Another trail day in Vermont

Another trail day in Vermont
This thought was repeatedly running through my head during today’s stage out of Mills River Campground. Although today’s 25 miles with 3200 elevation gain included the rough trails we’ve come to know as “Pisgah old school style,” today’s race was more of a undulating day, with “reasonable” climbs that could be done in the middle or even big ring. That was good enough for me. Too many hours in the granny gear, sitting and spinning up gravel roads for 45 minutes at a time, had my glutes spent and my quads feeling [slightly) fresher. I was more than happy to adopt my preferred “stand and grind” riding style - for a few hours, at least.

Female Trio
As has become our daily start, Anna, Kim and I started out climbing together, alternating pulling & drafting and chatting about kids, races, hopes for our legs holding up. Going into the trails, you would never have known of the deluge of a few days ago. The one stream crossing was ridable and the red/orange clay (consisting of schist, mica and feldspar) on the trail was already tacky. After a playful descent (I am loving my dropper seat, although sometimes I have to manually lock it out because of the permanent grit in the spring), our trio stopped at a three-limb Sycamore that had dropped in the recent in the storm and assembly line handed over our bikes. Anna took the lead and I wasn’t surprised to watch her pull away. I reminded myself that a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering must have some pretty stellar mental processing ability at rapid speed. About ten miles in, I settled into a manageable big gear on a very gradual rooty trail climb and leap frogged into the lead. I covered some ground on a fast, grassy double track, but because I was alone, I started to become pre-occupied with the idea that I was off course (sometimes there is a lot of time to think). Although the race organizers had consistently flagging each course (every 5 minutes there is a ribbon), there were two different detours/mistours yesterday. I knew today’s course did a cloverleaf and I could easily have been on the wrong “loop”. Fortunately, the Perfomance duo team from Raleigh, NC came by, I jumped on the back of the “drafting train” and we cruised into the aid station at mile 14. The rest of the race was a mix of singletrack and gravel roads, some of the climbing was sloggy-slow or hike-a-bike over steep, rooty sections. At one point, the mascot in the White Squirrel suit blew a bullhorn at me and yelled “Pedal!” “Pedal!” while a woman in a bumblebee outfit jumped around. Yesterday, spiderman was on the course.

First Place Finish
I hustled the last trail, because I would not have been surprised to have Anna or Kim fly by me. As it was, I cruised into the finish at 2:33, with Anna a minute behind and Kim, a minute behind her. It is quite cool that for three women in the race, we are riding so close together, making for shared appreciation and good old competition. Phil had come in tied for first with Jason, a local who had 15 minutes on him the first day but came in 20 minutes behind him yesterday (b/c of the mis-tour I mentioned before where Jason went the right way, but MOST racers when the shorter long way and cut 2.5 miles off the course). I thought of our visit with my cousin, Paul, who, after asking about our Pisgah race strategy, had offered up his. “When they say “go”, I attack.” We had laughed at the time (even though Paul was serious and that really is his race strategy for the Shenandoah 100), but today I had decided to treat this stage a little more than the recovery day it was billed as. I had a feeling that it would be the only chance I had to be at the top of the podium (even for a day). I’ll either be sorry or glad tomorrow as I’m back spinning in the saddle up 8,000 feet.