More on the Mudder

OK, since Gewilli can't seem to wait, here is my race report for UNH. The results aren't posted yet, so we'll just have to see how accurate this is.

Starting back on Friday, I got up to the KLNTC a bit late in the day. Heading out on the CX bike by myself, my route went north toward Plymouth. Taking Bridgewater Hill Road to Dick Brown Road would point me to Newfound Lake. I'd never done it in this direction before... Luckily I had my 38 mm tires and 12-32 cassette. I was in the 38x32 much of the way up, wishing for more. There were three or four "XXXX HILL ROAD" signs that I didn't stop to photograph, because I was in oxygen debt already. There was also "Alpine Road" which doesn't have hill or mountain in the name, but still should be good enough. I bombed down 3A past Newfound and into Bristol, then took the ever so lumpy-profiled Old Bristol Road back to the homestead, bringing it in at around two hours. This was a nice opener up ride after taking four days for R&R from Monday to Thursday. On to Durham.

We had received the email from the promoter warning of a mud bath. I'd have bagged it for sure, but the weather forecast called for temps in the incredibly unseasonable 60's, so I armor-alled the bike, packed up, and headed down via Route 4, which makes up the right armpit of New Hampshire (Route 4 west toward Lebanon is neck and neck with Claremont for the left armpit title). Things started to look nicer as we neared the seacoast, less discount cigs signs, and more trees. I'd never been to the UNH Durham campus before, and I must say I was impressed. The course was easy to find, and there was ample paved parking. They were running pretty late, and I had about 30 minutes to get ready for the master's race, but I decided that was too much of a stretch, so I signed up for the Senior 3 race which started two hours later.

Basically this course had two halfs (duh), moist and slightly hilly in the front, and muddy in the back (huh-huh, huh-huh). You could see the entire front half from registration. After kitting up, I tried to check out the backside, but soon realized the entire area was under two inches of water. What once was a crappy rugby practice field was already a furrowed mess of shredded grass, manure, water, and mud. It was flat and non-technical, but there were about 400 meters of flat "grass" that wove back and forth, and it was only about 50% rideable. The runners looked much faster than those who tried to ride, so it was really a question of economy. I immediately planned on doing A LOT of running, and chose to warmup on the road only, as well as going for a jog. I never even previewed the entire course, as keeping the bike clean seemed like a better way to go.

I duct-taped my shoes and even my socks to be sure the straps would stay secure in the shin-deep muck. I lined up with 27 other starters, all younger than I, some by twenty years. We took off and I stayed at the back to get a look at the course. We weaved through some technical parts and then when we dumped out into the deep mud I dismounted and immediately ran by three or four who were bogged down up to their hubs. I may have run a bit too much the first lap, as I got pretty blown. The next lap I settled in, but after trying to ride some of the deep cuck, I got out on the front half of the course and my chain was skipping like crazy, as the derailleur had dragged through the deep mud and now was an unrecognizable blob the size of a softball. The only two gears I used the rest of the race were the 38x27 and the 38x24. It was that slow. The third lap I made sure I rode through some of the deepest standing water in an attempt to rinse the bike, then from that point on I ran all the deep sections, also trudging through the deepest water to try and keep the shoes clean. I may have passed one more guy, then another with a mechanical, but honestly I haven't got a good idea of where I ended up.

I was surprised when the one to go bell sounded. I made a good charge on the running sections, but didn't catch the next guy. It was over 41 minutes after it started, so mercifully the officials didn't keep us out there past five laps. I got cleaned up under an unattended spigot, thankful that the duct tape kept my shoes from getting ruined. There were about two pounds of grass tangled around each cantilever stud. We got going while it was still light out, and I felt great, really opened up, like I'd done a running race. My average HR for this littel soiree turned out to be 167, with tons of time over 170. Yowza. We'll see when (if) the results come out, but I'm guessing there were some DNF's ahead of me too, so maybe 20th? Sunday we rode the MTBs and found some great roads, the dirt sections would have been OK for road bikes. Next year we'll have some great loops mapped out. Not sure about Friday, but Sunday was 660 meters of climbing in under two hours, never more than seven miles from the homestead. Very cool. Thanks for reading.