Cohutta 100 - 2013 - Race Report

Cohutta 100, 2013 –

I completed one of the hardest days of my life on a bike. 100 miles on a mountain bike through the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia with 13,000 plus feet of climbing in itself is extremely difficult, but it is all compounded by rain. Friday pre-ride was awesome! The trails and gravel roads were dry and tacky and FAST. But come Friday night, the rain began to fall the whole evening.

I met up with an old buddy of mine, Chris Ready from North Carolina and his friend Andrew McKinnley. We woke at 5 am to prepare for the start at 7am. I did not sleep all that well with the excitement of the race on the horizon and the dreaded anxiety of the rain. We stayed at a hotel about 5 miles down the road from the start. The start was located at the Ocoee Whitewater Center. So it was a very short trip.

The big debate that early was what to wear. The forecast was for a temperature of 50 degrees and a high of 61. I decided to go with a base later, arm warmers, and knee warmers. Later I wanted a little more, the temperature didn’t seem to get above 45. My Garmin confirmed a 49 degree avg for the whole ride and a low of around 46.

Everything was soaked but it was not a torrential downpour so I was optimistic conditions would be decent. The race started with a 2-3 mile climb on a paved road at 6-8%. I stayed with the lead group and we looped into the single track. I was feeling good and riding the single track faster than most of the guys around me. I was about top 20 at this point. The single track early in the race was not bad at all and was actually fairly fast. After we popped out on the gravel road, I believe I had worked myself up to possibly 15^th.

At mile 30 is when it hit me. Up to this point I was able to muscle through the climbs and stay with some of the smaller/lighter guys. My heart rate was staying around 145-155 just nice and steady. At mile 30 and afterwards, I could not get my heart rate above 120, a sure sign of fatigue in the legs. I just stayed steady after that but continually moved backwards during the next 50 miles. Now it became a race of survival. I had over trained leading up to the event.

The course was undulating gravel roads for about 70 miles. I would describe it like the gravel road climb at Oak Mountain for 70 miles, pretty miserable. The rain made the roads even softer and harder to pedal through. Every climb was 6-13% and I would argue that only 2% of the whole ride was flat. I heard that several riders suffered from hypothermia from the down hills because of the cold and rain. I actually hit 50mph on one of the descents. I was picking people off on the down hills pretty easily because most people were very timid with the conditions. I could not feel my feet for the whole ride due to this. At the 2^nd rest stop, I saw many pros and other riders retiring into a warm vehicle. I heard the race organizer state that over half the field either did not start or DNF’d.  

With about 15 miles to go, I began to feel better. After so many people traveled through the single track, it had now turned to pig slop. The last 7 miles was this single track which I was able to power through most of the climbs and passed around 5 guys. The last 4 miles was the infamous Thunder Rock Express downhill to the start/finish. It was so slick so I had to be very careful through that section.

I finished around 10hours and 25 minutes. I finished 31^st out of 90 finishers. I believe there was a total of 180 riders signed up for the Open Mens Race. It was an accomplishment in itself just to finish. Thanks to Mark and Truly Spokin for making this a possibility and the unreal support they provided me. The bike worked flawlessly and I had zero mechanical issues, which is amazing given the circumstances. Time to rest.

Here are the results on Cyclingnews.com

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/national-ultra-endurance-nue-series-cohutta-100-2013/results