ORAMM!!!!

I haven't been training for ultra endurance races this year, but couldn't resist the opportunity to ride on some of my favorite trails! So I decided I'd go out for an extremely long and almost guaranteed "training" ride at the Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell (ORAMM). It's 63 miles and 11,000 feet of climbing with incredible, loooong, technical downhill. For some crazy reason, my body likes to climb. It actually feels comfortable to me. And, I have the perfect bike for a climbing race. My wsd Trek Top Fuel 9.8 climbs like a goat and has just enough suspension for me to fly on the technical downhills.

We headed down to the race and stayed in the same little tiny campground as before in the pop-up camper. We got there on Saturday (race on Sunday) so we got to eat at one of our favorite restaurants - The Laughing Seed in Asheville. I slept pretty well (after all the late night pre-race prep...what to take with you for racing a UE is like a science. What you're going to eat, when, where are the aid stations, will you have enough calories, will you have enough water. It's enough to drive a person mad!). I went through all the prep in an effort to minimize the pain I knew I would feel the next day.

Got up early for the race, ate what I could and we drove to the start line. The race was full and had about 600 riders, I think. I had to line up with out a warm up, but I knew I was heading into a 6.5 mile climb and would be plenty warm in no time. I raced to the second aid station like I was doing an xc race (mile 26) and felt great and realized I was pretty far up in the pack. I was riding with a couple guys I had met at the stage race in Costa Rica, so I knew I was doing well. After aide station 2 starts the long, grueling climb. It's 10 miles and doesn't let up and in places is very steep. Not to mention it was about 99 degrees and a big majority of that climb is exposed. It was burning hot and it took everything I had to hold it together on that climb. It hurt. When I got to the top, I had chills...ugh. Overheating. So I ate the only thing I could stomach at that point, oranges! I drank lots of water, took some endurolytes and stayed at the aide station for about 10 minutes or so in an attempt to cool down. When I felt better I took off again. It's a short climb then the amazing decent on heart break ridge. I love that decent, and was pretty pleased with myself that guys were hopping off the trail to let me by going down. When I got to the last aid station, I grabbed a coke. They taste so freakin good. I took it with me on the climb back up kitsuma (the fire road portion) and then crushed in and put it in my back pocket. At this point, I hit a wall. It was so hot, exposed and I was tired. 7 hours was more than 2x longer than I'd ridden in months. And I've learned that I don't ride well in extreme heat. So I started praying for rain. Seriously. I just wanted to be cooled down soo bad. And for about 5 minutes I just said over and over, please rain. Then no joke, I felt a rain drop. Then 2, then 20, then the sky open up and it freakin poured! I couldn't see in front of me more than a foot or two. I finished the fireroad section and had to literally ride/wade through a river gushing down kitsuma on my way up to the top. It started to make me mad, and that's good! It was enough to get me to the top, faster than I'd expected. Then it's a rip roaring downhill to the road and a pretty flat ride to the finish. On the decent there was a hold up because someone had a heat stroke! I got his number and name and took off toward the finish. He looked rough, but there were numerous people helping him and help had been called already. I crossed the finish line in 9 hrs. Slower than my time the year before, but it turns out times in general were slower due to the extreme heat. I knew I had finished well and would be on the podium, but with the open women racing I wasn't sure what girls I saw on the trail were in vet women. Somehow I managed to push myself hard enough to win! The next Vet woman didn't finish for 45 minutes after me. And I would have been 6th in open women, one spot off the podium.