PMBAR- "GO"

We passed Gear Check with an "A" --all that old adventure racing mandatory gear really came in handy! At 8:00 am, after the mandatory racer meeting, Eric and Erinna handed out the maps with the checkpoints already labeled. The two circled CPs were mandatory and we had to get 4 to finish. If you got 5 CPs you got a 3 hour time bonus. I was not really interested in that. As I already said, my goal was an 8 hour day of riding followed by one or more burritos and one or more cold IPAs while cheering on the rest of the finishers. Eddie brought the map over to the Ergon tent and we spent a few minutes just trying to find our current location on the map..D'OH. This was going to be a longer day than I thought. We were both wishing that we had bought our own Pisgah NF map at REI to study a bit. 1/2 the field, including Karen and Marvin and Brenda and Lee were probably already 3/4 the way up Black Mountain before we found the starting point and had an idea of where the 4 CPs were relative to the starting point and each other. I had decided to give Eddie control of the navigation and I would merely offer my 2 cents if he asked. He was OK with that.

We started up Black Mountain at a reasonable pace. My legs were feeling good and Eddie was OK with riding at my warm up pace. We still passed a few people. Once we got to Pressley Gap, teams started to split off. I have always gone further up Black Mountain to Turkey Pen Gap, but there was no CP there this year. I didn't want to do that hike a bike and I knew there were probably still a bunch of trees down across the Turkey Pen trail. So, we decided to take some gravel over near Buckhorn Gap and Squirrel Gap--Laurel Cove--Laurel Creek--Bradley Creek. Awesome decision!! These are some of my favorite trails. Eddie was rockin and I was just trying to keep him in sight. We leap frogged back and forth with 3 or 4 teams. Unfortunately, it was sometime in here that my right knee started bothering me. I know it is because I have not kept up with my stretching and strength and the last bit of the Cohutta race really overworked my quad muscles. So, I had to ride a lot more in my small chainring than I wanted to. This meant riding very awkwardly over and through many of the technical sections. Finally, I just gave up and put it in the middle ring and alternated soft pedaling with standing up and riding singlespeed style. Both these methods were at least somewhat tolerable on my knee but I know a lot of mental energy was spent being frustrated about the knee pain and whether or not it would keep me from finishing the race. I also had this nagging mental frustration in the back of my head that I was going to be the weak link in our team for the entire day. Ugh, I hate that feeling!!! Eddie was nice about it and didn't make me feel bad..I did enough of that for myself.

At Bradley Creek we saw Allan, a friendly face, so that helped my mood a bit and we were off on a long gravel section to the 3rd checkpoint. It was starting to get really warm out. The sun was beaming and there was very little shade on the road. On our way down, we saw the Koerbers--Sam and his father cruising back up..this meant they were at least 45 minutes ahead of us..geeeez!!! We only saw two other teams on the return from the checkpoint which meant we were doing OK. As we climbed the gravel road back up to the Laurel Mountain trail, I was feeling the heat and my knee was really hurting. I hoped that the Laurel Mountain singletrack would make me feel better. I remembered this trail being one of my favorites--a gradual climb with some nice rocky sections and then just a short steep hike a bike to the checkpoint.

Um..not so much. There were a bunch of trees down and this trail seemed longer than ever. I was hurting, this would be my lowest point of the entire day. It seemed like I was on and off my bike way more than the last time I rode this trail. The sun was still blazing hot and I felt like I was just crawling. Eddie wasn't sure how much further to the checkpoint and there were two false alarms. By the time we got to the steep hike a bike I was half dead so Eddie hauled my bike up with his. Just as I was screaming "WHY WOULD ANYONE EVER WANT TO RIDE THIS F#*#!ING TRAIL?!?!?!" I saw a bike up against the tree in a clearing. There were no less than 8 people sitting around..the 4th checkpoint?? Could it be??? I asked desperately if this was the checkpoint and a guy said, "Nope, it's just up the hill a little further". I thought I was going to cry. I must have been really out of it because Eddie was in the process of getting the passport stamped. It WAS the checkpoint. Whew! My mood instantly improved and before I knew it we were at the top of Pilot Rock.

AAAAH. Now I know why people ride Laurel Mountain. It's because of Pilot Rock...WHEEEEEE!!!

To be continued.