A huge thanks to Eric and Erinna for the race, Brado for the photo hustle and all the volunteers who encourage and help along the way. I first learned about PMBAR three years ago and have enjoyed reading all the tales over the years - hoping one day to enter and finish. I've had a great time all winter leading up to PMBAR riding over 400 miles to get in shape while spending many many hours in the woods. Enter I did, finish I did (albeit down 276), and next year I hope to not take a forced two week pre-race vacation from the bike.
We were the first ones to check in, right on time @ 6AM, and we got the coveted #1. Yes sports fans, from 6AM until 8AM Team One Pie was in the lead. Then the race started...
I knew I was in for a long day when I couldn't even make the first section of Black Mtn without getting off the bike. So we walked most of Black to Turkey Pen trail and then down and up and lather, rinse, repeat. We made Turkey Pen in 2:20, which is about 20-30 minutes off a normal pace for me. Mullinax was brutal, I started cramping about one mile in, and my legs were just not there. I walked a lot of what I normally ride. Once we hit Squirrel I seemed to be making a bit of a comeback and I managed to ride most of the way to Cantrell. If I could just get to the second CP I knew I could make it to Horse Cove Gap, up to 5018 and down to 1206. The views from 5018 were awesome. The combination of recent rain and low temps kept the air clear and you could see Black Balsam, and beyond to Mt. Hardy. The long downhill felt nice, the gravel was good for me and we rode to the bottom of Pilot. I didn't even stop to ponder the relative stupidity of walking up Pilot, and I knew if I could get that third CP then a bailout was downhill all the way back to the start. On the way up Pilot we saw most of the leaders pass us going down. That's a great thing about PMBAR - even in the back of the pack you get to see the leaders mixing it up because everyone is scattered all over the woods. It was an honor to nearly be run over by Team Dickey and Thad, and we just missed seeing them go through the rock garden. On our way back down Pilot we were passed by Brad Kee and Matt Fusco, who had also passed us headed back down Black on their way to pick up a replacement bike. We crossed paths with at least 10 teams on Pilot, which picked up my spirits as I knew that while I felt really really slow I was still hanging in there with a decent enough pace that we could finish before 10PM.
My teammate Mike just killed it down Pilot, cleaning just about everything. He's a very good rider! We got to 1206 and off we went to 225B. I remembered that there was a water fountain at Pink Beds so we took about 10 minutes there to rest and refill. My legs had somehow made enough of a recovery that I was able to ride the whole way out to 225B where we collected CP #4. Team GLR had been playing leap frog with us all day long, and on the way back out on 225 they finally were able to lose us as I couldn't keep their geared pace. I had hoped I could ride up the first part of 477 to Bennett and rest my legs on the descent to the Horse Stables, but I finally had to get off and walk for about 15 minutes. I was aching by the time we made Bennett and began the long road down. At a normal pace I can go up Clawhammer/Maxwell and down Black in about 1 hour. In my fatigued condition (after 51 miles and 9k ft of climbing) I figured I might need to double that. We got to the stables at 7:40 and took a few minutes to eat and hydrate. At that point I made the decision not to try Maxwell as I wanted to get a finish (even with a penalty) and I didn't want to just completely bonk somewhere up the mountain and end up missing the cut-off. I had pushed myself all day, and finally had to concede that simply making 50+ miles on a bum leg was something to be proud of. My goal was to leave it all on the course, and I suppose if I wanted to really do that I would have gone up Maxwell and just ended up in a heap somewhere... in the end I figured I left a little bit on the course, but not a whole hell of a lot. It was one of the smartest decisions I've ever not wanted to make, but after a lot of pushing of myself and my bike it was the right thing to do to just get on the bike and head down 477 to 276 and a cold beer.
Again, I have to give huge props to my teammate Mike. He stuck with me throughout the day and never once tried to push or pull me - he just accepted my pace and rode along. I think he could go top ten in this race, he's that good. I was very lucky to get to ride with him for a PMBAR and I hope he comes back soon so I can show a bit more of the woods at a better pace.
Here's the summary for the statistically minded.
My original goal was ~6.5 MPH for moving time, with 60-90 minutes of total rest time.
The final result was 5.5 MPH moving speed over 9:20 with 11:54 total time. We finished right at 8PM as we took a few minutes at the start to look at the map.
And here's the route...
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