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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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