On the Rocks at French Creek

This weekend I found myself headed east to French Creek State Park, to race the 6 hour endurance version of On the rocks at French Creek, part of the Mid Atlantic Super Series.

As the name of the race suggests, the majority of the trails were pretty rocky! It was a nice surprise to do a long race that wasn't on a ton of gravel and double track. With the exception of the first climb, the entire race consisted of fun, technical trails. Well, the downhills were fun at least, but after every downhill comes an uphill. Most of the climbs were just about as rocky as the downhills were! Fun stuff.

Going into the race, I had set a goal for myself to do 6 laps. Looking at the results from last year, I noticed that only 1 person managed to get the sixth lap in, and I thought that it would be fun to try and do it on my singlespeed.

Despite the 20 minutes or so of heavy rain just before the race, and the few scattered showers in the morning, the trails were holding up pretty well. At least I thought so, until I started my second lap. After about 50 people had ridden the trails, there sure were some slippery sections on some of the climbs. There also were additional races starting just about every hour, so that added another challenge to maintaining my pace.

I kept my pit stops short, just spending enough time to grab a fresh bottle every lap, and a mouthfull of food every other lap, and it seemed to work out perfectly.

In the end, I got 6 laps in about 6:50, and finished in first place in singlespeed, and second overall. There were only 3 of us that managed to get 6 laps in, and I feel really good about the outcome of this race.

Next up, I think I'm going to attempt my first 12 hour race, at the 12 Hours of Tsali, near Bryson City, NC in 2 weeks. This should be interesting.