12H of Boyne Race Report

What a great weekend for endurance racing. The temperature was into the 80's and the sun was blasting away. I woke up at 7 am to go out to the race site and secure a good stop for my pit area tent. We set it up then went back to the hotel where I chilled out. I ate some whole wheat pancakes and a banana for some good pre-race food. I sata round for a while hydrating, until later on when I went to check in a check out the pre-race festivities.

The start of the race was a 50 yard or so lemonds start. You run with your wheel and put it on your bike and then ride off for 12 long hours!

I rode the first two laps without stopping in the pits. I ended up running both o the laps under 50 minutes while trying to keep my heartrate down. My adrenaline must have been pumping since I was not pushing myself terribly hard, but my heartrate would not lower. My first 2 laps were at XC race pace. It was not what I wanted. I came in after the second lap and got a cliff bar. Note to self-no dense cliff bars on hot days in endurance events-I wanted to puke.

I came in to the pits after every lap to get more energy food and endurolytes so I didn't cramp. I had fig bars, twizzlers, cliff bar, powerbars, cliff blocks, and gu. It worked pretty well, except I think I got low on glucose during the end of my 6th lap. I took a Gu, then I stopped in the pits for 15minutes to stretch out my neck and recover. I went back out and was on fire. I changed my riding style from shifting down and spinning to keeping a lower cadence while in a higher gear to keep the heart rate down.

After lap #6, I was on fire. The next few laps were all around the 55 minute mark with heart rate averages in the 140's. I was very happy and kept going. After lap 9, I came in and put the lights on. I used them for the last half of the course on #10, then rode number 11 in the dark. My night lap was still under the hour mark with and average HR of 140. So, at 10:45pm, I called it a day with 11 laps, my first off road century-ever, and over 11,000 feet of climbing. It was awesome trainging for the Lumberjack 100 which is only 3 weeks away. I feel like I am ready to go for that race. I heard that Lumberjack is easier than Boyne. We will see.

After my 10:45 worth of riding, here is what I looked like!

As for the course-Boyne is awesome. I love the trail and most of it has great flow. whenever you are pedaling, you are going uphill, and the downhills are fast and curvy, so if you can control your bike, you are set. The new re-route up the ski hill is tough. It firt starts off with a few long steep "grinder" climbs, then it goes into SOFT, offcamber, BUMPY singletrack. The singletrack up the mountain was the most exhausting aprt of the course, both mentally and physically. It was so soft and bumpy that you couldn't coast at all and I had to be standing up for most of it. After the 11 laps, I was happy with over 100 miles for the day, andI was set. I still had time to put in 2 more laps, but my body-mind and physial parts were just tired. My legs didn't burn, so I was happy. Now the real test will be how fast I can do Lumberjack in. But first, I have to recover my body for the XC race at Hanson Hills this weekend, then try to get some long road rides in with HILLZ!!!