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Wilderness 101 7-26-08

We had a great weekend in the woods in the middle of PA!  Fast Eddie Velasquez, Ken Clark (Clark Kent) Tim Dougherty, Ray Velez and myself took on the Wilderness 101.  What a blast!  This was Eddie, Ken and Ray's first 100 mile ultra-endurance mountain bike race.  They did very very well! 

Eddie and I finished in 10 hours, 35 minutes, and Ken finished just 10 minutes later.  Tim had a really annoying issue with his stem face plate and was not able to finish the race.  Ray has a similar issue and made it all the way to aid station 4, which is about 75 miles into the race. 

I was planning on riding my epic in this race, but a couple weeks before the race, Fast Eddie talked me into trying it on the single speed. Tim has always done this race on his single speed, and he pushed us towards riding single speeds also.  I was worried that would not work out so well, but luckily, I was wrong!  Both Eddie and I rode our Surly Karate Monkeys and it was great!  They uphills were much faster than they would have been with gears.  We took advantage of Ken on his geared bike and drafted off him on many of the flat and rolling sections.  Eddie has a suspension fork on his monkey, and I don't.  I really wish I did have one for this race.  The dowhills destroyed my hands.  The hills are a lot bigger out there, and the speed and length of the downhills really really hurt with the rigid fork.  Eddie was offering to trade bikes for some of the downhills, but I had to be manly and turn him down, even though I appreciated the offer. 

Fast Eddie has really been ripping it up on his single speed for the last couple months.  He is really living up to his nick name.  His speed has been increasing a lot.  If Eddie had not been waiting for me during this race, he would have finished 30-45 minutes ahead of me.  Next year, you'd better go off on your own Eddie!

We had a really great time doing this race!  We were mentally prepared for 11,000 feet of climbing, which made it a little less painful.  When I first did this race 2 years ago, I did not know what I was in for and it was miserable. 

I would highly recomend trying this race.  It's a great goal to set for yourself.  Feel free to contact me to chat about the race if you are interested in trying it.  geoff@martysreliable.com

-Geoff L.

Here are some silly photos from the race.  You'll notice that most of the pictures involve food or beer....


We had to keep ourselves entertained on the trip out route 80 somehow...


The Surlys look ready.  (notice the elevation profile of the race on the top of the number plates)


We checked out some local beer the night before the race.


Cookies


Here is Fast Eddie just after the start of the race!


They hand you this fancy pint glass when you cross the finish line, and then direct you to a row of kegs from a local micro-brewery.  Now you know what compelled us to do this silly race.


We still look pretty fresh after the race... right?


Davey's Hotdogs saves the day on the trip home to NJ.  Look at how skinny Eddie looks.  He clearly needs to eat several hotdogs to take care of that...