Hard Nox 50

If there's one thing a state park should do before an event, it's restock the toilet paper in the bathroom. I used to always keep a roll in my truck, and I guess I need to keep one in the hatchback. Fortunately one of the racers found a handful for a few of us to share.

The Hard Nox 50 started off on foot with a short jog to the bike. I'm not much of a runner anymore, especially in bike shoes, but I figured I had plenty of time to catch up on the bike. The first twelve miles or so were spent doing just that - rubbing tires in the singletrack and passing when it opened up. Halfway through the first lap, I'd made it to fourth. A few miles later, I was in second with third on fourth on my tail. Up until this point, I was riding extremely well. I was hauling ass and felt great. I could hear the guys behind me breathing much harder than I was. I felt sure that I could outlast them. I'm going to be optimistic and say that at that pace I could've gotten first.

But after about an hour and a half, I hit a wall. It started with a big-ass snake lying in the middle of a switchback, which broke my concentration and forced me to step off the bike. Not the best time to be putting a foot down. As I watched third and fourth pass me and suffer up the hill in misery, I thought to myself, "That doesn't look fun." I didn't really feel like chasing after them again. A series of demoralizing climbs - where the trail builders forgot what switchbacks were - further dampened my mood. I switched from race-pace to endurance-pace to finish the first lap.

I crossed the line, started the second lap, and came to realize that eating a Clif Bar when your mouth is dry is nearly impossible. I used almost half a water bottle to flush it down. A few miles into lap two, I would've sworn that this entire course was uphill. Big climbs followed by short descents; where it evens out, I still don't know. Now in seventh, I stopped at the sag halfway through to refill my water bottle and speed up my rebound for the upcoming roots - hard to say if it really helped.

I kept on cruising even though it wasn't really fun anymore. I was tired of racing and started thinking about the off season when I can focus more on fun and less on speed. It was hot when I hit the steep climbs again. I even walked one of them and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to push a light bike up a hill. I stopped again a few miles from the finish to refill at a water fountain. I could've made it, but I was already pretty dehydrated at that point.

I crossed the finish in seventh overall and fifth in my age group. There was a fast old guy and a really fast barely-old guy. Eventhough I did pretty well, I'm still disappointed for not riding as well as I could've. My time was even a few minutes slower than last year, but I've accepted it as the price I pay during recovery from the TNGA. Staying fuelled up for an endurance ride is easy; I can eat just about anything. But staying fuelled up to maintain race-pace is something that eludes me. You can bet I'll figure it out before next year though.