Let's Talk About A Race From Three Months Ago: Death March 2016

So far behind and so much water under the bridge....so time for a quick catch up! First up is the Death March. 

Despite the doom and gloom of the last post, training had been going along well, and I am feeling much stronger. I've had three races so far this year, the first two being the DINO Death March and the Kentucky Point Series XC race opener at Cave Lake Kentucky in late March.  Unfortunately, no Barry Roubaix this year as the race was pushed to mid April and did not work with my schedule.

So first, an overview of the Death March. As in the past two years, I partnered up with my Matthews Racing teammate Aaron for another round of questioning our sanity in the HNF.  Coming into this race, we both agreed we were not quite where we were last year in terms of fitness. (see prior post!) The best laid plans are often undone by the Indiana winter and real life responsibilities.

Nevertheless, we were still a go for the race. I did my usual detailed planning and based on the first three mandatories (Hawkins, Cornett and Lutes) and our reduced fitness levels and came up with the "Just The Basics Route" which would send us directly for the three mandatory, with detours as necessary depending on the other two required cemeteries which are pulled the day of the race. The name of the game was efficiency with a limit on our wide ranging excursions from last year.

Weather leading to race day was iffy, with some rain, although things dried out the day before. The day of was threatening rain in the afternoon but the morning appeared to be mostly dry.

Looking at the pre-regs, we could tell this year was going to be tough. Many of the contender men's division racers had either missed last year's race, had mechanical, or participated on co-ed teams so competition would be fierce.

Look how positive we are at the start line. Photo cred to Bryan Downs and his cool sunglasses. 

The final two cemeteries to be pulled were Thompson and Todd, both along the path of least resistance route we had planned. Our route called for us to first go south, cross Hwy 37, and grab Hawkins, which we did in good order. Unfortunately, the few short hills on the way there revealed holes in our fitness, and it began to rain as we returned to the the highway. This stuck with us as we climbed McPike Branch Road and picked up Hickory Cemetery en route. Our next stop was Callahan Cemetery, the only checkpoint only accessible by trail, but worth a 50 minute time bonus for your trouble.

And trouble we had. I had been to Callahan 4 or 5 years ago when I first did the Death March, but had approached it from a different direction. Our route for this year was taking us past where I had exited during that past race, but I was aiming for another trial farther down the road which also accessed the the cemetery but by a shorter route. I had figured the trail head we were looking for was .6 miles from a major intersection. .6 miles came and went and we didn't see anything. Instead we made two detours into campsites which had dead end trails associated with them. While standing in the bush at the second site trying to figure out where the hell the trail head was, we saw the World Bike Relief convoy roll by on the road below us, slow, and make a quick right turn into, the woods. Well shoot. If we had ridden another 300 feet, we would have found the trail. So we followed WBR, passed them, as they had stopped for a quick nature break, and continued down the muddy and slick trail to Callahan. two creek crossings, one endo (me, not Aaron), and a really steep climb later, we snagged Callahan and made our way out of the woods and back onto the road.

By this time the rain and stopped and the sun was out, and my arm warmers were no longer needed. We made quick work of Cornett and Hanner, and then skipped Gorbetts, choosing instead to climb over the Buffalo Pike Rad ridge to get to Houston, Indiana and the two cemeteries in that vicinity.

There was the option of going to Elletsville, but the prospect of fighting our way there was not appealing, and the legs were starting to have issues. We headed for the final stretch, which was the climb up Tower Ridge Road and the always fun climb up the Hickory Ridge Fire Tower for the 30 second bonus. After that we hightailed it towards Hwy 446 and the long downhill to the finish line.

Nature wasn't going to allow us to escape that easily and a steady rain began to fall as we rode down Hwy 446. Upon arrival back at the Midwest Trail Riders Camp, we found were back fairly early, but in a race with time bonuses, this is not a good thing. 

The Return. Where is the Yats!?!?

We ended up 21st in the men's duo division. Not where we were hoping, but the fitness wasn't quite there. From looking at the results, it appears we should have tried to nab the bonus for Gorbetts and Gil Gal, although our legs would have been toast after the additional riding needed to reach those two.  Elkinsville again provided a significant boost for those teams that attempted to get there. Again, not possible for us this year, but something to keep in mind for 2017. 

And this photo sums up the Death March 2016 experience (which was still very fun!): 

We are thrilled to be on top of this rickety metal structure which was built in the 1930's. Blurg.