Race Review - Vermont 30 MTB Endurance Challenge (AKA Vermont 666)

I returned to the Vermont 30 race this year for the second time, having survived last year's go at it and even enjoying most of it.  This is a six hour race on the super awesome Green Mountain Trails in which you do as many laps as you can, but as long as you cross the start/finish line before the six hour mark, the following lap counts irrespective of when you finish that lap (the last one to cross the line did so in 7:39).

The race was on Saturday with a 9:00 am start time, but we went up Friday night and picked up Harry from Camp Downer, where he'd spent the week.  We had booked a room at the Mendon Mountain Motel and Orchard just outside Rutland and about 25 minutes from the race venue, which started at Amee Farm in Pittsfield, VT.

Amee Farm.

Green Mountain Trails are SUPER!

On the way from Camp Downer to the motel we hit a lot of on again, off again rain.  We took a route that went right by the race start and swung into the Pittsfield General Store to see if I could register there, but we were a couple of hours early.  The storekeeper recommended we try to stop by the farm and see if we might have better luck there.  At the farm I ran into a guy loading a very muddy mountain bike onto the roof of his car.  He was not racing the next day.  He had just swung by to ride the course.  He said he had hit some rain while out on the trail, but the trails would have been muddy even if it hadn't rained.  Oh boy. I was unable to find Jason to register and didn't sweat it too much as there was a registration period again the next morning.

We headed back to the motel and I went out and got some supplies and some Chinese food for dinner.  We had a low key night, watching Men in Black with Harry on the laptop and were asleep by 9 pm.  The next morning I awoke refreshed and ready to go.  We went to the country store at the motel and picked up our complimentary coffee (Green Mountain Keurig cups) and hands-down the best apple turnover I've ever had.  If you're ever in the area and even if you aren't staying there, you should definitely stop in for one of these babies!

It looks so innocuous, just sitting there minding it's own business.

We got up to Pittsfield for 8 am and swung by the General Store for one more cup of joe before we got to the farm.  We ran into Karen potter, Steve Segenchuk and Brian Spring at the store.  They were there with Chris Gagnon, from Mountain Bike Mind, whom I'd met briefly at this race the year before.  These four certainly made me feel like I was wussing out only racing a single six hour endurance race this weekend.  They were doing the Vermont 30 and then the following day doing the Hampshire 100 (100K).  I'd like to think maybe I'm the sane one in this equation.

I got my coffee and we drove the half mile up the road to Amee's Farm.  After parking the Element, Cori, Harry and I schlepped all the stuff across the road to the start/finish area.  Cori and Harry would be there for six plus hours, although Harry was going to do the kids race at noon.

Harry and I pre-race (as evidenced by the lack of MUD).

Waiting for the Le Mans start.

Just need those begrudging runners to get around the corner.

I got all registered, picked up my number and my awesome new t-shirt.  Ready to go with 15 minutes to spare.  Last year the race was a Le Mans style start in which all the riders left there bikes at the start/finish and then walked down the farm road down a steep hill and then ran up to the bikes and started in.  Running that hill first thing was really tough, especially in bike shoes with a full Camelbak on my back.  This year was also a Le Mans start, but they didn't make us run the hill.  We ran around a sizable garden and then up to the bikes.  It was only 49 seconds of running (for me).  We hopped on the bikes and hit the trail.

The race doesn't have any waves.  We all start together.  Beginners, sport, expert, elite, single speed.  I was racing sport.  I had taken fourth place last year in this category behind three kids who were 15, 13 and 15.  Kids who were evidently sired by mountain goats.  Kids who climbed like nobody's business.  The good news is that it didn't look like they were around this year.  Maybe they couldn't get a ride.  Whatever.  That's what they get for beating up on innocent forty-something-year-olds.

The lap is a super-switchbacky 4.7 mile climb to the top of the mountain followed by maybe a mile of rolling singletrack around the top of the mountain before making maybe the most awesome, enduring descent ever for four plus miles back to the farm.


So on the first ascent it took about 10 minutes to entirely negate all the painstaking bike cleaning I had undertaken two nights before.  Mud.  Everywhere.  Under my riding glasses in my eye,  In my mouth.  In my drive train.  In my brakes.  Everywhere.  Mud.  All varieties.  Wet, runny mud. Thick, gloppy mud.  Everything in between.

I was hurting lap one already.  The course was a lot wetter than last year and it was taking a toll on me.  I reached the top in 44 minutes.  Guess I wasn't winning the King of the Hill again this year.  $100 prize to the first male and first female to the top on the first lap.  Not sure who got the male, but Potter won the female prize.  Great aid station with two dedicated volunteers at the top.  Water, Gatorade, chips, bananas, gummy bears and M&Ms.  I passed by the aid station the first lap. 


It was then that I realized the course had changed from last year.  We usually hit a tight, twisty trail called Labyrinth and then begin the descent.  Instead we hit a trail called Zebedee that did a lot more rolling than last year's course.  And quite a bit longer.  The course then starts going through a series of crazy bermed switchbacks that seem to go on forever.  Some of the switchbacks are right on top of each other while others are maybe 1/4 - 1/2 mile apart.  All of them are CRAZY FUN.  I was hot on the tail of two other riders all the way down, but they were cooking along, so no need to try to get by.  This downhill is ALMOST enough fun to make you forget the climb you have in front of you again.  The trails lets out of the woods and hits a bridge over the river that supports two ways race traffic.  I'm always impressed with the camaraderie amongst mountain bikers.  Everyone wishing each other the best and offering words of encouragement.  After the bridge the people finishing follow a trail along the river and through a field before climbing a dirt road back to the start/finish.  That dirt road is a lot harder than you'd think.  Your pedaling muscles have been on the back burner used as you bomb down the hill.  Now after twenty or thirty minutes you have to make them work and work hard for several minutes.  I got up to the top and picked up an Hammer Endurolyte Fizz drink that Karen Potter had given me that morning and Cori had prepared for me.  Did I mention how nice it is to have a support person at a race?  Awesome!  I made the first lap in one hour, eighteen minutes.  My cyclometer was reading 10.4 miles, but a couple tenths of that was pre-race warm up.  Anyhow, the endurolyte drink was really good and much needed.

One down!

By now my bike must have weighed at least five pounds more with all the mud all over it.  I headed in for lap two.  Definitely harder.  I was walking more areas than I had the first lap.  Traffic had definitely thinned out, but I still managed to pass a couple of guys and was also passed by a couple of racers.  I made it to the top in 52:10, eight minutes slower than lap one.  Not so good, but I was still pedaling.

The downhill was just as good and I got back to the start/finish in 1:28:50, about ten minutes off the first lap.  I was pretty happy and ready for lap three.  But not before having a Powerade and hunk of blueberry zucchini bread, lovingly prepared by my number one fan, Cori "Annie Wilkes" Paton.  I definitely was not that far from feeling as if I'd been hobbled.

I went out for three and my bike was just screaming at me. Literally.  The rotor in the brakes was just barely rubbing, creating a ringwraith-like piercing shriek.  It was so bad that I felt badly for anyone who came into the vicinity.  Fortunately we were spread out enough enough by now that the only person really being driven to the brink of insanity was me.  It was also a little better inasmuch as only acting up when I was not moving quickly.  Any time I'd get a little speed, I'd be rid of the squeal.

In addition, my drive train was toast.  Mud was literally so thick on it that there was no glint of metal any longer.  Miraculously, the bike was still hitting most of the gears, but it definitely didn't sound happy.


Lap three was definitely my weakest.  I felt sapped.  One and two had given me the old one-two and I was on the ropes.  I came into the race with hopes of making five laps because that is what I'd made last last year.  That, however, was before I'd learned on the sloppy conditions and longer lap this year (it was about a mile longer each lap).  I made it to the bottom and, thinking five was well nigh impossible, stopped at the bottom and had a quick banana and a little less than 1/2 a PB&J (my mouth's still dry thinking about that sandwich).

While refueling I was talking to Cori about my drivetrain woes, I was happy to hear that other racers were washing their bikes with a nearby hose between laps.  I headed over and was a few seconds too late and had to wait for one other person to wash their bike.  A few minutes later I was hosing the mud off my bike and was on my way.  BIG MISTAKE.  The missing step was lubing my now super dry chain.

I thought there might have been a bike under there!

I made it to the top of the lap way better than I had made the third lap.  Maybe better than the second.  I think this is all because I sensed the end.  The drive train was definitely balking.  There were certain gear combinations that were sounding like the drive train was going to explode.  Stayed out of those.  I got to the top and there were a few people at the aid station.  I wasn't sure, but thought one was in my racing class.  I knew there was another guy climbing up behind me that I was pretty sure was also in my group.  I had seen him earlier in the lap during the switchbacks, but felt like I'd put some distance on over him.  I decided to pedal through without stopping at the aid station.

It was right about then that I was lapped by the first person I recognized to be riding the Expert/Elite class. Chris Gagnon, who I'd mentioned earlier as the Mountain Bike Mind guy. As it turned out, Chris was actually in third, meaning two of the people who passed me at some point were not in my class and had not passed me, but lapped me.  Bittersweet.  While I just gained two spots, I was also now being lapped. Chris went on his screaming way and I sat back and caught my groove.

The drive train was sounding progressively worse, however, and it was during the rolling mile on top of the mountain that the chain snapped.  I was now in the position of having to decide whether to fix the chain (I had a chain tool on me) or roll out the last five miles without it.  Two things were going through my head.  It would probably take three to five minutes to fix it, but there were no guarantees it wouldn't blow up again.  The other thing I was thinking was that it was only five miles and there was a lot of downhill.

I decided to finish the last five miles without a chain.  I pulled it out, threw it in my Camelbak and started the final half lap.  There was still a lot more up/flat that I just hadn't realized when I had a chain and was able to pedal through it.  I ultimately fell into a pattern of coasting the downhills, sitting on the bike and using my right leg to push through the flats and running/walking the uphills.  The guy who had been climbing the hill behind me caught me about half way down.  He recognized my plight, gave due empathy and went on his way.

Chains are for wusses and guys who come in second.

 No one else caught me on the way down.  Once I hit the bottom and just had the river trail and the field I was feeling better, but kept looking over my shoulder.  Harry was playing with another kid (named Fury, I believe) along the river and then came up and finished with me.  Those last hills were tough and I gave a good sprint across the finish line, but I was done.  Four times up and down the mountain.  Forty miles.  6:10:26.

All friggin' done.

And the icing on the cake.  I still managed to grab 3rd of 18 in Sport (no age groups).  The guy who passed me on the way down took second, so maybe I could have had that if not for my mechanical issues.  Who knows?  Maybe that guy had mechanicals too.

After the race the organizers have a great pig roast.  They start cooking the pig on an open spit over an open fire as the race starts.  It is absolutely delectable.  Served up with green salad, macaroni salad, and cookies.  And supplemented by a couple of my own delicious #9s.

Harry named the pig Dave.  Dave was delicious.

All in all a great day's racing.

Oh, and

• Potter did five laps and took first of all females and fifth overall.
• Segenchuk did five laps as well and took 5th in male expert/elite and 7th overall.
• Brian Spring did three laps and took 14th in sport.
• Chris Gagnon did five laps (although he was in under six hours and could have gone out for a 6th) and took third in male expert/elite and third overall.

Great race.  Hope to do it again next year.