Tuscozoar Reign of Pain

GGG, OG, RRR

Kenny and Corianne Kocarek had been trying to get me to come up to their neck of the woods to participate in their 6 hour mountain bike race for several years.  For me, that was an 8 hour drive and I wasn't ready to commit to that, just to ride a small, and probably boring, system in Ohio. I mean, at best you have the Mohican State Park, where the Mohican 100 takes place.  Beside that, why would I want to make Ohio a mountain bike destination, when there are super cool systems closer to me. But then this past year, I began to see the trail work they had been putting in, religiously and tirelessly on FaceBook.  What I saw interested me:  rocks, creek crossings, and sweet ribbons of dirt. And when Dave Jolin mentioned doing it as a duo, and he could bring his RV to the venue, I decided to give the KSD (Knobby Side Down) crew a chance.

Comfort Camping

I arrived at Dave's house on a Wednesday and we then made the 1 1/2 hour drive over to the campground on Thursday.  We got in an afternoon ride on the old course, as this year's course was not yet marked.  It got a little slick finishing the lap up as the forecasted rain settled over the hills.  It was a nice respite from the sweltering heat and humidity.

Mother Nature dumped on us Thursday night, and I expected our pre-ride to be a sloppy mess. It was quite the opposite.  Without much rain in the week prior, the trails soaked up the water and there was only one puddle on the whole course. 

We rode the 7 mile lap and it was stupid fun.  It started out with about a 1/4 mile of riding through a field before hitting the single track, which then treated us with a fassst bermy descent followed by a couple rock gardens before dropping down to a creek and then straight up a freshly cut section that was still a little soft.  You really needed to be on your dropper and shifting game to flow through this technical section ... loved it! 

So perfectly built, no brakes necessary .. well, almost.

12-15% grade for 50 yards

This was then followed by some gradual climbing, all the while punching over rock sections here and there.  Then some more blazing fast trail that flowed amazingly well through some pitchy semi-rooty climbs.  And then into my favorite section, Eagle Hill.  This was the most technical portion of the course, about 1/2-3/4 mile of maneuvering through multiple rock gardens.

After that, it was more climbing up to the highest point of the course, where there was a lollipop section involving some two-way traffic along a double track.  The next section was a series of punchy climbs and steep descents  over elephant sized mounds of earth. The final mile was the Overlook Trail, which was a beautiful ribbon of sweet and fast single track.  It popped you out on a 1/4 mile double track climb back up to the finish.  

Finishing up the pre-ride, which included some openers spread throughout the course, I knew that if the forecasted evening rain held off, it was going to be a blazingly fast, yet interesting course, as there was so much variety.

Saturday morning, I awoke to a cool morning. We got lucky and the rain had moved north of us during the night.  Dave and I decided to race alternate laps, with him starting.  The start involved a 2 mile prologue to thin out the pack, coming back through the start/finish before heading out for the first course lap.  

With about 40 teams and 120 soloists, the field was a stout 140 racers at the start.  I expected Dave to have around a 50-55 minute first lap.

Dave's first lap, with the prologue, was 51:58.  I had warmed up by doing circles out in the field, so saw him approach, and made my way to the transition.  I knew at least 2 coed duo teams were ahead of us.  I set my sights on going ballistic on this lap and trying to catch them.  The legs had come to play today ... full on sparkle! I rode this lap like I was on a SS.  Standing and hammering every climb, TT'ing the flats, and focusing on using as little brake as possible on the descents.  I felt like Hammy the squirrel in Over The Hedge.  I may have went a little too fast through the rock gardens, seeing some pinball action, that had me right on the edge of losing control. I did manage to pass one coed woman, and upon finishing my lap in 40:29, saw another coed woman, who appeared to have finished her lap not too too long ago. Figured I gained at least a few minutes.

While Dave was out for his second, I took the time to eat, drink, and cool off by pouring cold water on my noggin.  Figuring Dave would be coming in after 40'ish minutes, I mosied on up to the transition area and pedaled around, waiting. Dave came in with a 39:46 lap, his fastest of the day. I was ready to turn out another hot lap, but the legs on that first climb said otherwise.  Ooof!  That hurt.  I had to take it a little easier and let my legs come back to me.  They finally did, but by then, the lap was almost over.  Still, my effort allowed me to catch a coed woman with about 2 miles remaining.  I finished my second lap in 41:24, giving Dave some breathing room.  At this point, I figured we in the top 3.  With internet connection being sketch in this area, the results were not quite online at this point.

I did my usual cool down while Dave was out there.  He was knocking out some stinking fast times, against men who were much younger; some young enough to be his son. I was super proud of him, as he has been training hard this year.  Jeff Rupnow, his coach, had him dialed for this race. Towards the end of his lap, the live results came online.  I opted to wait until I finished my third lap to check them out. Dave finished his second lap in 40:21.  But the woman on the team just ahead of us had gone out about 5 minutes prior to Dave's arrival.

Knowing I had almost caught her after my second lap, I now had this juicy carrot, more like a steak, to hunt down.  The legs came alive much quicker on this lap.  It still hurt, but I did get some respite, as this lap was a lot busier than my last, and I had to be patient in passing.  Despite being a little slower, I managed to catch the woman mid way through the lap.  She was off her bike, having spun out on a technical climb. I gave her words of encouragement as I employed my "pass, gap, and bury" technique.  I told her she was stronger than she thought and to dig deep and catch me.  I know how demoralizing it can be to be caught, and although I am super competitive, I also want to empower ALL women on bikes.

During the "bury" portion, I felt the pre-twinge in my medial quads.  Not wanting it to develop into a twinge, or full on cramp, after about 2 minutes of hammering, I slowed and settled.  Better, and good to know I was racing at my fullest.  I must have passed 15 racers on this lap.  Probably a good thing, as it saved me a match or two for my final lap.  I rolled into the tent with a 42:09 lap. I immediately went to cool off and take some ELMNT, knowing that I might have to bury myself on the last lap.

Once done with self care, including popping a 200mg caffeine pill, I strolled over to the timing area and uploaded the QR code for the live results.  Well done, Kenny!  Scoring has come a long way since the day of stop watch and notebook paper 😆.  Pulling the results up, I saw that we were in second!  Holy cow, Batman!  And less than a minute off the first place team, who I had not even realized that they wereyet another team out there, ahead of us, until just now.  And we were 7 minutes up on the team, who I had passed half way through this lap. The game was on now!

I went back to my tent.  While I was counting down the minutes, the woman I had passed earlier came up to me and thanked me for the encouragement I had given her.  She told me she was done; 3 was all she had in her. I said I knew she had one more in her. Insert foreshadowing here.  For whatever reason, this registered in my brain that her team was done after her team mate finished his next lap.

Dave had another stellar lap of 41:00.  I was ready to lay it all out there on my final one. The legs were ready and willing ... shoot yeah!  I crushed this final lap, letting body memory take over, now knowing every turn, climb, and rock, and root. I knew there was a possibility that the second place team would pass me, since it was the man who was doing the final lap (the woman was doing double laps).  So when I heard a racer fast approaching around mile 4, I figured he had caught me.  When I let him around, I realized it was the 3rd place team, with the man doing the final lap (his 5th). Shocked was soon replaced by anger.  I would be lying if I said that I didn't wish any bad juju on him.  I did my best to try to stay with him, but he was just too strong.  I never gave up, as I knew the other fella was just behind me.

Despite turning myself inside out on this last lap, the second place guy caught me with less than a mile to the finish.  Out of respect, I let him around.  He sent me some good vibes and actually said that I was real competition.  I ended up finishing the lap in 41:22, my second fast lap of the day.  I was only 45 seconds behind him.  

I was stoked with Dave and my performance.  I even managed to snag the fastest woman's lap.  But I was a little miffed by what the winning team did.  Yet I cannot fault them, as the rule was not specific: "members of duo teams must complete close to even amount of laps."  To me, as well as the other coed teams, this meant equal or within 1 lap of each other.  I guess 5 and 3 are "close," but not fair, in the spirit of dirt. But if that is what it took for them to win, I guess that it is racin'.  It's not like there was a prize purse or anything.  We did get these cool podium posters tho'.

I want to thank Kenny and his crew for creating such an amazing course ... hard to believe this much fun was had on the trail in Ohio, of all states.  And Dave, for once again being an awesome team mate.  If I get the opportunity, I would love to do this one again.  Kenny said the rules would be revised next year.  

5/5 stars!