BSTRA 2013 Recap

What a glorious day for a race.  Woke up this morning to cool temps, but knowing we'd get up to around 70 degrees.

Today was the second Bay State Trail Riders Association  Ride-Roll-Run Relay, although to be fair, this year would be better named the Ride-Run-Roll Relay.  I had been the runner on the "Ready, Set, Go" relay team last year with a disappointing result.  If you like sad stories, you can check it out here.

Major goal this year: try not to get a DQ.  I've managed to make it a year without anyone else throwing me out of the results.  I was hopeful.

Everything that went wrong with the race last year, went right.  And everything that went right went righter. Hell, if it went any righter, I'd be going left.

This year Rick Nelson was away and couldn't be my rider.  I decided to try the race anyhow and the race director, Jill Duhaime, connected me with her mother, Gloria, to be my horse rider.  In a brief lapse of sanity I signed on to do the running AND biking legs.

Jill was awesome in listening to feedback from last year's race.  We met a time or two over the year and talked trail routing.  She even came out mountain biking with me once!

One thing I was super stoked to see was the addition of some significant single track for the mountain biking leg.  Specifically, the course would incorporate the Laurel Trail (AKA the Eagle Bridge Trail) from the Schmidt (sorry, no AKA, but let me know if you have any ideas) and take the left on the single track up to Rte 16, basically a solid portion of the Douglas TT in reverse, sans the Eagle Bypass (AKA the Intestine).

Also notably, the transition area moved from the field on Wallum Lake Road to the upper lot up in the park.  This meant this year the start, transitions and finish were all in the same place.  Much better for spectating!!!

This year I also had a bigger role to play in prepping the course.  I had taken it upon myself to clear one section on the other (east) side of Wallum Lake Road.  I had also previously cleared the Laurel Trail for the Douglas TT series.  Just before the race I made the one wet passing through the Laurel Trail passable without getting wet.  And then Jill let me mark the mountain bike course also.  I feel comfortable saying I've raced enough mountain bike races to know what folks need in a well-marked mountain bike course.

Doesn't say where to go, but tells you how to get there!

All that said, I never actually pre-rode or pre-ran the course.  And I only did one true brick practice run/ride before the race.  I have been riding and running a fair bit though.  Including some trail running at lunch through Douglas.  Douglas demands you watch where you put your feet.  Mistakes are usually rewarded with hot rock on bone action.

So I arrived at Douglas pretty early.  7:30 for a 9:00 am start.  Jill and crew were already there, offering munchkins (donuts, not wee people) to people who wanted to start putting the calories they were about to burn off back on before they burnt them off.  I graciously accepted a single glazed gob of goodness and found some will power I didn't even know I had and walked away.

I took the liberty of speaking with Jill to see what spot her mom might want to start.  They were starting horses four minutes apart beginning at 9:00 am.  Jill said her mom had wanted a top five start, but not first.  As I was the first racer there, I had the pick of the start-time litter.  I took 9:08, third horse out.

I grabbed my numbers, one for the shirt for running and one for the bike, and headed back to ye olde Element to get ready.  There I began bumping into familiar faces.  Not literally.  That's not how I roll.  I saw Cori's co-worker, Jason Johnston, and a few minutes after a guy I had ridden with once before, Bill Peck.  I went to introduce the two of them only to come to find out that they are neighbors who traveled to the race together.  Apparently my introduction was not needed.  Gosh-darned mountain bikers all know each other.  Practically incestuous.  Get out of the gene pool!

Also bumped into a feller named Ken who won the mountain bike leg last year.  He was riding a hard tail 29er, which was a sweet bike for today's course.  Despite the added single track, still plenty of fire road to be found.  100% less pavement though.

One of my first impressions of the mountain bikers arriving is that they seemed to be on much more serious mountain bikes than last year.  No beat up Murrays.  No kick-standed MGXs.  Instead, Pivots, Specializeds and Motobecanes.  Serious bikes.  Serious riders.  Uh oh.

So I got my stuff together and headed over to transition to drop my bike.  I've been torn for the last day or two how I was going to handle the two legs.  Thoughts ranged from full on change of clothes (shorts and all) to wearing the same exact thing.  The biggest problem with the latter is that it had me running in biking shorts.  And since I don't have baggies, it's running in spandex.  Now I know you are begging me in your heads, even though you know it's already over, to not run in spandex.  Well next time you should beg louder.  And before I come to a decision.  Spandex and I rocked it today.  I have a pair of Pearl Izumi shorts that have a pretty light chamois, for days when you don't need a big beefy pad.

I did lay out a jersey with pockets stuffed with various accoutrement for changing a tire or fixing a snapped chain or whatever else might come up.  Laid out my Shimano shoes - well, what remain of them.  Laid out my cap, helmet, glasses, gloves and Powerbar Energy Blasts, too.  All on a swell green towel.  Right next to my Gary Fisher Hi-Fi Plus with it's brand new rear wheel (thanks again for handling the warranty, Ben Stone).

Cori and Harry arrived shortly after 8:00.  Smart to marry your #1 spectator.  That way she has to come see you race.  I think.  Right, Cori?

I met my teammate just before the pre-race meeting.  She was very kind and offered me whatever assistance she could for my transition.  I explained I'd thought it out pretty well and thought I was in good shape.  Super friendly!

Team Reins, Chains and Leg Pains!

The pre-race meeting went down at 8:30 after a few sharp whistles and some extraordinary shouting by Karen May Fleming.  I'm glad she wasn't my mom.  Her lungs are to be feared.

Jill did a great job explaining the course to the racers.  She laid out etiquette and expressed some of the concerns with horses and other athletes sharing the trail.  I hadn't mentioned it yet, but I believe the fact that we have, do and will continue to share the same trails is a big part of this race being put together.  Great idea!


Jill Duhaime will tell you what you need to know

Before the race we took some time to get some photos with a couple of Flat Stanleys - Flat Harry Potter and Flat Draculaura.  These fine folks flew USPS all the way up from Jersey to visit us.  The twin children of our friends the Benthins, commonly called the Bentwins, have asked us to entertain them for a spell as part of a school project.  We gladly oblige any request as fun and awesome as this.


Giddyup, Flat Harry Potter and Flat Draculaura

Cori, Harry and I headed up the Coffee House Loop, which is where the horse (and runner) leg of the race starts to see some of the horses, including ours, head out.  We lost Harry to a sunny, warm spot in a field along the way and continued up a pretty tech section of trail to get our pics and video.

Early rider.

I think your bike is missing it's pedals?

I have a video of Gloria and her horse, Hudson, coming up from the start, but Blogger is acting up, so I'll load it up later sometime.

After seeing the first several horses take off, we wended our way back to the start.  I dropped my shorts to leave myself to mill about in basically nothing while I dreamt of my horse coming in.  Cori and Harry took off up the trail again to get some shots of runners going by.  They did the Cedar Swamp Trail while they were at it as well.

Top o' the Rock

What rock did you crawl out from under, kid?

The first horse, as I'd mentioned, took off at 9:00 am.  As I was back at my car for a minute around 9:25, I heard a biker on an early team mentioning to the runner that they'd better get back over to the transition because their team mate could be coming in any time.  What the what?

I also headed over.  And waited.  And waited.  I think those guys were off on their expectations.  Gloria had told me she expected around an hour and a quarter for her to finish.  The first horse probably came in around 50 minutes or so and was the second horse out.  They didn't see the first horse out on their way through the course.  That means either horse and rider donned an invisibility cloak or they'd made a wayward turn.  My money was on the latter.

The first horse out did come in next.  I was right.  Like I said, things were just going right.  My thinking was even winning!  I managed to ask the rider if he happened to see Gloria, but he hadn't.  It was still much earlier than her prediction though.  No worries.

Another few horses came in.  There's an expression that a watched pot never boils.  Well a watched trail similarly never spits out a horse rider.  Less catchy, but you get the idea.  And if you all start saying it, it'll probably catch on.

All the runners and riders watching the trail felt the same.  Minutes felt like hours.  I don't know what it was, but the waiting was killing me.  And the stupid thing is that we were still well within the time frame Gloria told me she'd be in by.  I think Gloria came in as the fifth horse in around five minutes faster than predicted!  Rocking horse!

I was off.  The runner before me had a pretty big lead on me.  I didn't have a lot of faith that I could gain enough to reel her in.  We had talked before the horses came in and she was dropping some event names that were pretty serious.  I specifically recall being impressed by her Reach the Beach recounting.

So I took off hot.  Straight into the bony Coffee House Loop.  But Douglas is my first love as a mountain biking venue.  I seriously know almost every rock on this trail.  I know where the hills are.  I know where the wet spots are.  Bo may know baseball, but Rob knows Douglas.

Bo Know Bikes?

I passed by a very patient Cori and Harry on the Coffee House near the super sketchy mountain biking bridges and boosted by their fanfare, I barreled on.

I've ridden it, but never run it before.  First time for everything.

Jason Johnston's runner, Joanna Anderson, cruising over a real bridge.

Gorgeous park!

I had just crossed over the SNETT when I saw the first runner out, Jeff Hattem, running back at me.  He had to be three miles or so in front of me.  One less person I needed to worry about catching.  I had spoken with him while waiting for the horses earlier as well and quickly determined he was a dead serious trail runner.

A little while after the SNETT crossing the run takes a left turn up what we used to call the Hill of Suck - a wide, sandy fire road purpose-built for sucking your energy.  Although that's now how it got it's name.  I'm still running up the same trail that I'll run back down in another couple of miles.  But no one else running at me.  That's good.

Halfway up the Hill of Suck we took a left toward White's Highway (AKA SW Main St).  After a bit more climbing I was across White's (where traffic was stopped for me - or would have been, had there been anyone scurrying from Thompson to Douglas or vice-versa) and descending for a short piece on a scrabbly fire road before banging a right and climbing through beautiful section of forest and up onto the Midstate for a brief spell before hanging a right and following parallel to White's Highway.  That's probably a run-on sentence on running.  That's where I passed the only runner I was destined to get by on the course.   She heard me coming a ways back, presumably because I sounded like I was going to blow up.  And she stepped aside as I came by so better not to get covered with my innards when I did explode.  Thanks runner girl!  After that piece of trail we ran back across White's Highway.

This is where the water station was.  With smiling water sirens.  I strapped myself to my mast of dehydration and sailed on by.  Back down a sandy, rocky fire road and back against outgoing running traffic.  I saw a runner working her way up the hill and offered some words of encouragement as I plunged down.  Around the bend were a few more.  All looking good, although maybe wishing they could be heading downhill like me. Soon enough folks!

Just before hitting the SNETT again, I came across two hikers coming at me with backpacks on.  Turns out they were just the bellwethers.  As I rounded the bend there were about 12 - 15 more.  All young and appeared to be absolutely enjoying the gorgeous day.  Or maybe they were just smiling because my advanced age reminded them how young they are.   Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.

As I made a left onto the SNETT I saw a rider going out further up the same trail.  I still had about a mile left to run and then to ride all the way back that mile and change to catch that guy.  Eek.

I ran hard up the rail bed flat section of the Coffee House and took the right onto the paved road to the upper lot.  I cranked into the transition to the sounds of all sorts of cheers.  Great spectators today!

Metamorphosis

On the last section of trail, I abandoned my plan to change into my bike jersey and instead kept my running short sleeve shirt on.  My thought process was that the course wasn't too techy, so I wasn't likely to need much to fix the bike.  I risked not having the tools in favor of less weight and less transition time.  Changed the shoes, donned the helmet and gloves and was off again!

Joanna hands the team bracelet to Jason

The bike course headed back out against the runners end and I saw the runner I'd passed earlier.  She was looking great and only had a little ways to go.  I got up to the end and took a right onto the SNETT.  The course followed about a mile and a half up the SNETT.  Flatter than Flat Stanley, but sandy and a couple of wet spots.  Hard going and my legs were taking their time warming up.  No one in front and the guy who that girl was handing off to was not in sight behind.  In for a lonely bike ride.

The SNETT is a really nice trail that goes forever.  Well, assuming from Douglas to Franklin is forever.  Is from nowhere to nowhere forever?  Along the way there were a couple of nice views.  Here are the shots I took a little after the race.

Wallum Lake Road, Over the SNETT

Classic New England Scenery

Eventually, after passing under Wallum Lake Road, we took a left onto a trail that followed back up to Wallum Lake Road.  Gradual incline, but pretty fast still.  There is one wet section here that I had spent some time working on before the race.  It's the same section I had leaf blown in preparation.  I made it through without issue and continued across Wallum Lake Road and back onto some fire road and up the Streeter Trail (also fire road) until the next intersection, where we took a right up the hill back to White's Highway.  This section was BRUTAL.  It's the same sandy, rocky area I had mentioned in the run, but now uphill.  And, as it turns out, passing by that group of backpackers again.  They had the better line.  I dug up, knowing I had some singletrack in my future.

As I entered the Laurel Trail, I was feeling pretty good.  I was getting through the rocks clean and fast.  I thought this was my biggest advantage in the bike race.  I ride Douglas rocks regularly.  And my full suspension rig, while not well-suited to the fire road, soaked this stuff right up. Still no one in sight though.

As I finished the singletrack, I came out to the Schmidt again.  And three pretty good sandy climbs.  I'd like to meet this Schmidt character.  He's killing me.  I got through this, passing the backpackers for my third and final time.  They were super supportive!

I cruised back across White's Highway and down the hill.  Back on some wide technical trails I finally had another biker in my sights.  The same one I had seen way back when I was running and he was already riding.  I pushed hard, knowing I wasn't too far from the end and got by him. 

As I took a left onto the SNETT, I saw another rider.  He saw me too and stepped up his game.  I was riding strong and got by him as he took a right line around a swamped area and I took the left line.  I put down the hammer (or whatever hammer I had left) and cruised up the last piece of singletrack to the finish line.

Finishing!

I somehow managed to be the second one in.  Stoked since I was the fifth out when I started.  The first place team was, as I had suspected, well ahead of me and simply out of reach.  I can't begin to describe how awesome it felt to come across with so many cheering spectators. 

After the race I chatted with a number of other riders and runners.  All seemed to have a great time today.  I don't have the official results yet, but I think I was told that I'd managed to eke out first in the run and first in the bike ride.  Woo hoo hoo!  Our team ended fourth overall.  A gajillion percent better than last year's DQ!

Reins, Chains and Leg Pains takes home 4th!

Jason Johnston's and Joanna Anderson's Team Take Home the Pink (again!).

Here are my Garmin tracks:

Run
Ride

Delicious pizza and snacks awaited all at the finish line!  I was so hungry I could've eaten a horse.  Probably a good thing they got the pizza then!

After the awards, replete with a VERY NICE expression of gratitude from Jill to me for the assistance I was able to provide (thanks Jill!!) and a thank you to fellow Team Bums rider and event sponsor, Mike Cove, we wrapped it up.

Before leaving I walked part of the SNETT and pulled down some mountain bike plates and ribbons.  Nice just to relax and talk a walk on such a great sunny day.

Just one more note.  There were volunteers at every major intersection along the way.  Volunteers who knew where they were.  And where I was.  And where I was going.  You, without the horse or bike, take a left.  You, pushing those pedals, go straight.  I know who you are.  I know what you want to do.  I want to help you get there.  And yes, I am smiling.  Because I'm happy to be here and helping you, racer.

You, my volunteer friends, were absolutely astounding!

Thanks to all who did such a wonderful job with this event.  Especially Jill Duhaime.  Your hard work and dedication really showed! Looking forward to next year already!