Me and two teammates drove to Echo, Oregon on Friday in the early evening, stopping briefly in Hood River to enjoy some Double Mountain love. We arrived in Echo around 9pm with some hand scrawled directions that said things like “take a left after the air strip and the windmill, a right just after a rock pile.” It was completely dark, and there were no lights or signs (that we could see) anywhere, so we did a lot turning around and praying we wouldn’t have to spend the night right in town, next to the barking dogs, the screaming rooster and the skate park.
We finally found our people (the ones with VW camper vans, camp fires and beer), and quickly set up and poached a fire. The night wasn’t as cold as I was expecting, and once I was thoroughly burowed into my sleeping bad with the hood over my head, I stayed warm all night, despite waking up to frost covering the ground.
After a nice long morning of hot coffee and a big host breakfast (go big or go home, when it comes to breakfast!), we made our way into town. I originally signed up to race Cat 2, figuring I would get one good result in before upgrading to 1. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to go ahead and upgrade… there would be fewer people at this race so more chance for series points since I would be upgrading eventually anyway. Plus I wanted to race the full distance, especially since most of the extra 7 miles were single track. I drove all that way, might as well ride as long as possible… right?
They started the men/women pros/cat 1s and single speeds all together, which was probably not the smartest move, it was a bit of a clusterf*k for quite a while. I had a really strong start and I kept my pace really sigh the first hour, I was red lining the entire time. Finally I realized I would be out there for potentially another 2 hours, I cannot hold myself at 90% that long. So I settled in and just rode. And then a bunch of cat 1s passed me. I was getting tired and losing control, my tires were massively over inflated, it was not the best race for me in terms of skills. That really held me up; I think I could have podium-ed if I had done more mtb rides this year. But, as it was, I had to slow it down so I could collect myself and rest a while to get my head back in the game.
The course was rolling, which meant you were pretty much pedaling the entire race. It was bumpy, rough, and almost immediately my lower back start screaming. An hour and half in I didn’t think I could keep going, it hurt so bad. My hands were getting ripped to shreds (I really need knew grips!), and my ass was not super excited about that dude’s saddle that I still haven’t gotten around to replacing. So my feet were starting to get hot spots, I was dying of heat in my long sleeve base layer, my back was screaming, I thought I was in last place, let’s just say that second hour was pure survival. I just kept telling myself to concentrate on the trail and on good handling skills, even if that meant going way slower (and it did).
When we hit the extra 7 mile section, I saw another woman ahead of me. I guess I’m still racing after all, I thought to myself. I put the gas pedal back on, happy that despite the pain everywhere else, my legs were still very much in the game. The new trail along the river was VERY knew, very turny and twisty and tight with lots of little bridges. I crashed out once due to my insanely hard tires (at least that’s what I’d like to blame it on), but generally kept it moving as fast as I could through the tight singletrack.
When I came out of the river section and started climbing again, I passed the woman who had been in front of me, who had stopped at a rest area to refill her water bottle. I also noticed another woman behind me. Shit. Game On.
At that point I just put the balls to the walls and went back up to 90%. All I wanted to see was that damned road which meant a 2 mile road ride back to the finish, mostly dirt. After what seemed like forever, I finally reached the road. Those were the longest two mile road ride on the face of the planet. I was maxing out, trying to make sure she didn’t catch me; when I kept turning to look behind me, I couldn’t tell if she was there; the sun was behind us, so everyone’s faces were in shadow. Once on the road the cat 1s were mixed with everyone else, so I couldn’t tell who was who. I just put my head down and motored it in to the end.
I was happy and surprised to see that I ended up in 4th place; most of the women who passed me at the beginning were actually pros, not cat 1s. Oh. Well then.
Next up in the OR XC series: Hornings.
