The best laid plans..Ouachita Challenge Race Report Part One

Sure, it would have been ideal to have the race at the beginning of spring break, rather than on the last day but that was not going to stop me from spending the week riding the famed Arkansas trails. We didn't do any long rides, per se, but we rode every day except Friday last week. That was definitely the most mountain bike hours I've put in this year. The trails were rugged and so fun that it was hard to NOT ride while we were there, though.

photo by Sonya Looney

I actually felt excellent on Wednesday, it's too bad that wasn't race day! Thursday was the group ride with Competitive Cyclist and Friday was off. Saturday was a pre-ride of the first bit of technical singletrack and I was feeling pretty decent, other than my temporary lack in technical skills (or rather, focus) that day. In any case, my legs felt good! This should have been a warning...on most every occasion in the past, my legs have felt like utter crap the day before the race and they usually feel great on the day of the race..it's always slightly discomforting but in the end it always works out in my favor.

Anyway, I haven't done a big loop race like this in quite awhile..in fact, I can't even remember past Fool's Gold 100 last year. Fool's Gold is different, though, because I've ridden every inch of that area several times. Ouachita Challenge would be different--we basically only pre-rode the rugged Ouachita Trail but never ventured past that to the roads or to the Womble Trail before the race. For some reason, I had it in my head that the Womble Trail was "easy"..like smooth, swoopy, and all downhill type of easy. HAHA that is a laugh!

As everyone knows, nutrition is a huge part of any endurance event. Since I have dialed in my intake with PowerBar Endurance, PowerGel, and Power Gel Blasts, I have had no issues whatsoever. This is the part where everything starts going wrong....I ran out of PowerBar Endurance before we left Atlanta. I assumed it would be easy enough to find in Arkansas but I was wrong. Not one shop we stopped at carried PowerBar products..HUH??? And I wasn't able to find any before the race. This made me panic..I had PowerGels but had to use Cytomax (thanks to my teammate Sonya Looney for loaning me some the night before the race). I decided to fill up 3 bottles with dilute Cytomax and use 2 PowerGels per hour to get my required fluid, sodium, and carbohydrates. I would plan to stop at the 3rd aid station or 3 hours in (whichever worked better) to refill my bottles.

OK, so now you know where this is going...part two coming later.