DEA babble

Ahhh, clearer head. Amazing what about 36 hours can do to help you feel human again. The Jay Challenge Mountain Bike Race is behind us and over half a year of training, dreaming, fearing, and dreading the event is now behind us.

I posted right after I got home on Monday, and my head was still a bit funky at that point. I was saying there was no way I would do it again, and maybe I should think back to why I was saying that before I put these next words down in writing, but I’m gonna through caution to the wind and say it- I very well might do this race again. There I said it, but I took the politicians slant giving myself an out.

JJ put it down pretty well what the course was like. I was fortunate that I didn’t really have any stomach issues for most of the day. I did enjoy six hours of cramping of my thighs but I seemed to figure out ways to continue to move forward, just not at the pace that I had hoped to “ride”. That’s part of it, how does your body react to the stress of an event of this nature. I’m not totally satisfied with the way my body reacted but I did learn a great deal and have a plan on how I might deal with it- in fact A1 can “pay me back” for getting my into cycling as I’m going to “let him” teach me about weight training. (That may be news to him!)

My bike ran well, and when it was having issues it seemed that a touch of lube on the drive train seemed to solve the issue- so take note (self included) bring a small bottle of lube! I was lucky to have a support person at station 7 hook me up with lube and then a guy from FirstTrax at station 9 not only provided the lube but actually applied it for me (thanks!).

Mentally I felt pretty good up to station 10, at that point my ability to stay positive began to wane. I’ve always been pretty good about staying positive but this event pushed me to the point of negativity more than anything else in my life. I think I managed to stay positive but there were times when I felt like I was looking at the world through Sadam’s eyes- kinda scary. Of course having gone through that would be an advantage next year as you know to not ask and to not ever allow yourself to think you are near the end. If you can do that then you can be pleasantly surprised when you do finally see the finish.

The terrain was amazing, not sure if Vermont has a thing for building crazy roads that just reach for the sky for no apparent reason- it certainly appears so. Dan is a sick man, but he tells you that up front. He’s the most honest promoter I’ve ever come across- and don’t ever think he’s just trying to scare you- he’s telling you the truth about how tough his course is going to be. When he says he’s going to take you over every peak he can find he’s not kidding. You can tell he comes from the adventure racing world and not the mountain bike world as much of the course had no flow and at times the trail seemed to take the least rideable line there was. Then again he warned us!

I need to say right here and now that I bow down to those Challenger racers who do the 3 day- I have no idea how you do it. I talked with a few of you and saw how you were walking BEFORE the start of the mtb race- the fact that you started, much less finished (and much faster then me I might add) the mtb portion is truly amazing!


I’m proud as hell of my teammates. Everyone put out a fantastic effort and we had three members make it to the finish. Despite losing NK (mechanical) and PJ (needs a new back) on the course we had a great time riding with them while they were on course and NK was huge in cheering us on in the end and helping us out once we finished, including going to get the pizza- I’m not sure if I said thank you for that, so THANK YOU NK!

I’m not sure what it means that the race is now behind us. Will we continue to train? I hope so. We have the 24 Hours of Great Glen coming up and then there are lots of other races in the fall. Maybe I can convince some of these guys to ski Great Glen to Bretton Woods this winter (a 50km xc ski race that starts on one side of Mt. Washington and finishes on the other). Maybe they can convince me to do something stupid- we shall see.

A huge thank you to my wife and kids for helping me through this. Karen being at aid station 2 and 5 was a huge boost. A huge thank you to all those who have been following the blog and who gave us support while we were out on course- that was pretty cool. And thank you to my TWAF teammates, the last 9 months have been pretty cool- let’s keep it rolling!

Is it over or is it just starting? Hmm that’s the big question.

See you on the trails-

DEA