Hotter'n Hell 100 Endurance Ride

7:28:56

Pros:
The first 2/3rds of the water stops were packed full of good stuff. Tons of food, sports drinks, gels, fruit, it was amazing. And let me just say Thank you so much to whoever it was that sponsored the 50odd mile stop, Margarittaville was wonderful, they had sausages and more food than all the other stops afterward combined. I stayed there for probably 30 minutes. Had it not been there I would have given up.

The atmosphere was so cool. I've never had a ride where at every moment you are surrounded by people. At no time are you alone. There is always someone within sight.

Cons:
Last 1/3 of the water stops were not good. Either they were poorly stocked to begin with or it was all gone by the time we got there. That last stretch is where I really could have used some food and it was all gone.

Shirt is kinda lame, wishing I'd sprung for the jersey.

Some people I know had trouble with the timing chips.

Amy, me, and Alice waiting for the 6 AM start.

Personal:
I have to admit that was so much harder than I thought it would be. I hauled following a guy from San Antonio for the first 30 miles. He said his goal time was 5 hours, I knew I couldn't hang with him the whole time, but I thought I'd try. After I lost him, I found my friend Corey (yes, the one that ditched me when I crashed a few weeks ago). We rode most of the rest of the course together. In fact the whole crew I went with hopped, skipped and jumped each other after the 50ish mile stop. Corey moved on when I stopped for lunch, I had left my friends in the dust at the start. When I passed Hell's Gate just 30 minutes before they were to close it I was worried my friends weren't going to make it through. Imagine my surprise when not 10 more miles down the road I discover they'd passed me while I was hanging out at margarittaville. We all ended up finishing within 30 minutes of each other. My garmin shut itself off again so I don't know what my ride time was, but oh well. I'm proud that I finished. I heard someone say it may have been the hottest one yet, don't know about that, but I do know my cell phone battery in my jersey pocket got fried. So it was plenty hot.

I saw people crash. I saw people puking. I even saw a truck with trailer packed full of people giving up with only 10 miles to go!! I am incredibly proud I finished this. It's a must do on a recreational cyclist's bucket list.

Wee Chi Tah Mountain Bike Race, Hotter'n Hell Weekend

1:17
1st in my age group in cat 3.

And they're Off!

Cons:
WATER!! I thought the flier was a joke. It says "We will have water stops, but they will be in the wrong places" haha, that's funny. No, not really. There is only one water stop only a couple miles in, unmarked, around a corner, so I missed it. I did stop and steal a bystander's water, she consented, but seeing as I was already opening it to drink, she didn't have much choice. If you do this race, come well prepared because it might as well say no water stops.

The course was tricky. Most of it was not hard, but there are some bits you absolutely have to walk unless you're just kick ass awesome on the bike.

Pros:
Some great hazards: Highway to heaven, that was so cool! You're like 5-6 feet off the ground on a bridge that might be a foot and a half wide and there are no side. The course was great, I nice mix of easy and hard.

Definitely go ride this course sometime, it was a blast. However if you have trouble with narrow passages, this would not be the course for you. There were a couple spots where you had trees on one side and a good size drop on the other. Also some very steep descents. Did I mention we had to go up on an old cement foundation and come back down! This course is so much fun!!

Nice shirt. Nice medal. Fun people. Would definately do this one again, but next time I will have loads of water with me.



Personal:
Well, that was interesting. My first official mountain bike race. How'd I do? Well, here is what one guy said to me afterwards, "You did a great job keeping up with us.... there at the beginning..." Thanks a lot. I was very proud of myself in the beginning. There is a tight tree section which slowed me down and I'm sure frustrated those directly behind me.

My friends, Alice and Charlie, waiting oh so patiently for me to get back so we could go eat.

Picked it up again, but altered my line to let a guy pass at the worst possible moment. There was a hard right which sent me off the bike and dropped my chain. I had to stand there fumbling with it, while watching to see if anyone was coming down the incredibly narrow trail. I was standing in the trees on a slope, my bike on the trail and I had to pick it up to let people pass. ARGH! I had a hard time recovering after that, but I did have a good time.

I'm trying to spit out all the mud people were throwing up after the river crossing.

The water crossing was interesting. I'm glad the guy in front of me stopped to dismount, if he hadn't I probably would have tried to ride part of it which I wouldn't recommend. There were a couple of deep spots I could definitely envision someone biting it.