Darkhorse 40 Reports

cat2 sport men

Man! How can you sum up a 40 mile race within a couple paragraphs?

First off, hats off to the promoters and all the volunteers: great race, great party afterwards!

Going into this race I wasn't sure how to go about the start with a 140+ plus people in the class. Should I race fast to the singletrack or hold back and let the race unfold? Kinda wound up doing a combinaton of both. At one point it was rob/dave/johnathon and myself running together. Sweet! Got held up in quite a few bottlenecks the first 5 miles or so. Maybe it cost me some time or just held me back enough so I wouldn't blow up later on. dunno

Rest of the first lap was quite uneventful. Passed all the water stops. Was carrying enough water in the camelback plus a bottle on the bike. Knew I had a fresh one waiting for me at start/finish line. Learned this would be the best way for me during the pre-rides.

2nd lap, where did everyone go? lol Started to catch a lot of riders wearing full "kits" (haven't seen this a lot since I've raced only cat3 to this point.) Now I'm starting to think I'm having a real good race going here. Around mile 35 somehow I bent 2nd and 3rd on the rear cassette chain - wouldn't stay in either gear. Crap! Had to finish with some odd gearing choices!

Again passed all water stops about 3 miles left - I felt I had some left in the tank so I go for it. Stood up a quite a bit and gave it all I have left. Got thru the rollercoaster section - hear all the horns and cheers. Awesome!! Over the nasty rooty section to the finish.

20th place overall! Wow! It was wayyyyy better than I thought I could do.

Thx for all the pre-rides Robson, mtnrider,panhead,poor iggy. And Willy for keeping me motivated up to the race. It went a long way for me. Learned a lot! Knew the course very well, but wasn't sure of how to handle the distance.

Lap 1--- 1 hour 48 min
Lap 2--- 1 hour 53 min
Food & drink consumed: about 150 ounces water(including Metagenics Pro-Optimizer); 2 gel flasks; 2 CLIF bars; one banana

On to Cathedral Pines!!
 
I can't believe Jake didn't fall for my frosty PBR offering ....

That watering hole was the best. Sirens were so nice they even refilled my Camelback with water while I sat on one of their chairs enjoying my PBR. I had one on each lap!! In retrospect, they should've filled my camelback with PBR!

I guess vuvuzelas are not banned in the state of new york....sheesh thanks for waiting for us slow ones...I kept waiting for the bells and horns signaling I was almost done and nothing...I felt so lonely out there...

my time sucked compared to all you real racers but I finished better than I anticipated even with my 2 beer stops and 2 other stops to help ladies "in distress" with flats...good thing I carried a gazillion co2 cartridges, I felt like the SAG car....

Oh and I met Luke's mom and dad too 😉. I rode with her for a while until she dropped me (but only cuz it was my 2nd lap and she was fresh on her only lap...🙄). She has mad skillz on the roots and rocks.

Note to self, do not use a NEW bike on a race without debugging it first. No rear brake, poor cable management, and seat moving all over the place 😡 I'm glad it was a SS, if not I bet you shifting would've been all Fed Up as well.

Great times!
 
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Great job Steve! I knew you gonna kill it!

Personally, I'm glad I finished since I wasn't even ready for long race like this...plus stopping for beer twice and letting people pass didn't help with my race time🙄...I wasn't really in race mode, more in fun mode🙂
Great time yesterday and looking forward to next year!
 
My race went great for about 17 miles, I shot out of the gate because I didnt want to get caught in the bottleneck and hung with front 10 or so for the first couple miles. Kirt started out behind me and quickly past me and I hung on to his wheel for the first 15. Didnt feel like I was pushing it but just held pace. Poor Ilya crashed in front of me on a downhill then he was 90deg on one of the steep climbs. Next time I saw him he was all scratched up from another tree encounter.

I knew I was in trouble when I hopped off the bike for the stairs runup and felt that twinge and said F*** not already, what the f&*& did I do wrong this time! So I let Kirt go and dialed it back hoping to spin thru my groin cramps, I've never had groin cramps. Cant dial it back enough to stop every muscle in my legs and hand and triceps seizing up. I get passed by Pooriggy before the first lap ends and I now realize I went way too hard and will ride that pain train for my stupidity. I remembered looking down at my avg speed --11.8. Wow thats great- to- uh oh your f'd.

I wanted to quit but I rolled past our Cheering section and I laughed when I wanted to cry and decided to punish myself. Progress thru pain right. Kept Maurices advice on spinning thru the cramps but as soon as one would subside another would take its place. Enough bitching, the last 3 miles I decided to push it and sprint to the finish to overtake a DH rider that wasnt even in my class and everything locked up when I tried to avert the scoring tent and went down in agony, calves locked up, laying on the finish line trying to survive as Matty and others throw me water.

I just didnt prepare mentally or nutritionally and paid the price. Lesson learned(yeah right).

Lap 1- avg 11.8
LAp 2- 9.8

Great Vibe afterword, but I was miserable. Sorry I wasnt too sociable. I wish all the races were like this.
 
steve336 said:
20th place overall! Wow! It was wayyyyy better than I thought I could do.
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Great job Steve.
Your a bit of a sleeper(your stronger than you realize), move to cat 2, ride more aggressive and you'll be finishing top 10 a year from now. you can do it😉
 
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To Maddawg MIKE and the DarkHorse crew, you guys rock. What an awesome and well ran event. Besides the awesome post race bbq and beer, I enjoyed the PBR feeding station where 3 beautiful women in there bathing suite covered by white linen fabric like the Greek Goddesses waiting to serve you beer or water. 😀 I also enjoyed the MTBNJ cheering squad on the last 3 miles where they were blasting their Vuvuzela and ringing their cow bells, that was awesome 😉 . When I heard them on my second lap I knew I only had to endure 3 more miles to the finish line...oh yeah I forgot the rooty section on the last quarter of a mile. 😡

Congrats Steve for placing 20 in our class and to Liong I heard that you wiped out and had to DNF, I hope only minor injury. Robson, congrats for finishing the race. I saw you when you fell off the first bridge and soak half of your body with that creek water, I'm glad you still managed to enjoy the race and finished it after that mishap.
 
pooriggy said:
Great job Steve.
Your a bit of a sleeper(your stronger than you realize), move to cat 2, ride more aggressive and you'll be finishing top 10 a year from now. you can do it😉
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Who's the sleeper, you should move to Cat1😉
 
RNG1 said:
Unfortunately I couldn't be on my bike yesterday however it was an interesting experience helping with scoring and spending the day with my son.

My son was thrilled to blow this horn thing he made out of bamboo along with the air horn at the start. He really took his job of writing down the placement of elite finishers really seriously and it worked out well. He got a little freaked out when a guy pulled in that literally looked like he had a broken neck. And there was another who was blowing chunks for a while that I could tell was getting to him. In fact that was getting to all of us in the scoring area after a while.

I think the most moving thing I saw though that got me thinking was after the bulk of the racers were long done and back up by the food I realized I had forgotten one of my chairs down by the scoring tent. I drove down there with my son to get it and we were going to use the john before we hit the road to head home. While my son was in there, I got to watch a few more people pull in to the ghost town kinda feeling that was left down there as it was probably around 2:30 or later at that point. I saw a guy probably around my age roll in while his wife was waiting for him. The relief and joy on her face that he was ok and then the hug they shared with his victory of completing and not giving up was really moving. Then I saw 3 or 4 guys pull in who looked like they were 55 or 60+ for sure and a son who had raced and had been done for hours just waiting for them to come in and they all celebrated.

The last rider that I saw come in was a woman who clearly did not look like she did this on a serious regular basis whose husband was waiting for her. She barely rolled in and put the bike down and literally fell into his arms. He helped her just walk around with their arms around each other and somehow knew that she needed to keep moving a bit and not just stop. It was one of the most memorable things I have seen in a long time and will stick in my heart for a while. Definitely not something I would have ever seen or experienced had I raced myself.

Congratulations to everyone who came out yesterday and on all your victories.... whatever that may mean to you.
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Insightful write-up Rob. Makes me wonder if you are a professional writer. Most of your posts make me laugh...this one almost made me cry. I may be that woman barely rolling in next year's race. This write up should be published in a magazine...well maybe not the part about the john. :hmmm:
 
And omg Kush you tried to pass Joe's Sleeveless arms? what are you crazy? You obviously got pulled into their gravitational pull and it wiped you out.
 
woo woo!

what a blast this race was - my boyfriend and I entered with the goal of finishing and no crashes/injuries...a success!

Thanks to the DH 40 crew and Maddawg for putting on an awesome race!
 
Yesterday was a great day to be a Mountain Biker!
Thank you DarkHorse for running an outstanding event!
Thank you Mother Nature for surprising us with perfect weather!

What a fun course! Such a great mix of flow and mini-climbs and rock features and berms... But after the first few miles, I realized that I was having a bit too much fun...using too much brake in the blind, unfamiliar turns and pushing too hard to get back up to speed. As soon as I eased up, Rob (map11111111158) and another guy passed me, but the other guys slammed into a tree, and I rear-ended him, and the guy behind me rear-ended me. Turned around to see Jay's apologetic smile. "Hi Jay!" We quickly untangled bikes, no apparent injuries to bikes or bodies, so we got right back into the game. Tree Crash Guy was pretty fast, but was riding sloppy, so I pushed past him and got on Rob's tail.

Rob was rolling super-smooth, and taking the turns at just the right speed, so I became a leach on his ass for most of the race. Turns out that he had done 3 laps of preriding in the past week, and he sure as hell had a real good feel for the course. I tried to convince myself that he was benefiting from my 'pushing' as much as I was benefiting from his 'pulling', but that may just be me rationalizing my parasitic behavior. He was giving me roadie-style hand signals when turns were coming up, announcing when I should keep momentum for upcoming climbs, keeping me informed of our mileage...not sure what I did to deserve such royal courtesy, but I certainly appreciated it! (Thanks Rob!)

A few miles into the 2nd lap, Rob started to get some leg cramps. "Whoa!, so THAT'S what leg cramps feel like?!" As it turns out, I was witnessing his first-ever cramp experience. I tried to talk him through it: "pedal thru the pain...suck down whatever electrolytes you've got...make sure to get plenty of Heed at the next aid station...whatever you do, DON'T get off the bike and walk the climbs - your legs will lock right up." I was also starting to feel cramps coming on myself, so we both dialed it back. But Rob's cramp monster soon started biting hard, and he insisted for me to pass. I reluctantly went ahead, feeling bad that I might have pushed him too hard and caused his cramps.

I hit the aid station with surprisingly empty bottles, so I filled up a bottle with Heed, downed a few shots, and was glad to see Rob pull up right behind me. And then Chris G. "Hi Chris!" Got back on the course ahead of Rob and Chris, but not for long... My leg cramps got fierce and one of the biggish climbs looked too intimidating, so I violated my own advice, jumped off the bike and tried to run it, but I was instantly crippled with leg cramps. Rob and Chris flew by me as I limped up the hill.

I caught up to Rob again at the last aid station. We each filled one more bottle, and I attached myself to his back wheel again. We churned thru the last few miles together, both of us in varying levels of pain. Before long, the Kickass Cheering Squad was in earshot...some more intense cramps thru the roller coasters and the rooty stuff, and finally dragged thru the Finish Line of Happiness.

Whoa!, so THAT's what a 40 mile bike race feels like!
 
syncroscat said:
Insightful write-up Rob. Makes me wonder if you are a professional writer. Most of your posts make me laugh...this one almost made me cry. I may be that woman barely rolling in next year's race. This write up should be published in a magazine...well maybe not the part about the john. :hmmm:
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Thank you for your kind comments. Norm did you happen to catch this part....
Makes me wonder if you are a professional writer.
 
elzoller said:
I guess vuvuzelas are not banned in the state of new york....sheesh thanks for waiting for us slow ones...I kept waiting for the bells and horns signaling I was almost done and nothing...I felt so lonely out there...
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Sorry Zoller😱 We'll be extra loud at the next race...
 
Random thoughts on the greatest race of all time

Sincerest thanks to DH crew for a great race! Thanks Luke and Eileen for talking "Mom" and "Dad" into racing. Neither of us were amped to do the full 40, so we joined as Team Half Fast, hoping Half Fast would have better luck than last year's soaked to the bone 24 hours of Allamuchy - the only race we've done together. We got first place in 4 person coed team with Luke and Eileen, but a lot of things were going in our favor for that one....

Moments before the race started I surprised Ashley with a New Jersey Dr. HOTT plate for her bike based on a recent thread and surreptitious name change here on MTBNJ. I was thankful she decided to ride with it - and loved the compliments she got on it.

I recently got a Garmin 705 and had 10ish mile rides with it trying to figure out where I was going to average on speed and heart rate for the race. I went in thinking 32/20 on the Rig was going to get me around 8 MPH over my 20 mile lap. I ended up at 9.5, but for the first half of my lap I was rolling faster than I have ever rolled on this bike (except on the downhill paved start where I watched everyone pedal away while I spun like a freak). I don't race a lot and therefor don't train to race, but what I have learned is that trying to keep up with folks riding at a higher level brings me to a higher level. It made me want to do it on a more regular basis - no wonder so many of you are junkies.

I remember a lot of pedaling, a lot of fast down hills holding on for dear life, yielding to many faster riders on few steep climbs, smiling and wishing I had a bike with one of those derailleur thingies on it as I spun on fire roads, or at least a bigger gear. At some point a rider behind me yelled "ON YOUR LEFT" then an expletive, and his bike came by "on my left" upside down without him on it.

The beer stop at mile 13 was awesome, I was thinking I hope they are at the top of one of these stupid climbs, and they were. I was starting to get delirious from pushing a higher heart rate than normal, wondering if them sirens was going to turn me into a toad (bonus points if you get the reference), but all they did is give me the best tasting PBR I've had in my life. I drank the beer and zoomed off down the cool drops and rode peppily until about mile 17 when I started to think people doing the full course had to be out of their minds. The last few miles, with more exposed roots, softer dirt, more ups and downs, and twists and turns left me watching my cherished 10+ MPH avg drop to 9.5.

I had no idea if Ashley would be waiting for me in the right spot, but was pleased to see her there chatting with Shaggz. I rolled over, gave her a kiss and told her the mile posts for Luke and his camera (be sure to smile), and for the beer sirens and watched her roll off - thankful to be done at 2:11. It seemed like I had just come in when they started calling the winners numbers.

When Utah came in we made our way to the car, changed, drank and then headed to the food and beer. I'm a big IPA fan, but I have to admit that the PBR tasted better to me than the Long Trail IPA - I know some will say "blasphemy", but that PBR was "perfect."

Enjoyed hanging out and putting a few faces to names and listening to everyone relive the race as they rode it.

Rob's post reminded me of my only regret: I should have waiting for my teammate, at the finish line. She forgave me and understood I was hungry, but I know I let her down by not greeting her at the line. Next time that will be priority.

I think she could have beat my lap time, but she probably talked to beer sirens longer than I did and enjoyed her beer. She also didn't have fancy technology telling her how far she had to go and when she could expect to get there. If I didn't know her so well, I'd say she let me get the faster lap. Next time...

Glad I missed the kid dropping F bombs on his mom, I would have been tempted to chase him down and scold or whip him - that's what "Dads" are supposed to do.

Despite the example set by some of what's possible on a single speed, I think I'll ride a geared bike next time, oh yeah and I will actually eat something during the race, maybe that's why the PBR was so awesome - it was the only source of calories I had.
 
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