Leesburg Bakers Dozen Race Report

This weekend I returned to Virginia to race for the second time in 3 weeks. This time for the 3rd Annual Leesburg Bakers Dozen. 13 hours of tight flowing single track, bumpy ass farm roads and plenty of cow patties thrown in, JUST to keep your immune system on it's toes.

The Baker's Dozen in one of the few endurance lap races I have on my schedule this year, and may be the longest one I do all year. This year I'm choosing to race more hundies, marathons, and (attempt) XC in lieu of the big ass Solo lap events.

I find that as I age and the more I do this type of racing my goals and expectations change, especially after having dealt with a blood clot in my leg for the past 6 months (now gone). Pushing myself to a puking, cramping, zombie can be fun and invigoration, but at some point you have to ask yourself what you want from your racing, what do you want to walk away feeling? I'm comfortable with this plan, and I think Wifey and my doctors are too!

This year for the Baker's Dozen I set my goal at seeing how fast I could get 100 miles in without feeling like complete and utter shit. I wanted to focus on mileage, time, and fun, not laps and placings. These are the goals that I like to set for myself, whilst non mortals like The Vegan, Schwarz and Bob A., are battling it out for top spots. Enough intro, on the report...

Left Friday afternoon for Leesburg, I would be driving down Solo and meeting Brad S. and K-Aho (Brad's girlfriend/fiance/wife) at the venue. The drive was uneventful and MUCH shorter that the drive down to Camp Hilbert! That freaking drive almost killed me, ha!

Brad and K-Aho pulled in not long after me. We got the pop-up set up near my Plum Grove Peeps (Pete, Stu & Bob) and then Brad and I went out for a quick pre-ride. The trails were perfect! Fast hard pack, tacky in some places and just fun. The course would be the same as Snotcycle back in January, but looked a lot different without the snow and ice on it. It also FELT different to be riding in 70 degrees rather than 18 degrees! HA!

Cold Ballz, Boogers, PBR, & Maverick's Buttocks

After the pre-ride we went to the hotel to get checked in. A process that took a good 15+ minutes due to the elderly desk clerk who insisted on telling me the menu and attraction of every local restaurant AND explaining to me at length that if I wanted a room with a microwave I needed to request that when I made the reservation. She meant well, but I all I wanted was a place to heat my T. Ballz up!! Cold Ballz would have to do.

Upon entering the room we immediately noticed a HUGE bloody booger on the wall above the TV. Nice, real nice. Microwave? NO! Bloody booger? Yes. Soon Brad was busting out PBR (much to my dismay) but given that I have NEVER even tasted one I figured I needed to at least try it before I continued to bust his balls for drinking it. It was as bad as I anticipated and one would be way more than enough.


The rest of the night was spent watching Latino soap operas and at K-Aho's request- Top Gun. Top Gun may be one of the worst movies I've EVER seen. It's bad on so many levels I can't begin to get into it. I found it amazing the lengths that the director/studio went through to work Tom Cruise's ass into the movie. Including a "heart to heart" scene with his instructor about his now dead navigator named Goose, which was had while T.C. shaved at a sink, sticking his ass out, in nothing but a pair of tighty whities. Ridiculous! But it made for some laughs and killed the pre race jitters.

Finally... the race!

After a semi-restful night's sleep it was off to the venue to get ready to get down for the next 13 hours. Got all my bottles situated, food ready, and the Big Mama double checked by one of the Plum Grove mechanics (thanks!). Before your knew it, we were all on the line.


On the line I found myself DEEEEEP in the back. As soon as we hit the single track things came to pretty much a stand still. It was like a traffic jam on I95. Eeesh! After the first lap things got a bit more thinned out and I was able to open up the legs a bit.

It took me about 3 or 4 laps to really find my rhythm, and to see how the body and my stomach would react to the long haul. I made it my mission to keep drinking water (from my C'Back) and make sure I was taking in a full bottle (of CytoCarb/Gatorade) every two laps. I also made sure to pit every 2 laps to refresh my water, bottles and suck down some solid food. The stops ranged from 2 to 5 minutes. But I never sat down and in the end it really helped to keep my legs moving and my belly happy. Many long time readers will know all to well that not bonking and keeping food down has been a problem for me in the past. But not today! Woot! Woot!

I think it only took 2 laps for me to be lapped by The Vegan, but I was feeling good on the bike and as I thought the Big Mama was PERFECT for this race. On the stutter bumped farm road that joined the two loops together I saw folks being bounced all over the place. I was able to just hammer the road like it was a rail trail.

At about lap 8 or so, I passed a couple of solo racers that I know and are equal or better riders than me, so I felt like had good legs. I took every opportunity I had to put the hammer down and get my 100 in quick. It was also about lap 8 that I started to get leg cramps in the SAME section of trail for the rest of the race. Every time I hit a big rock at the top of dip at about the 5.5 mile mark, my legs would seize. I would then have to soft pedal or pedal in some f*cked up way to prevent my legs from locking up. I should have been taking in some Endurolyte pills, but A. I didn't have any, B. I hate them, and C. They make me puke. So I would just have to deal with the cramps.

Motivation can be found by the oddest things during a race. Some dude "nice biked" me when I passed and after saying thanks, I felt compelled to show him what the Big Mama could do, then later in the race some dude recognized me as the putter outer (publisher) of XXC and yelled "XXC! I love the mag man!". That could have been the best on the trail morale boost I ever got. Thanks man. Seeing my odometer creep closer to the 3 digits was the main motivator. Every time I was hurting, I just focused on that number.

When I finally hit tripple digits on the odometer, I was ready to be done. I wasn't completely toasted yet, but I was bored of the loop, getting close to body shut down, and hit my goal in about 9:35. I'll need to double check the results for exact time, lap count and my final placing.

Burgers, Beer, Bonfires, Blue Grass and Bizza.
OK, it was Pizza, but it seemed lame not to have another B word in there.

Many would poo-poo my descision to stop when I was feeling good and still had a lot of time left. That's their bizness and we all approach racing differently. I felt good with it, and was stoked that I just ripped off 100+ miles and felt good. A nice sighn that my fitness is pretty good and I might not completely embarrass myself in the four N.U.E. races I'm doing this year. Not sure when my next endurance lap race will be. My focus is to now get ready for the Mohican 100 in late May, get some long rides in, and maybe do a couple XC races.

Brad finished up not long after me. And we both agreed that cleaning up and sitting our asses down with a some beers would be the plan for the rest of the night. Our pit neighbors from Plum Grove cooked us up some burgers and dogs and K-Aho had made a beer run while we were out racing, so the night was complete.

Soon the bon fire was going, 9,000 pizzas were delivered, and a blue grass band was playing. I'm shocked to feel so good after a race. I've not regretted my decision to stop when I did. If I would have stopped feeling like shit at that point in the race would have felt worse, but stopping after 100+ miles knowing I still had something left in the tank really felt good for a change. I hope I can build on that confidence and fitness for the rest of my season.

Congrats to Brad for putting in a ton of laps and way over 100 miles and to P.G. Pete for a great finish. Also big thanks to Rob (the race director) for putting on another great race, and to K-Aho for her help in the pit, for putting up with my Turkey Ball Gas, and for giving me Top Gun. The pain of that freaking movie, and not being able to get it out of my mind all day Saturday, really made 14 laps feel like nothing.

"Son, your ego is writing checks your body can't cash"
-Stinger

Glad "Stinger" wasn't talking me. My ego, or lack there of wrote checks that my body had no problem cashing this time (for a change).

Brad put up some great pics from the race HERE. Just pay not attention to THIS one!

Later.

Big thanks to Gary Ryan for use of the pics.

EDIT: Results up finished 21 out of 61 with 14 laps in 9:36. Seems stupid that I stopped so early with over 3 hours to go. Especially considering the 22nd place guy took 12:18 to do the same amount of laps. I'm an idiot. But then again, I was ready to stop, and it wold have taken 17 or 18 laps to crack the top 10. And I KNOW I didn't have that in me.