Cohutta 65 Part One: Pre-race

I had my list of "Don't ever do again" from Ouachita Challenge that I consulted on Thursday prior to the race. Primarily, I made sure to get all this in order:

Nutrition done right

I have realized that even if your fitness is not exactly where you want it, you can still make up for a lot of that with 1) Proper nutrition and 2) Efficiency on the bike. I will get to that a little later in my report.

Friday was gorgeous--high 70*F temperatures and sunny. I went for a short pre-ride of the first 8 miles of the course with Carey Lowery and Danielle Musto. The trail was dry and fast. My legs were feeling good.

At Boyd Gap, Eddie, Carey, and Danielle chose to keep riding the course along Old Copper Road but I decided to keep my bike clean and headed down the road back to the Whitewater Center instead. I went down to the creek crossing to pre-ride that, as I knew it was a little different than in previous years. There was a whole group down at the creek doing the same thing, but instead of waiting I just went for the crossing (in the opposite direction of the race course)..just then I saw Jeremiah Bishop heading towards me on the rock line. Oops! I didn't want to be in his way so I moved over to the right and then tried to get back onto my rock line after he went by..except..the rocks were very slick and just turning my wheel slightly too much caused me to go down hard on my left elbow and hip. Awesome..way to go the day before the race!!! Not one hour later, I cut my thumb open trying to get a gel flask out of the plastic packaging. I think I need to wear the Michelin Man suit the day before the race. I am way too accident prone.

I put together my drop bag (we only had one option for dropping supplies on the 65 mile course) and plastered my bag with Ergon stickers so it would be easy to spot. Genius!

Afterwards, we had dinner with Zeke, Ursula and Jay, supercouple Lynda and Dave, Carey, and Danielle. We discussed weather and competition. The 100 mile race would be stacked in the men's, women's, and singlespeed. The 65 mile race would also be very competitive in the women's field. Danielle, Ursula, and I discussed the other tough ladies we would need to contend with..there were a few "knowns" and also a lot of "unknowns". We then went back to the cabin to take care of the final preparations. The weather forecast was not looking good. It was pretty certain that race day would be EPIC.

Rotwild R.R2 with Ergon GP1 Leichtbau waiting to race

Part Two: Race Day coming up next