The drive up was a trip down nostalgia lane for me. This sounds crazy, but I don’t think I’ve been on I-75 in about 10 years. So when I spotted a “We Bare All” billboard I snapped a shot.

Apparently the rage now are the Asian “Soft Tissue Massage” parlors. I tried to get a shot of a billboard but none came out.

We arrived at Camp Wahsega around 4:00, picked up our packets and went for a little preride. I had thoroughly digested the course map and knew that a quick 2 mile ride backwards on the forest road would get us to the last 5 or 6 miles or so of the course. It was sweet. We were excited.

We had two cabin mates named Wes and Alan. Wes looked about 50 and was from Columbia, SC. Alan was 38 and was from Birmingham, AL. Both were nice guys. Alan looked like an experienced mountain biker with all the right gear. Wes, on the other hand, had never done any kind of mtb event and didn’t have very good gear. He was riding some sort of low end Scott with reflectors, hybrid tires and a kick stand. Yes… a kick stand. He covered his dome with a white skateboard helmet and wore sneakers on his feet. He told us on friday night that his longest ride was a 40 mile mtb ride on the road. I told him, “You are in for a rough time”. He nodded his head as if he knew, but he didn’t really know.

Wes’ bike.

Wes and his gear.

Despite our concerns the heat in the cabins wasn’t bad at all. I still couldn’t sleep though. I think I got about 3 hours or so. I got up at 4 and started eating and drinking. Then I got stung by a bee.

When race time came I was on the far left side of the front row. I looked around and way down to the right I see Wes wearing a long sleeve cotton shirt, baggy shorts and his skateboard helmet. I didn’t really know anyone in the race but I knew the first climb would sort things out and it would become obvious who was riding strong.

They said go and the group stormed off the line. I was surprised how fast. I sat around 30th I guess and just kept the leaders close. Within about 3 miles it was down to a select few. Shane S was setting the pace and riders just kept popping off the back.

We hit SAG 1 in about one hour and it was down to 4 riders. None of us stopped. When we got to the Winding Stair downhill I had to let them go. The dust was so bad I couldn’t see so I had to either blindly trust their lines or drop off the back and ride my pace. I did the latter. I thought about what my wife would do to me if I got hurt and couldn’t justify the risk.

I got to SAG 2 at about 1:30 and stopped for a bottle then hit Bull Mountain. Bull was fun but coming down it I got stung by another bee. I paced myself pretty well and hit SAG3 at 2:30 feeling good. Here is where I make mistake number 1. I pick up my Camelbak but I don’t refill my bottle.

I knew the section between SAG 3 and 4 was going to be the hardest. It had a lot of short ups and downs with many of the ups being hikes because of what the horse damage. About halfway through the section I start to suffer and so does my bike. Mistake number 2, I forgot to lube my chain last night. My drivetrain is making noises I’ve never heard before. Oh well. I tell myself to be extra careful and don’t crash. Then I crashed on one of the deep rutted downhills when a little root stub sticking out of the side caught my pedal. I get back on the bike with no bad injuries but my seat rail is badly bent. I berate myself for 10 minutes or so then I feel better and the bent seat didn’t really bother me to much.

Bent rail. Not sure how this didn’t bother me. I guess when you’re as deep in the pain cave as I was this kind of thing doesn’t even register on the radar.

Queue House of Suffering

Somewhere around the 40 mile mark I’m out of water and turn around to see two riders coming up on me. I’m positive I didn’t dream this. The guy at the checkpoint called my number “66 - 50 mile” then 5 seconds later called two more “XX 50 mile… XX 50 mile”. I give the pedals a little juice and drop them but now I’m a little worried about losing my 3rd place spot. My drivetrain is grinding. I’m running from two ghost riders. I make it to SAG 4 and don’t stop. What was I thinking? I don’t know. It was the biggest mistake of the day. At that point I had no liquids. In hindsight I should have stopped for 30 seconds and picked up a bottle and lubed my chain. I did neither and that final 10 miles was a death march. I was granny ringing the little double track climbs. Oh the suffering. I was so cooked I was no longer racing. I just needed to get to water before my body permanently revolted. It was the longest 10 miles of my life. You think about a lot of things in these situations, here’s a few I remember. “I am not an endurance guy, I am a XC guy”. “Why oh why didn’t I stop at SAG 4″. “Will a chain this dry be more apt to break?”. “I wonder where Wes is right now and what he’s doing”. “It’s a good thing Big Worm didn’t do this”.

When I made it to the finish I just sat down in the pavilion and my finish line angel, the R-Ranch lady, gave me a bottle of water, a bottle of gatorade and an icy towel for my neck. She was the best. She said I looked terrible, I know it was true.

Within 15 minutes of drinking the bottle I felt ok so I went to the cabin, took a shower and laid down on my bunk. I was dozing when I heard, “Dave Desrosiers 15th”. Ole Dave pulled a rabbit out of the hat. It was a very impressive ride by the man from Crawfordville. He took a shower and laid down on his bunk and we chatted about the race. The word “brutal” was used a lot. We compared notes figured out the course was about 4-5 miles long.

Dave and I walked over to the mess hall and stuffed our faces with sandwich wraps and pasta salad. About that time Dan walked in. We used the word “brutal” several more times and Dan decided his stomach wasn’t ready to eat so we walked back to the cabin.

Ken rolled in at around 8 hours I think but he was riding in a truck. He felt his stomach starting to go south so at SAG 4 he bagged it to save his beer stomach. Good call I’d say.

Our man Alan rolled in around 9 hours looking battered but ok. There was no sign of Wes.

The men from Tallahassee decided to forgo the gourmet Wahsega burrito dinner and head to El Pueblo for some fine dining. It was so good. Oh so good.

When we got back to Wahsega at 8pm there was Wes at the finish line. He had just finished in about 11 hours and he had even cut out the last 10 or so. He said he did not enjoy one minute of his entire ordeal and that he had gotten enough adventure for a lifetime. I kinda expected that. Before he headed home he thanked us for all the laughs so at least he had fun outside of that 11 hours.

We spent the night drinking and laughing with the 20 or so people still left at Wahsega. Wes was cramping and Dave and I were rolling on the floor laughing at him. That’s not cool at all but we were exhausted and buzzed so we were laughing at just about everything. Of the pros hanging out Garth Prosser was a funny guy and Rich (aka Dickey) was very forthcoming with his knowledge of the long race and the role of mustard in endurance sports. I’m gonna try those mustard packets.

Here’s poor Wes cramping.

The next morning we had a hearty breakfast prepared by the Wahsega Chef. It was probably the best meal of the weekend. It’s to bad they didn’t serve it for breakfast saturday morning.

The Chef was kinda freaky so we took a stealth photo of him over my shoulder. He’s in the kitchen wearing the genuine chef jacket.

In the end it was a huge learning experience for me and though in the last 10 miles I swore I would never do another endurance event I’m actually looking forward to it next year. I just can’t stand it when a course get’s the better of me and now I know what to expect. I thought the race directors did a great job for a first year event of this magnitude and expect next year will be even better.

Here are the results of the men from Tallahassee.
5:13 Me - 3rd male open
6:04 Dave Desrosiers - 12th male open
6:54 Daniel Fowler- 29th male open

Check out all the Fools Gold 2007 photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickysilk/tags/foolsgold2007/

Some of these photos came from:
http://55nine.blogspot.com/
http://duckmansworld.blogspot.com/