Tellico Highlands ITT

North River Road

October 28 was the absolute perfect day to ride this route.  The foliage was at its peak, the temps were mild (55-75, low humidity), and the road conditions were close to primo.  And I started in good company with Lindsey, Courtney, and John.

I opted to ride my Niner Air 9 RDO with Maxxis Rambler 50's.  My lower back had been angry the past two weeks, and even though I had muted the pain by loading with Aleve the couple days prior, I wanted to limit the potential for aggravation.

Only a pound heavier than my CheckPoint

Lindsey and Courtney set a pretty brisk pace up Wildcat Road, FS 384.  I hung on towards the back, but far enough away to not draft.  I had to back off some on the Bald River Road climb, but was able to catch back up on the descent down to Holly Flats.  My bike handled the sketchy washboarding perfectly and I was so much more comfortable being able to stay seated some, as compared to when I had ridden this on my gravel bike a few weeks back.

Basin Gap at top of Bald River Road

Riding down River Road, I pulled off at the game check station to use the restroom and refill a bottle.  I lost contact with the gang, as they did not stop.  I slowly caught back up to them over the several miles of false flat on North River Road.  Once the climb began to steepen, I was unwilling to keep the pace Linsdsey and Courtney were setting, so I drifted back, but was still able to keep them within eye contact.

My gameplan was to keep it comfortably hard until I hit the Farr Gap climb, and then if I was still feeling good, I would ramp up the effort.  I made sure to fuel every 30 minutes and try to take in about 60 grams of carbs per hour.

John fell off the pace, too, but not before he mentioned that there was a piped spring on North River Road (the one we were currently climbing).  Hmmm, as long as I have been riding this road, I had never seen it.  But sure enough, about 4 miles from the top, I saw it on the left.  I know where I will be refilling now, instead of the game check station, as that water tasted quite awful today.

Once on the Skyway, there was still more climbing ... ughh!  Here is where I had my low moment.  Even though the Skyway is mostly downhill, there are still 3 ugly pitches that had me grumbling, to which my inner demon responded and enticed me to slow down, perhaps stop at an overlook and take in the view.  Nope, nope, hell nope!  This only made me dig deeper, stand and hammer, and aero tuck so hard on the subsequent descents that my neck and back began to cry a little.

Heading to Indian Boundary, I was looking forward to the lake trail.  Little did I know that this was the last weekend the campground was open and 2 busloads of church peeps had just unloaded and were walking on the trail.  It was wall to wall people that I had to maneuver around, all the while keeping a smile and talking pleasantries as I yielded to them.  I started to get pretty tense as I waited 2, 3, 4 minutes at the one lane bridge with chain link on both sides as people SLOWLY made their way across.  Finally there was an opening and I took it.

As I rode past the campground store, I looked for Lindsey and Courtney.  Not seeing them, I finished the lake loop and proceeded down Citico Creek Road.  I stopped to use the restroom just before the turn off to Farr Gap, and then took a 200mg caffeine pill.  I was hoping to catch Lindsey and Courtney on this loop, most likely on the descent, as Lindsey was riding her gravel bike.

Doublecamp Road was chunky and now covered in leaves.  Once again, I was thankful to be on my mountain bike.  And the dull ache in my lower back, which had been present the last 40 miles, was now gone.  Don't know why, but not gonna complain.  Feeling good, I ramped up my effort, and had my second fastest time up this climb.  Yea for small victories!

Farr Gap climb

By the time I had reached the top, I was feeling sparkly.  I just knew I would be able to catch them on the descent.  Despite the leaf cover and rowdiness of the gravel, I cautiously sent it!  A couple times I hit a rock hidden by the leaves hard enough for me to anticipate the sealant flinging out of my tire, but fortunately I did not puncture. As I was approaching the bottom, I could not believe I hadn't caught at least Lindsey.  She must have "Hail Mary'd" it off the top!

At the bottom, I filled my bottles one more time at the piped spring.  I hard charged it down to the Miller Ridge turn off, and began to climb.  For once, I was glad to see the climb profile pop up on my Garmin.  This allowed me to redline my effort on the climbs and recover on the short descents.  People often refer to this 9 mile section as "death by a thousand rollers." While the profile looks pretty tame compared to the rest of the course, it hits you hard, and if you haven't saved a little energy for this last section, it will gut punch you.

While I was climbing I kept looking for tire tracks.  There were spots along the course that I should have seen their tracks, but I was not.  I did question if somehow I had leapfrogged them.  It would have had to been at the campground store.  Believing they were still in front, along with the caffeine-induced euphoria, kept me pushing hard.

Once I finished up Miller's Ridge, I thought it was all downhill to the finish.  What I forgot was the section of Rafter's Road and Turkey Creek that undulated ... forever it seemed.  At least the scenery was spectacular!

Turkey Creek Road

Approaching the lower Turkey Creek Road closure, I was concerned about passage.  Was I going to have to put on my sweetest, most innocent southern belle voice I could muster and talk my way through?  

I had no problems accessing.  I put down the hammer and rode like a scalded dog.  I squeezed in between a pick up truck and a dump truck at the bottom and then TT'd it down River Road.  No one was gonna catch me now.  

As I approached my truck at the Oosterneck Overlook, Lindsey and Courtney, nor their bikes, were nowhere to be found.  I had been chasing ghosts for the past 45 miles!  Oh, well!  That was a good thing, as it made me push harder than I probably would have had I started this journey solo.

They showed up not too long after me.  They had indeed stopped at the campground store and got caught in a line at the cash register.  And then each of them had punctured on Farr Gap, but managed to plug their tires.  DynaPlug for the win!  Had it not been for those two setbacks, I would have indeed been chasing them all the way to the finish.  Such strong powerful and fun women to ride with!

Lindsey's nail

Our official photographer, always on the ready.

I managed to set a time of 8 hours, on the nose, which I believe is good enough for the FKT.  At least I get the chance to hold it for a bit, until Heather Jackson, comes and obliterates it 😆.  But both Lindsey and Courtney are fully capable of taking it, as long as they ditch the store stop, and keep air in their tires.

12 Hours of the Hill of Truth Race Report

This year was the 25th anniversary.  While there were several race/ride options this weekend, I decided to go back to my roots (both literally and figuratively).  This race was my very first 12 hour event, 20 years ago ... back in the days of 26" wheels and rim brakes.  

The race was handed over to Clinch Valley Trail Alliance in 2018, 2019?  And 12 Hours of HOT has become an annual fundraiser for the club, who maintain and build trails within Haw Ridge. And finally have the funds to put up carsonite trail markers.  

A couple weeks ago, I helped out at one of their trail work days, prepping the course, and getting to see the course before it was released. Unfortunately, TVA had laid about 6-12" of large gravel on the iconic powerline climb (THE Hill of Truth), and it was totally unrideable, even for the pointy end of the field.  So CVTA decided not to include it in this year's course.  Instead they replaced it with the almost equally painful East Ridge single track climb.

Just enough rain the day before made for near perfect trail conditions.  It was a chilly 50 degree start at 9am.  I opted to stay mid pack, not wanting to burn matches mixing it up with the young guns.  We started in the campground area and immediately hit the single track of Beaver Trail and Buzzards Bluff.  This section was a little slick and my tires were slipping off rocks and roots. It was still congested riding through Mike's Trail and East Edge, but at least the roots and rocks were dry.  

East Edge

Then began the 0.3 mile climb up East Ridge/Rainbow to Powerline.  This climb had several steep pitches throughout, where my nose was just above my bar trying to keep the front tire grounded. Fortunately it was wide enough to get around several racers who lost traction and were not walking.  

Once on Powerline, it was still a short push to get up on Ridge.  Traffic had thinned out by now and I was in my own bubble. This was a fun stretch of tight single track along a contour line.  From there, I took a hard left on to K2 Trail, a steep descent down to Roller Coaster. Aptly named, Roller Coaster was a series of tight and twisty steep ups and downs.  

Roller Coaster

Fox, Red Hill, Lake, and Twister were fairly tame. This was the time to take in nutrition and rest a bit before V Trail.  This was a mother!  A long steep climb, followed by an "eye-ball rattling" rocky descent.  The quads were worked on V and then I had what felt like a forever long technical climb on Upper Soccer.

Fortunately the last couple of miles back to the start were fairly mellow and I had a chance to chill and take in nutrition on the Dirt Lab trails and Old Edgemoor. Finishing that lap at a 55 minute pace, I stopped at my cooler and exchanged bottles and shoved a banana down the hatch.  

My pit area

On the second lap as well as all others, I was mostly by myself.  Occasionally someone would pass or I would make a pass, but everyone played nice and was so polite and giving words of encouragement.  Towards the end of this lap, my lower back began to ache.  Having known this was a possibility, I had loaded up on naproxen the 36 hours prior, hoping to avoid this, but damn!  I guess I was gonna have to deal with the pain.

Laps 3-6 the pain intensified.  It was hard not to ignore the demons in my head telling me just to stop and the pain would go away.  I fought against them, telling myself just to take it one lap at a time.  Just get to 6, I would say, and then reevaluate.  And each time I rolled through the start/finish, I said, just one more. Not gonna lie, the demon would speak at least once every lap and tell me to take a look at the results and if I was ahead, then I could slow down or quit.  But GGG (grit, gristle, and gumption) would say nope, nope, nope.  

So I kept on pedaling, not stopping, other than to grab more nutrition.  I did have to take a pee break after the 5th lap, and that damn demon kept picking at my brain.  But I did not give in. Fortunately, either my back pain began to lessen, or I had learned to ignore it

With 1000 feet of gain per 6.5 mile lap, it was beginning to take a toll on me on the 7th lap. I began to break down the lap into 3 sections, each one denoted by the 3 biggest climbs (East Ridge, Roller Coaster, and V). I permitted myself to walk two short sections; the steepest climb on Roller Coaster and the last little grunty climb on Twister at the intersection of Lake. However, I made it my challenge to clean the V climb each and every time, which I did.

Finally after lap 9, I allowed myself to look at the standings.  I had a 2 lap lead on second, and after doing some math, thought I could probably stop and hold 1st place.  But, GGG said nope!  You gotta do one more because you have always gotten at least 10 laps in every year you have done this race.  So after a minute of stretching the lower back, I got back out and finished my 10th lap.

Done, with 2+ hours to spare

Total time:  9:53

Mileage: Garmin said only 63, but it was actually closer to 70

Elevation gain: 9700 feet

I would have to say that of all 6 times I have raced this event, this course was the most brutal, due to the amount of climbing.  I am just not sure what percentage being 10-20 years older contributes to this decision 😆😆😆.  But I do know that I am 100% happy that I am still able to push this body as hard as I do and she still responds ... mostly.

A big thanks goes out to Lisa Mueller and the rest of the Clinch River Trail Alliance for keeping this race alive ... and hard.