I just want to start by saying if you have not done the 5-0 then shame on you! This is my first year doing the race and I'm already looking forward to next year. The race is a must for anyone that enjoys mtn biking. We drove up on Thursday morning so that I could pre-ride a part of the course and to just enjoy the beautiful town of Spearfish. I decided on Friday to ride the new section of the course so see what was in store for the race. The section starts on an uphill doubletrack section and then goes into some nice singletrack. I ended up riding approx 12 miles, a nice warmup for the upcoming race. Going into this race my keyword was "PACE" not the picante sauce kind but pace myself so I don't burn up too early. I am a rookie at the endurance events, prior to this my only other long race was an event put on by Jim Craig (angrycowadventures.com) Panama which was 35 miles at which I cramped at mile 20 and limped my way to the finish line suffering the whole way. At this point I vowed to never let this happen again, so this was in essence a redemption race for me.
Race morning arrived, woke up at 4:30am ate some food, gathered up a few items for the race and then layed back down for a bit. The pre-race jitters were flowing now, going over everything in my head making sure I have all that I need along the way. I rolled up to the starting line, positioned my start behind the expert and pro classes. Smokey the Bear led us out of town and race is on. The first 3.5-4 miles out of town is a gravel road, on the way up I passed a few people and a few passed me, my competitive instincts were trying to kick in and say kick it up! Wisely I did not. PACE PACE, you will catch them later in the ride. I hit the singletrack and it was wheel to wheel for the first 8-10 miles then people started to make moves and seperate out. I had planned ahead of time to skip aid station 1 since my wife Patty and daughter Alicia would be at aid station 2 with full water bottles for me. This worked out perfectly as I rolled into aid station 2 I quickly scanned the crowd found them changed bottles out and I was off, no time wasted. Continuing on I just kept a nice pace trying to stay hydrated with water and also using Hammer Perpetuem. After aid station
2 it was some nice flowy downhill singletrack. I made my way to aid station 3 and made a decision that I would continue on as water bottles were still good. I tried to conserve some energy at this point because after aid station 4 it was a long uphill climb on some new cut in singletrack. I was able to stay on the bike for most of the uphill, couple times I felt my legs cramping so I jumped off bike. Bacon station/PBR was up next and this is where Patty and Alicia were with some full cold water bottles. As I rode up Patty yelled out "do you need the bottles" I said "no I'm good", this would come back to haunt me later....ugggghhhh. On the last uphill dirt road I started to cramp pretty bad, I jumped off bike and started walking. Another rider #92 was having same problem and offered up some Hammer Electrolyte tabs, only thing is I only had a swallow of water left, just enough to get them down. Thank you for the tabs #92!! Finally I was on the homestretch some really fun downhill leading out to the gravel road to finish. I pushed it pretty hard, made my way out to the gravel road and went on to the finish line. My time was 5 hours 22 minutes 59 seconds which put me 64th in my age group 30-39 and 143rd overall. For my first time riding the race, it exceeded my expectations, I was looking for around 6 hours pre-race. I am really pumped for next year already.
Few things of note:
I could not have done this without the support of my family.
Spearfish campground was beautiful and so is the town
11 year old boy was killing it out there, finished somewhere under 6 hours
Met some great people from Minnesota, one of which who lead Patty & Alicia to aid station 2 and the bacon station, thanks Renee
20+ riders from Nebraska, great showing
