Wilderness 101

The final weekend in July marked both the end of a busy ED stretch, the start of 12 days of vacation, and the return to NUE races for me after a hiatus since April (thanks, residency). I made the trek up to Pennsylvania for my first crack at Shenandoah Mountain Touring's famous Wilderness 101. Lucky for me, I had company as Bryan came up with me. He wasn't racing having just done (and won) High Cascades the weekend before and clearly was smarter than me and taking it easy knowing Pierre's Hole was the following weekend.

Leading up to the race that area of PA was SUPER wet with something like 14" of rain over the preceding two weeks. Chris showed us some pictures of the race start and camping area fully underwater the day before. Pre-race night was a bit stressful as we swapped out my worn tires for fresh ones and definitely had some difficulty getting them to seat. Last time I ever switch tires right before a race. Lesson #1 learned. Fortunately, Bryan was a rockstar and finally got them seated and sealed. Huge thanks to Chris Scott for hooking us up with a little extra Stans because we definitely had to do a couple re-dos during the process. The AirBnB hosts made a super awesome dinner which they invited us to. 

Carla gave me some good beta regarding the start and I managed to stay with the lead group most of the way up the first climb until Bryan's glasses which I was borrowing due to the anticipated wet conditions fell off my helmet. Not wanting to lose his glasses I stopped and got them. Burnt several extra matches trying to catch back up which fortunately I was eventually able to once I hooked up with a couple of other racers but I suffered for it later. Lesson # 2: Leave your boyfriend's glasses and apologize later.
  

During the first 30mi rode with Vicki Barclay in the group and it was great catching up with her since I hadn't seen her since Tour de Burg last year.  Once we hit singletrack (her home trails) though she put time on me easily and I didn't see her again. By about mile 40 I was starting to feel my early hard effort and the next 30ish miles were a bit rough. Not terrible but also just didn't feel my normal. Bryan was cruising around the course on his gravel bike taking pictures (all pics here courtesy of him) and met up with and rode with me a couple times. No, no drafting....he just rode next to me.

 

At Aid 4, Bryan headed back to the start. I headed out onto the next climb and my legs started to come back. By the top I felt stronger and actually cruised for the next 30 miles with a brief stop at Aid 5 where I pounded like 3 PB&J after suddenly becoming really hungry coming down the descent into it. I caught and passed several riders who had dropped me earlier in the race and felt really strong all the way to the finish. I crossed the line at 8:21:21 in second place after making up significant time in the last third. Vicki won the women's race and Lindsey Carpenter took 5th taking a ton of time off her time from last year! Tons of TdB representation on the podium either full-pull or poachers :)
 

Thanks to Chris Scott and Shenandoah Mountain Touring for putting on such a great event....sooooo stoked for Shenandoah 100 in just a couple of weeks!!! 20th anniversary!