Ore to Shore Race Recap

This is so far after the fact that I barely care about it anymore, let alone think anyone else would care (not sure ANYONE ever really cares anyway, but I type this shit anyway). My Internet connection on vacation was the worst. I think it was dial Up, which means it was only slightly worse than the Cable ISP I pay out the ass for here in Mount P.

Friday: Wifey, B-Man and I loaded up the xB, and headed to Marquett, MI for the Ore To Shore. I have heard about this race for years, but never lived just 5 hours away from it. This year was different.

It was cool to check out Marquette. My Dad was in the Air Force and stationed there back in the 60s, so I have heard him talk about it for years. It was way bigger than I expected, but it still had some nice charm in parts of the downtown.

We stayed in one of the worst hotels/motels I have ever been in (I won't mention any names E-C-O-N-O-L-O-D-G-E). I am NOT a picky person when it comes to hotels, especially before a race, I mean who could forget the Days Inn bloody wall booger? But I wasn't paying $129 a night for the bloody booger!! The room smelled of cigarettes (it was a non smoking room), B.O. and feet (and that was BEFORE I had a chance to unleash my own stink!) Oh yeah, I guess I paid for the "lake front view?" Ha! I had to walk down the hall, out the door and around the side of the building to see the lake which was across a 4 lane highway. UG!! This of course was all my own fault, since I THOUGHT I had already made a reservation at the Super 8 months ago. Turns out I didn't. So I had to scramble and take the first thing that I could find, which as it turns out, wasn't much. Oh well, I was there to race.

Packet pick up was nuts. Thousands of racers (48, 28, and 10 mile racers) lined up to get in the local gym to pick up numbers and shwag bags. I thought I would be there for hours, but it turns out the line went pretty damn fast and before I knew it I was out for dinner, and feeding my fat face.

After pizza and a couple beers downtown it was back to our reeking of sweaty girls gym locker room hotel room for a semi good night's sleep.

Saturday morning Wifey and B-Man drove me up to Negaunee for the 48 mile Ore To Shore Hard Rock start. As I got the bike ready and warmed up, I finally ran into my friend Ben. I have known Ben for over 2 years via the Internet and e mails, but had never met him in person. Turns out he's a real ass. Kidding of course, he's a great guy, and we would have a chance to catch up later over beers. So that was super cool.

The main street of Negaunee was jammed with racers, I think there were 650 or more racers doing the 48 mile race. Ben had said he was was given the tip to that if you couldn't start near the front, start on the sides of the pack to avoid the most congestion. Well, I was about to put that to the test as I found myself about 300 folks back almost right in the middle of the start pack.

I am somewhere back by the blue building.

The start neared, they played the National Anthem on the PA system. 20 seconds in or so the record skipped and stopped. On cue the whole pack took up the singing. Even a non jingoistic lefty like me thought it was cool. Eventually the record picked back up, but they would have been wise just to let it go and keep that moment going.

BANG! The race starts and we're off. 600+ sets of knobby tires whirling on the pavement and snaking through Negaunee. Wifey said that there was actually a breeze blowing as the pack whirled by. I wouldn't know, I was just trying to not let any knob heads jack me up .25 miles into a 48 mile race.

Off pavement and onto some dirt roads and two track we went. Each hill the pack seemed to thin out a bit, and I continued to work my way through the midpack. Then the midpack would work its way up through me.

The O2S had a bit of everything: pavement, dirt roads, 2 track, quad trails, XC ski trails, sand, and some singletrack. I like that kind of race. There were a few hike a bike type sections along Misery Hill, but they weren't nearly as bad as I thought.

I relied on just two bottles of CarboRocket 333, and a hunk of banana an Aid Station worker handed me as I road through Aid #3 I believe. I almost went with a hydration pack, but I REALLY hate racing with a pack, so I opted to not use it. In the end I never missed the pack. But I did drain both bottles by the finish.

I found myself feeling really good the whole race. I am NOT used to feeling like that during a race. Of course I wish my finishing time would have been as fast as I felt like I was going, but alas I am just NOT that fast, and ended up finishing in 3:16:49 and 65th place out of 122 in my age group which is pretty close to mid pack, but not really. Overall I finished 342 out of 674 in the Hard Rock. Again close to mid pack. The funny thing is that I THOUGHT that was pretty fast, but when when you find out 341 folks finished in front of you, and Brian Matter won in like 2:25 or something, it sort of makes you feel like shit. But then you look and see over 330 folks finished behind you and you don't feel so bad!

I was pretty stoked with how my race went. A better starting place would have helped a bit, and not getting stuck behind some rider dismounts would have helped too, but that's all part of racing, and who the hell besides me cares if I finished 20th or 350th? I was just happy to have felt great the entire race without bonking, puking or dehydrating.

Post race. It was a LITTLE dusty out there.

After the race it was back to the Worst Hotel In The World to clean up and then head out to dinner with Wifey and B-Man. After some beers and pizza I met up with Ben(ard) from 22 Cycles at the Bell's Ore To Shore after party at Up Front and had a kick ass time. Maybe too good a time? Nahhhh!!

Next morning after a few cups of coffee and a few Advil it was off to Copper Harbor for the week. More on that soon...