race. Cutting to the chase: I was second. Again. And I had a lengthy flat. Again. I did it in 8:12 and was 5 min. ahead of my splits for a sub 8-hr. finish time when I flatted. I felt just okay all day and that was frustrating. I never felt absolutely awful but I never felt good and never once approached feeling great.

Photo Dave McElwaine @ trailwatch.net

It was also by far the most beautiful weather we could have asked for. The course conditions were fast, a bit windy on the return trip and the one or two times I actually looked at the views, they were stunning. The race start pace was civil. I rode with Rebecca until the base of Columbine and that was a really hard 3 hours. The pace was insane and she threw down an aggressive attack up Sugarloaf to try to shake me before powerline. I hung on and then led the first half of the descent and she took the second half. We rode a blistering pace to the base of Columbine where my husband just barely got me my feed. I was practically starting the climb, wondering where he was when he goes ripping by on his moto, crash lands it on the side, and just barely gets me my feed bag. I slowed up to get my feed, so Rebecca attacked there, got a small gap as I was stuffing my pockets and then she slowly put in 6 min. into me on the 3,000 foot 10-mile climb and descent up to 12,400. (Yes, I suck at climbing. Must work on that ;)

Anyway, that was the last I saw of her. When I saw her pull away, I had to change my focus onto riding my own race, making time where I could and doing damage control where I couldn't. I came into the Twin Lakes aid station and she had 6 min. on me. When I got to the last aid station at mile 74, she had a 9 min. Gap. Crap. My legs still hadn't started feeling any better and all I could think of was oh my lord, there is no way I am going to make it up the Powerline climb. Then something finally clicked. 6 hrs in I started to feel more like myself. I rode the entire Powerline climb - Cleaned the entire thing. Columbine too. That makes me happy. The funniest part about the Poweline climb was that Ned Overand was just ahead of me and I could see him walking. There were so many awesome people lining that climb, cheering me on to ride the whole thing, heckling me that Ned walked it, I'm younger than Ned, etc. Hilarious. Cleaning the entire first section gave me confidence that I had more in my tank than I thought and I was ready to make a move to at least try to put a dent into that 9 min. gap.

I got to the top of Sugarloaf and said to myself, okay, go time. I really pushed it on the descent and couldn't see many of the rocks lurking in the shadows. It must have been one of those that I nailed, burped my rear tire and flatted immediately. I gave it a quick shot of Co2-nothing. I had learned my lesson last year to not mess around, so I immediately got to work on putting a tube in. Problem was my valve stem was absolutely stuck in there. After 10 minutes of trying, 4 bloody finger tips, a ripped fingernail and lots of people passing me, I gave up on the valve stem and had started putting my stuff away so I could put my bike on my shoulder and walk to the junction on Hagerman Rd. about 3 miles or so away and hitch a ride home. My Leadville and my effort to throw down a sub 8 hr time was over.

All of the sudden my pal Ted who has been staying at the same house as me here in Leadville comes around the corner and asks if I need help. My trail angel stopped and railed on my valve stem for me with his man hands and got it off! As soon as he did I said "thank you, thank you now go go go!" and I got to work on finally putting a tube in. It must have been 15 min. or so before I got going again. Ted absolutely saved my race. This is why I love this sport so much. Here's a guy who has done Leadville 9 times, has come in 2nd a few times himself, and he selflessly stopped on the side of the trail to help me get home. Amazing.

This act of kindness helped me through the rest of the sufferfest home. I was sooooo deflated after my flat (haha). I was disappointed, pissed, embarrassed and just plain sad. I wanted to win this race so badly and once again, it just wasn't working out. I made it to the aid station at the top of Carter where I had planned to pick up a bottle. Instead I got a new wheel, tube, a CO2 and the final split that Rebecca was over 20 min. ahead. It was a long 11 miles home.

But, I rode it out as fast as I could and had more than a few a-ha moments out there. When I passed the 180 turn on St. Kevin's, I remembered my friends Wendy and Jillian being right there the year before cheering me on. Jillian was climbing the middle Teton this summer when she slipped and fell to her death. She was 21. It got me thinking about the bigger picture once again. Leadville is still just a bike race. It made me smile and pedal harder.

I rode the last section of the Boulevard alongside Dave Weins' brother, trying to keep my head high, knowing I had given it everything I had out there. My everything just wasn't enough. I got beat fair and square by a better rider who had a great day and was super motivated. A huge congrats to Rebecca Rusch for not only riding a spectacular race, but for also setting a new course record! I only hope that it helps increase the exposure women get at Leadville.

It's embarrassingly lopsided to the men's side of things here. Only 257 of the 1600 entrants were women. There is no podium. You either win it or you don't. After the race a photographer said to me "Oh, you're second place, don't you think they want you in the press tent?" I laughed and said this is the 3rd time I have been 2nd place here and no one has ever spoken to me post race. Ever. Same for this year, too. As a woman, you either win Leadville or you don't. As Ricky-Bobby would lament, "If you're not first, you're last."

Will I come back for a 4th? Now's not the time to say, but I will say this: the competitive atmosphere at Leadville is practically addictive. I will never experience crowds like this in my life. Where else could you get a guy dressed up in a tux and a chef's outfit offering you a hot dog and cold beer at 12,000 feet? Where else can you get serenaded by a man in overalls playing a banjo while you are suffering up a granny gear climb? I was chased for over a minute by what I think must have been the local girls' high school cross country team screaming their lungs out, running beside me. I was followed by cowbell all the way up powerline. People cheered for me by name all day. It was awesome. So, so, so, so awesome. When it comes time to enter the lottery this winter, it'll be hard to pass that experience up. As many times as it has handed it to me, I still LOVE this race.

A huge thanks again to everyone who was pulling for me on this one. A special thanks to Nate for being the best supporter I could ever ask for. I may not be a factory rider with the equipment, support and perks that come along with it, but he bends over backwards to make me feel like I am at no disadvantage because of it. He even bought me flowers and gave them to me anyway even though I didn't get first. I couldn't do this type of racing with out him-thanks honey for being such an enthusiastic member of Team Carey!

Counting Down

I wish I had something profound or earth shattering to say about the big bike meet on Saturday. I even thought about it for a while. Fact is, no matter which angle I approach it from, it still just computes as a bike race. I spent an hour on the phone with my coach Eric Orton this morning and only about 10 of the minutes were spent talking about Leadville. There's just a lot of other important stuff going on: Tuesday I hop on a plane to Georgia to race the Fool's Gold next Saturday, 2 weeks later is the Shenandoah 100, I'm thinking about some stage racing, then there's cross season, Interbike...and that's just bike related stuff. Leadville is one of many bike races and life is full of other important stuff, too.

The climb up to columbine was looking mighty fine this week.

Being the "underwhelming favorite" for this year's race, (that's a self-given title as Rebecca Rusch has been named the overwhelming favorite by many) I'm racing with pretty light shoulders. Yeah, yeah I know I got beat last year by 25 min. But I also know that 20 of those minutes were spent fixing a flat tire and getting caught in traffic as a result. I'm confident that I'm a bit smarter, stronger, fitter and generally a better bike rider than at this time last year. I've already won some great races this year, so having a good day at Leadville would only add to an already successful season!

Looking down on the turnaround at the mine.

I am excited for the challenge and incredibly prepared to go out and ride a really tough race the best that I can. The chips are going to fall where the chips are going to fall. Lance or no Lance, movies and movie tours, too many tweets and excessive media attention, it's still just a bike race. Any of my Jackson/Victor riding buddies can tell you that I'm going to turn myself inside out to get to the finish line whether it's Leadville or my local Tuesday Night Worlds. It's just the way I'm wired.

I think what I am most excited to witness is my Victor pals the "Super-Varys" AKA Jay and Tracey Petervary destroy the course on a tandem. If anyone can break the 9hr mark on a tandem, it's these two. Theirs would be the most deserved belt buckle of all.

To all of my friends, family and sponsors who are behind me and have been sending me messages of bike love and support, thank you! Your support and positive vibes mean the world. I promise you all that no matter what goes down up there in the high country, I'll empty my bucket and make you proud!

Recap

I've reached the point where so much has happened in the last 2 weeks that attempting to blog about it all would give me blisters on my fingers and you a headache. Sorry about that.

I did do the Laramie Enduro, a great 70-miler on July 31. It went well. Not great, but coming off a rest week into a race is always hard and I was glad that my legs finally started to come around after almost 4 hours of pedaling into my 5:37 race. I had a pretty frightening crash about 20 minutes in the race which spooked me pretty good and bruised/scraped the entire left side of my body. A minor skin donation and a major blow to the confidence was about all that happened, nothing major. I felt stronger and stronger as the race went on and that was a great sign for things to come! Laramie was a phenomenal race and should be on every ultra racer's to do list. The organization was great, the course markings were abundant and it was a super-tough course, all at altitude.

A shot of the Peaks Trail. My favorite ride in Summit County.

From Laramie I headed to my sister's place for a visit and then to Frisco, CO. Rather than add an additional 18 hours in the car to my already crazy August schedule, I decided to set myself and Maddy up in a condo so I could start acclimating, resting, catching up on grad work and visit with family. Nate has been in Park City for 2 weeks working for Giant at their dealer event, so I wasn't too psyched to be home alone anyway. It's been a great stay although it's been raining more than usual throughout the past week.

I raced the Mountain States Cup at Keystone on Saturday. It was the best xc course I have ridden all year! Plus, I figured the 2, 10-mile loops, each with 2,000 feet of climbing up to 10,900 feet would be great breathing practice. I basically went out and rode the race at my 100-mile race starting pace and it worked out well. I felt great, never hit the red zone and despite a very calculated race plan and a quick wrong turn I still landed myself on the last step of the podium with my teammate Judy!


I have only ridden up in Leadville once since I got here. I'll head up there tomorrow and maybe Wednesday but that's all. The hardest part about being here is NOT riding. Summit county has phenomenal trails everywhere and all this rain has made it super tacky and fun. My reward for finishing Leadville on Saturday is that I get to ride my new 5" Felt Virtue on Sunday and Monday! Nate's at home building it now and is bringing it down tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll sneak in another post this week before Saturday. In case you didn't catch all my hints, Saturday is the Leadville 100. Despite all the hoop-la circling around the stacked men's field, there are in fact women racing too and I'll be one of them!