Greenbrier Challenge Marathon!

Greenbrier Marathon Race Wrap Up

Earlier this year I got an email from USA Cycling with "upcoming events in your area" for mountain bike races.  Apparently I had indicated to them that Maryland was "in my area" and so I got all of the mid-Atlantic races sent to me along with New England events.  One that caught my eye in particular was the Greenbrier Challenge to be held in Greenbrier State Park in Boonsboro, MD.  Would I normally travel over 10 hours one way for a 4 hour race? No... But we do have friends who live in Frederick, 20 min away, and I had yet to visit them.  So I figured this would be a great opportunity to see friends and get in an early season training race.

The race was on Sunday and we drove down on Friday to check out downtown Frederick.  Saturday I knew I needed to stretch the legs so well all decided to head out to the Frederick Town Forest to run the dogs and I would get in what I thought would be a nice 45 min spin on multi use trails just to loosen up the legs.  Before I can even get to the race- let me just say this:  If ever the opportunity comes up to go ride in Maryland DO IT!  The riding and the terrain down there is fantastic.  Just to get to the trail head my friends were nice enough to kick me out of the truck at the bottom of the hill and left me with a nice 20 min dirt road climb just to get the to trail head.  Legs felt like lead so I didn't try to force any kind of pace.  Once at the trail head I dove into the woods and was pleasantly supprised to find not just a bunch of double track, but very well-built technical, rocky singletrack with tons of climbing.  I started thinking to myself "I know this is day before the race, but c'mon- you can't pass this up!"  Long story short- an easy 45' spin turned into almost 2 hours of playing around on some ripping trails and the legs were starting to feel better and better.  After that I'd caught the Maryland bug and was ready to race!

Okay, so the race itself.  Interesting format- basically a 12 or 24 hour race format, only 4 hours long.  Greenbrier Challenge had multiple events going on throughout the day.  marathon started at 9:30, Cat III XC at 10:30, Cat II's at 11:30, and Cat I/Pros at 1:45.  The marathon was formatted so I needed to race all the way until 1:15- once 1:15 hit if I came through the finish chute, I would be done.  If I rolled through at 1:14, I'd be allowed to finished the next lap.  So winner would be based on 1) how many laps, then 2) fastest time if multiple riders on same lap.

Being the first race of the year, and a long one at that, the gameplan for me was get in long quality hours on the bike.  My goal was to start strong, staying in a lead group, but not be the one setting the tempo.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to blow up after 3 hours and then wimper into the finish for the last hour.  To me its always a challenge to figure out when to attack, so I wanted to really sit in on this one and watch things play out a little.  I thought things would end up really interested since bikereg indicated that 40 riders had pre-registered for the marathon- by far the biggest field of the day!

Lining up for the start was a little eerie- nobody wanted to be in the front.  I came into the starting chute with only two riders on the line and a whole crowd behind- apprarently everyone else was just as apprehensive about the start as I was.  The gun went off and we were rolling- a few hundred yards of field before dirt double track climb.  I had the inside track and kept looking over my shoulder to see who was going to come by- finally a few riders went ahead and I was happy to let them set the tempo.  By the top of the climb it was a pack of three of us and we began making our way down a fast down hill with log drops and rock gardens strewn throughout.  going through one of the gardens I heard  a lout "clang" and started thinking, 'dang, I almost flatted there'.  After taking a peek at my rear wheel I looked ahead and the leader was doing the same thing- only he was running on a flat, so he peeled off to repair.

Interesting...so my gameplan had now completely gone out the window.  Here I was 8 minutes into the race, and starting the first big climb of the lap looking back I already had a 15 second lead.  So much for sitting in and seeing how things pan out.  Okay, new plan time!  Since I'd built this lead essentially following someone elses tempo, I decided to just go with it.  I got into the mindset of riding strong, not sitting up, but not putting in heroic efforts on climbs or flats to widen the gap.

The rest of the lap consisted of a few long climbs with some absolutely ripping technical downhills taking you past campgrounds with little kids cheering, a flat section across a resevoir wall with some people fishing, and coming through the start/finish loop.  As I rolled through starting my second lap I was able to take a long look back at the end of the lap and didn't see anybody, so I knew at this point if I could remotely hold this tempo and was mechanical free I could take the race- and thats essentially how the rest of the day played out.  I was able to keep my lap times consistent, fought of the beginning of fatigue cramps for the last two laps and finished with 9 laps (close to 46 miles) in about 4hr 10min, one lap up on the field.

If they hadn't taken forever with the awards,
I'm sure the rest of the podium would have been there.

One of the nice parts of this format actually was being on course while all the other races went off.  I was lucky that I never came through the start finish while a race was trying to start, but I saw plenty of Cat 3, Cat 2, and other marathoners on course, and it was great seing people on course, cheering people on as I rolled through, passing along words of encouragement.  Great start to the season, pumped to build on this as I work towards some 100 milers later on this summer!