Plans Continue

For it not even being Februar, race plans are coming together fast! Registrations are filling up quickly for a variety of races, and God forbid I don't get a chance to travel hundreds of miles and pay hundreds of dollars to suffer like a dog in the name of mid pack obscurity! Hey, someone has to finish 110th right?

Today I made the my decision- The Lumberjack 100 beat out The Fools Gold 100. The Fools Gold is probably more my style, but The Lumberjack won out due to it being closer, and giving me a longer break in between hundies. It's 3 weeks after Mohican oppose to Fools Gold being 2 weeks after The Wilderness 101. This should break the NUE Series up pretty good for me and still allow me to get 4 races in.
The bad part (or good part depending how I feel at a particular moment) is that from all accounts the Lumberjack is a real ball buster and has broken the spirt of even hardened professionals. It also throws a stick in the spokes of the best part of the a hundred mile races in that it's four 25 mile loops rather than ONE big ass 100 mile loop. Part of me says "who give a f*ck?" considering I've done 100+ miles in fourteen 7.5 mile laps. Now THAT is some mind fornication!

You do have to love this description:

"...fast rolling terrain offers twists and turns that demand constant power, and total concentration as the trails quickly turn to nothing more than green blurs of forest. (If you’re expecting easy, fire-road coasting, look elsewhere!) Ninety nine percent of the 25-mile, 4-lap race is comprised of this single track that will eventually push racers over 10,000 feet of total elevation gain."

Power? I'm all about POWER (Note sarcasm. Then again maybe I AM, considering I don't climb that well? Hhmmm.) 99% single track? Hell yeah! Gonna plant my ass on the Big Mama and power through 100 miles as best I can, hoping to come in less than 3 hours behind Eatough and his ilk. Either way, I'm stoked! Like the Jimmy Dugan quote I've used a million times before to describe endurance racing- "It's supposed to be hard, if it was easy, everybody would do it it's the hard that makes it great." Jimmy is wise. Or at very least Jimmy is Tom Hanks.

Tomorrow I need to throw down more jing for the LBD. Speaking of Leesburg... Don, Brad, The Little Ball of Hate and I are all heading down to Snotcycle next week. It's a amazing to me that there are currently 165 racer signed up for an XC race.. IN JANUARY! I LOVE IT!! I think that speaks volumes about what kind of race Plum Grove Rob puts on AND the love for the sport that we all share. When most folks will be in "Stupor Bowl Hibernation/Inebriation Mode 165+ folks are willing to pay to go out and have some fun in a cow pasture in the middle of winter. Some (we 4) willing to drive 3.5 hours to do it. Should be a fun time and a nice way to blow some stink off me.

Heading up to Papa O's tomorrow night to borrow his garage to put the bike rack on the Xb. Then I'm Saturday I'm meeting up with some folks to ride in the slop. Should be an adventure.

Later.