Stony Marathon XC

Yesterday I raced the Stony Marathon XC; 4 laps of a 10-mile course. I decided to load up my Camelback rather than worry about somebody handing bottles to me... besides, I'm not used to drinking from bottles on the mountain bike. I also packed 4 gels with me.

I did a very short, easy warmup. I figured that the race was long enough that I didn't need to warmup much ahead of time. They started us in waves... with the Expert/Elites going first (they raced 6 laps!), followed by groups of Sport racers. My wave included Sport men from 19 to 40 I think. Nobody seemed to be pushing too hard from the start, and I stayed with my group until we hit the Pines. At that point, guys who were a little quicker in the singletrack started passing me. I held my own out on the two-track, but was getting consistently passed in the singletrack. By the end of the first lap, I was last in my group (which I thought meant I was last in my wave), so I was a little discouraged at that point.

I felt a little better near the beginning of the second lap. On a "two-way" section of the course, I saw some guys with number plates for my class still finishing their first lap. So, I wasn't last in my wave, just the last of the first sepatation. There was a long climbing section near the beginning of the lap (individually, the climbs aren't long, but there are a bunch of them strung together), and I passed about 5 guys at once on the last climb. So, that perked me up a bit, even though most of the guys got by me again later in the lap.

Before the race, I had expected the third lap to be the hardest. I was pretty fatigued at the beginning of the lap, but that had also happened at the beginning of the second lap. It was a combination of things, the laps ended with a long slightly uphill ride through the grass, which was an energy-sucker. The gels also weren't kicking in until a little later in the lap. As with the second lap, I felt better a little further into the lap. For most of the third lap, I was riding with guys who rode more like I did in the singletrack, and I was also picking off a few riders who were starting to fade. Some of the faster Expert/Elite riders also started lapping me on the third lap... those guys were pretty impressive. By the end of the third lap, I was really starting to drag. I took my gel at the end of the lap as usual and waited for it to kick in.

I started the fourth lap pretty fatigued, as seemed to be the trend. This time though, the boost I got from the gel was short-lived. By the time I finished the first climbing section, I could feel my energy level dropping and a bonk coming on. I ate my "safety" gel, and it seemed to help. On that climbing section, I made my last pass on a guy I'd been swapping spots with all day. I told him we'd probably see each other again, but we didn't. I also started having some pain in my left foot early in the lap; it turns out that I got a little blister, but it didn't bother me too much. The singletrack sections were a little dicey the last time through; I didn't have any problems, but I wasn't as focused as I should have been. Anyway, I got through the lap and finished and was happy to get off my bike.

I finished in just under 3.5 hours, which I was pretty happy with. The preliminary results showed that I finished 8th out of 11; although, there might have been a few racers still on the course. I'd hoped to place a little higher, but that's how it goes; I'm not sure what I would have done differently to improve my position.

Despite eating and drinking a lot after the race yesterday, this morning I weighed 4 pounds less than I did yesterday morning.