Lumberjack 100 MTB Race Report
Background:
I finished out season training in early April as part of my Ironman training for Wisconsin (Sept) and Florida (Nov). I ramped up my bike volume earlier than usual with a big bike weekend three weeks out from this race. I would mix my riding between mountain and road depending on conditions and time constraints. My limiter going into this race was my mountain biking skills with only six months of off road riding. But I was up for a challenge.
Pre-Race
Wake up at 4:30am and eat breakfast of 2 cups unsweetened applesauce with one scoop protein powder added and two Ensures. Total cal of about 780. Had 3 Starbucks Via’s with 8 oz water.
The course is 90% single track consisting of 3 loops of 33 miles each. Total elevation gain is 9,000 ft with mostly hard pack trail with occasional sandy sections. There was a staffed aid station at mile 17. In the parking lot/finish area at end of lap we had our own coolers either near the truck or off the track with water/nutrition to re-load for the next lap.
Nutrition/Hydration Plan:
Drink 100 oz water between aid station stops for avg of about 60 oz/hour.
3 S-Caps per hour
250-300 cal per hour from Infinit bottle on bike frame
1 Honey Stinger Waffle every aid station
Caffeine as needed but try to wait until start of third lap
Race Site
Of all my endurance athlete friends, I was able to find only one willing to sign up for this race. That would be Chris Schabel aka DJ Golden Boy. Although not planned at all, both of us purchased Scott Scale Pro 29’r bikes earlier this year. We got to the race site at the Big M Ski Lodge at 6:00am and registered and then set up our bikes and coolers. Saw the lone entrant in the tandem class, a married couple from California. Awesome.
We line up on the road entering the ski area for a two mile roll out on the road before entering the forest. There was some redneck in a van that did not move out of the way and cyclists had to ride around him. Chris and I lined up at the back of the 400 racers with the idea the first lap would be a very easy effort to recon the course. As soon as we hit the trail, it is a massive dust cloud from all the riders in front of us. We are riding along together and at mile 6.0 I hear Chris yell, “FUCK!!!”. He had broke his chain while mashing up a hill. I stopped and neither of us had the tools to repair this. Full of disappointment, Chris told me to continue on and he would walk back to the start. I gave him the car key as he was looking at a 10+ hour day of waiting for me to finish.
I continued riding and was really upset about Chris’ bad luck and him having to deal with getting back to the finish area. The trails are very remote with minimal access points where support vehicles could come in. You would basically need to get to a fire road and figure out where you were to get a rescue. I am riding along at mile 14.2 and hear someone scream, “Don’t call it a comeback!”. It definitely was not LL Cool J, it was DJ Golden Boy back in action. Someone behind Chris had a quick link chain tool and got his chain fixed and he was able to ride.
The course includes a few hills where I had to walk and push my bike. There were also some very sketchy sand sections. Some of the trails looked exactly like the Forest Moon of Endor and I fully expected Ewok’s to be running around. I finished the first lap in 3:36 and stopped and drank an Ensure and reloaded the Camelbak.
The second lap got to be very difficult as temperatures were climbing to the high 80’s and getting some hand/wrist soreness from riding. It was also getting frustrating as I would have near crashes in the same exact spots as the first lap. I crashed twice on this lap, both low speed and totally my fault. The second crash was a descent in loose sand and I fell and hit my left side/rib on a tree. Ouch. At the 17/50 mile aid station, I just wanted to reach the finish area after lap 2 and be done. At this point the pro and elite field were lapping me on their way to the finish. This was really depressing as in the road and tri world, I am a pretty strong rider. But skill is a big part of mountain biking and I am a newbie.
The Note:
I finally finish Lap 2 at 2:30pm (7:30 total riding time) and had resolved that I had strong fitness, nutrition, and hydration for the day but did not have the skill to safely continue on to the third lap. At this point, all of the super fast dudes had finished so I could just kind of blend in and my DNF would not be totally obvious. It turns out 25% of the field had DNF’s. I get to the cooler and the plan is to drink two Ensures and a Coke and re-evaluate the third lap vs DNF choice. I get to the cooler and there is a note from Chris wedged under the lid. I am hoping it said, “Meet me at the lodge for a beer”. Instead, the note read,
"Hey Brian,
Did you give me your keys when I stopped?
I don’t have them in my bag?? Text me. I will stop where I broke my chain.”
“FUCK!!!” I screamed as loud as I could. I had just crushed my body and ego and now have a key situation to deal with. I call the roadside assistance people and they say they can’t bring a new key to the site and I would need to go to a dealer to get a key. Not a great option as Manistee is pretty remote with the nearest dealer being at least 90 minutes away. I am now thinking of how to get my spare key from home to Manistee. I text Chris back, “I DO NOT HAVE THE KEY.” I then text him, “YOU NEED TO FIND IT OR WE ARE SERIOUSLY FUCKED.” At this point I am very stressed as I have no idea how we are going to get out of the Big M Ski Lodge parking lot. All I want to do is clean the layer of dirt off and chill out with a cold Founder’s IPA. Five minutes pass and I get a text from Chris, “I FOUND IT”.
It turns out Chris moved his pack and bike and left the key off the trail at mile 6. He was able to remember the exact section and through diligence and good fortune saw it. The key is pretty small with no metal and is just a black plastic with nothing shiny on it. The key turned out to be the motivation Chris needed to start lap 3 and he finished with a solid 10:30 time.
At this point, I could not even think about racing and packed up the bike and got a beer.
The most amazing thing are the guys that can race in the single-speed class. Doing 100 miles with 9,000 ft of gain with one speed = total bad ass. One of the dudes after finishing the race, volunteered to ride another lap on his single-speed to sweep the course for the slower riders.
Lessons Learned:
Don’t:
*Do races where you need to spray down with Deep Woods Off because of ticks
*Give your keys to anyone, anytime, anywhere
*Go slow on a mountain bike, bad things happen
Do:
*Drink local. Especially in Michigan!
*Try new things - get out of your comfort zone.
Here are some great video highlights of the race: