I wanted to end my season with some endurance mountain bike racing. I had been itching to get back to 6 and 12 hour racing. While there are not as many endurance race options now as there were 10 years ago, we still found a couple to go to. The 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth was the first on my calendar. Taking place at Haw Ridge Park near Oak Ridge, TN, this race is a tough one. Each lap features a tough climb on a powerline ridge known as The Hill of Truth. It hurts. I have raced here a few times before. This was a target race for us when I rode for the Piney Flats and The Bike Shop teams under Everett Baker. We never managed to get the W, but always had a good time racing as a team. I thought it would be fun to do it as a team again as I really didn't ride that much on our trip to Canada and felt like I wasn't ready for a solo 12 hour just yet. Dina was up for it, but we couldn't find anyone else to team up with us. They don't have a Duo category at this race, only an Open Team class that can have up to four riders. Oh well, we are going for it. Dustin and Dina against the world!
I actually thought we could hold our own against teams of four. I figured I could turn the fastest laps there. If I could do two laps my first few rotations and get us out front, we could have a chance of a decent finish in the end. It was a sunny and hot day in Oak Ridge. Thankfully, we didn't camp, but got a hotel instead so we actually got in some sleep and stayed cool. Our team name was the Pair of Peppers presented by Sweetwater Farms. Apparently, it was very confusing to everyone. I got asked multiple times before the start if we wanted to correct the mistake. We thought it was clever, but nobody got it. Just trying to get the farm some love!
The start was super fast. You begin on pavement for almost a mile before turning left into the woods and onto a long climb. I enetered the woods in 8th and was hurting on the hill. I did my best to stay on the front group. I was 4th to the top and crested just a few bike lengths off 3rd. The trail was super dry and dusty as we started the descent. I couldn't see very well. Braking bumps were everywhere as we bounced our way down a virtually invisible trail. We were flying though. Just as I reached the rider ahead, I saw his head and shoulders suddenly dart to the right. It was already too late for me to make the turn with all the braking bumps. I missed it by a mile in the dust cloud and smashed a tree hard with my left arm and shoulder. The tree ripped me off the back of the bike and onto the rear tire, but somehow I held on with my right hand. I was off the trail doing a little bushwhacking as I tried to pull myself back onto the seat. I hit a log and that was enough to polevault me up. I landed on the seat and returned to the trail. It was a miracle save, but I was hurting. That was one of the hardest hits I have ever taken to my shoulder. I held my arm against my side as I couldn't move it. I had to slow down to finish the descent with one hand, dropping back to 7th. It was about the worst way I could have started the race for us. Even if I was ok, I was not going to be anywhere close to 100% today. Since I had planned to start with two laps, would Dina even be ready to take over for me if I could finish the lap?
After a couple of minutes I could move the shoulder. It hurt very bad though. There was an open section of trail where I was able to sit up for a few seconds and perform a few tests on my shoulder to see if I had torn anything. The tests were all negative so I put the hand back on the bar and got back to work. Yes it hurt, but I felt like there probably wasn't any major joint damage and that riding wasn't going to make anything worse. Ride on.
Using the arm eventually loosened the shoulder and the pain began to subside. The Hill of Truth was a nice way to take my mind off my shoulder. The descent that followed was super rough. After making it down that, I knew my shoulder was going to be ok. I had also worked my way back up to 4th, the position I was in at the time of the crash.
I decided to go on for another lap and didn't even mention the crash to Dina when I came through the finish line. On lap 2, the shoulder continued to improve. I had more time to focus on the race. I came to two conclusions on this lap. First, this course is hard. It was working me over and I knew it was going to be a major challenge for Dina. Second, I had my work cut out for me with the competition. While I was holding down 4th, I was in no way catching the top 3. They were pulling away. The heat was also taking its toll on me and it was still early in the day. The cool days in Canada made me soft. I felt like I rode better, but I was two minutes slower on this lap. Not good considering I rode at least three miles with one arm on that first lap.
Dina took over and struggled with the terrain and heat. She was happy to hand the timing card back over to me for two more laps. The shoulder was much better now. I had time to ice it during Dina's lap, and Shannon did a little massage on it. The legs, however, were trash. I could tell I was going slower. The clock confirmed this as I slowed an additional two minutes on this lap. My second lap on this stint was even worse. I lost five more minutes as I just felt drained the entire lap. My fourth lap was 10:29 slower than my first lap. Ouch. That hurt worse than the tree.
Dina looked less than thrilled to go out this time. She slowed down quite a bit on her lap time too. We decided to go to one lap turns to try to save what little I had left in the tank. I started off on my fifth lap in the midday heat, our seventh lap overall. I tried harder, but the body said no. The heat roasted me, especially on the Hill of Truth. I was happy just to clear the climb without dabbing a foot. The lap time again got worse by another 35 seconds.
Dina was waiting when I emerged from the lap, but I could see she did not want to do another lap. She looked tired. Things got worse when her diabetic sensor malfunctioned during the lap and she lost all data on her blood sugar. I continued to feel worse, even while off the bike. When she finished her third lap, I told her I had to take a break that I was too bonked to continue. She was a little annoyed with me, but also did not want to do another lap. She had no idea what her blood sugar was doing and was feeling pretty tired as well. We agreed to just take a break for a while. Somehow, we were still in 7th at this point.
After a long rest, half a gallon of chocolate, and a couple of hotdogs, I felt better and wanted to try another lap. We might have had to rest, but I had no intentions of just quitting. We were nearly two laps down and now in 11th out of the 11 teams. I felt better this lap and picked up my time by four minutes compared to my previous lap. It was nothing spectacular, but I was moving forward. Dina said she did not want to do another lap so it was up to me to finish for us. I wanted to get in at least one night lap. I took a 10 minute break to put on lights and headed in for another lap, my seventh of the day. I went in with the leading teams who were lapping us for the second time. These riders were only on their third laps. I pushed hard to hang with them the first half of the lap, eventually having to let them go on the Hill of Truth. It was probably my best lap of the day considering how deep into the race we were. That night lap totally changed my view of the day. I went from not enjoying the bike to ready to sign up for another race.
That was my final lap of the day. We ended up 11th out of 11, but we got in a solid 10 laps. It was a rough, humbling day, but we fought on. I definitely have some work to do. I was not fast enough to be in contention at any point today, even before the crash. We took on the world and the world won this round. The crazy thing was that my seven laps would have been good enough for 3rd in the Solo class.
More endurance racing from Fall 2019 coming!
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