Re-hashed browns
Time to reflect on PMBAR...
72 teams of two toe the line
64 make the cut and are considered finishers
1 team gets second place and just happens to be the best looking
I would have to say that the night before the race went as smooth as possible. I switched up the pre-race beer choice and quantity since the Cohutta. I don't know if I should attribute that to our success, but I think I will say it helped. I did sleep like shit in the back of my Dirty Little Box. Dunno why... maybe it was to quiet.
Knowing that the goal was seven checkpoints from the get-go made it much easier to deal with mentally. Instead of wasting mental power making decisions about how far to push it there was a bit of sanity in knowing we were going to push it all the way. I can't say why, it just did.
Elk was a fantastic partner. We both had needs at one time or another that needed addressed, and the other guy would patiently wait till we were both ready to roll again. Mental collective and cool heads. Elk has been doing stupid things on a single speed a lot longer than I have, and he has a long list of impressive palmares to boot. When we made our way over to the west side of the forest I told Elk to let me know if at any point he wanted to turn back since every inch we traveled from that point on was an inch further from the finish. He never waivered in his commitment to see this thing out, and it helped me keep my head in the game. He also gave me cookies, and I really like cookies.
I carried 100oz of water in a Camelback, and two 22oz water bottles with a weak Gatorade mix. I did take a quick swallow of water out of a pump at a campsite, but I pretty much relied on what I carried. When I got home on Sunday I pulled the bladder out of my Camelbak and found it half full. I figure that means I drank just over 100oz in twelve hours. Hmmmmm.... there's just something about getting lost in time out there in the woods and I forget to take care of myself as I focus on routes, maps, beer, weather, rocks, roots, mud, and everybody else out on the course. I gotta work on that.
The top two teams were all on 29'ers. Sam was on his pretty new Gary Fisher squishy, Brad was on a Salsa DosNiner, and Elk was on a rigid ti Independent Fabrication. Of course I was on the Meatplow. It was an interesting difference in rig choice taking the two top spots.
I think it's obvious I have bounced back from Cohutta. After a race like Cohutta I get kinda down on myself, and I really came down with a case of "I sucks" that plagued me for the last two weeks. Having a good race and coming through with a decent result will certainly help the mental bruises heal, and pretty soon my brain will go into it's default setting of "I don't suck so bad". Too bad the "I'm pretty good at this" feeling only lasts for about twelve hours after an event. At least with a second place at the PMBAR I can finish out the year with some ho-hum results and not mind so much. A top three finish there has been on my list of long term life goals (Dr Phil says I need those).
We finished 1hr 24min behind first. Of course I'm wondering where we lost it. I have a good feeling Sam and Brad never pulled out a map. I know we pulled ours out probably twenty to thirty times (seriously). We chose our route poorly twice, and at one point had to go past an intersection looking for a landmark to verify that it was the correct intersection (that sucked). Then again I don't know if they were slowed down with a mechanical or if they delivered a baby on top of Farlow. Pushing up Farlow was dumb, dumb, dumb. It was easily the most painful thing we did all day. I feel like we coulda shaved at least 45 minutes off our time if I had only had a better idea of what we were doing out there, which leads me to my next thought...
There was a point out there after we nailed the last check point when I started wondering if I would do PMBAR anymore now that I was finally doing it all the way. Now that the pain is gone (except when I move) I'm already thinking about things I could do differently. My knowledge base of the Pisgah National Forest increases every time I do PMBAR. I hate to waste all this potential smart brain stuff on nothing. I'm really thinking this might be the year I prioritize the Double Dare.... maybe.
72 teams of two toe the line
64 make the cut and are considered finishers
1 team gets second place and just happens to be the best looking
I would have to say that the night before the race went as smooth as possible. I switched up the pre-race beer choice and quantity since the Cohutta. I don't know if I should attribute that to our success, but I think I will say it helped. I did sleep like shit in the back of my Dirty Little Box. Dunno why... maybe it was to quiet.
Knowing that the goal was seven checkpoints from the get-go made it much easier to deal with mentally. Instead of wasting mental power making decisions about how far to push it there was a bit of sanity in knowing we were going to push it all the way. I can't say why, it just did.
Elk was a fantastic partner. We both had needs at one time or another that needed addressed, and the other guy would patiently wait till we were both ready to roll again. Mental collective and cool heads. Elk has been doing stupid things on a single speed a lot longer than I have, and he has a long list of impressive palmares to boot. When we made our way over to the west side of the forest I told Elk to let me know if at any point he wanted to turn back since every inch we traveled from that point on was an inch further from the finish. He never waivered in his commitment to see this thing out, and it helped me keep my head in the game. He also gave me cookies, and I really like cookies.
I carried 100oz of water in a Camelback, and two 22oz water bottles with a weak Gatorade mix. I did take a quick swallow of water out of a pump at a campsite, but I pretty much relied on what I carried. When I got home on Sunday I pulled the bladder out of my Camelbak and found it half full. I figure that means I drank just over 100oz in twelve hours. Hmmmmm.... there's just something about getting lost in time out there in the woods and I forget to take care of myself as I focus on routes, maps, beer, weather, rocks, roots, mud, and everybody else out on the course. I gotta work on that.
The top two teams were all on 29'ers. Sam was on his pretty new Gary Fisher squishy, Brad was on a Salsa DosNiner, and Elk was on a rigid ti Independent Fabrication. Of course I was on the Meatplow. It was an interesting difference in rig choice taking the two top spots.
I think it's obvious I have bounced back from Cohutta. After a race like Cohutta I get kinda down on myself, and I really came down with a case of "I sucks" that plagued me for the last two weeks. Having a good race and coming through with a decent result will certainly help the mental bruises heal, and pretty soon my brain will go into it's default setting of "I don't suck so bad". Too bad the "I'm pretty good at this" feeling only lasts for about twelve hours after an event. At least with a second place at the PMBAR I can finish out the year with some ho-hum results and not mind so much. A top three finish there has been on my list of long term life goals (Dr Phil says I need those).
We finished 1hr 24min behind first. Of course I'm wondering where we lost it. I have a good feeling Sam and Brad never pulled out a map. I know we pulled ours out probably twenty to thirty times (seriously). We chose our route poorly twice, and at one point had to go past an intersection looking for a landmark to verify that it was the correct intersection (that sucked). Then again I don't know if they were slowed down with a mechanical or if they delivered a baby on top of Farlow. Pushing up Farlow was dumb, dumb, dumb. It was easily the most painful thing we did all day. I feel like we coulda shaved at least 45 minutes off our time if I had only had a better idea of what we were doing out there, which leads me to my next thought...
There was a point out there after we nailed the last check point when I started wondering if I would do PMBAR anymore now that I was finally doing it all the way. Now that the pain is gone (except when I move) I'm already thinking about things I could do differently. My knowledge base of the Pisgah National Forest increases every time I do PMBAR. I hate to waste all this potential smart brain stuff on nothing. I'm really thinking this might be the year I prioritize the Double Dare.... maybe.
Congrats, Dicky!! (Comment this)
Good times!
Nice job, btw! (Comment this)
gives yah that push to exceed next time.
(Comment this)
I know it's not on the map, but I did know that it existed.
Then again... you had a smiley, so maybe you're just effin with me. (Comment this)
If you have the old map that is bland looking (as far as colors go) you should hold onto it.
The key on the new map is in alphabetical order, but not numerical. When you see a trail on the map and you want to see what it's called it becomes a hunt-and-peck process.
Dumb. (Comment this)
I'm curious what gearing did you used (Comment this)
I ran a 32X20, but somehow Elk (who had never been to Pisgah before) ran a 32X18!?!?! (Comment this)