One Hundred Miles On a Mountain Bike: Racing the High Cascades 100
Mile 57. I’m five hours into the High Cascades 100 mountain bike race and five miles up its longest climb. My stomach grumbles. Twists. I’ve heard that if things go wrong with the gut, it’s now.
NOT TODAY. While spinning uphill, I force down a Picky Bar and ShotBlocks, then chug electrolyte water.
My stomach stabilizes. I push on. At the top of the climb, I hit Farewell trail, a 3.5 mile descent that I grin through.
It’s game time.
By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for the free 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter for more tales from the mountains and creative challenges like drawing and piano when I’m off the bike.
WHY Would Anyone Ride a Mountain Bike 100 Miles?
Hoooold up. Surely one of you is thinking the above. Friends’ responses ranged from, “Wow, I could never do that” to “that sounds like my private hell” to “that’s on my bucket list.” To each their own! For perspective on difficulty, High Cascades is 70 miles of singletrack, 14 miles of road (to/from the trailheads to break up the pack), and the rest on fire roads. Riders climb (and descend, wheee!) ~10,000 feet of elevation on the extensive trail system west of Bend, Oregon in the shadow of Mt. Bachelor. Here’s the map of the entire race course if you’re interested! Mike at Mudslinger Events put on a well-organized, awesome event. (Also, here is my blog post about my second shot at the High Cascades 100, which was even more fun.) A Dirty Century, as they’re called, is hard, FAR harder than 100 miles on a road bike. So much singletrack requires focus and a different kind of stamina – upper body, mental, plus legs. It’s intense, but as my buddy Aaron said, “For endurance competitions, it ain’t even fun until somebody quits.” My goal wasn’t the joy of a day ride or the camaraderie of a group road ride. I raced High Cascades as a physical test, an endurance push past anything I’d done before. It took dedicated training, days where I didn’t want to ride, a shelving of other goals. I didn’t need a reason or prize money. Personal satisfaction was enough.The Verdict
How did it go? It was radtastic! (It’s a word. Look it up.) The race environment was stimulating, my competition was friendly, and my overall experience was positive. Yes, I worked hard. Yup, there was dust and it hit 90 degrees. All part of the challenge! Results: I finished in 9 hrs 17 min, handily beating my 10 hour goal and good for 64th out of ~400 people. I only stopped for ~2 minutes total at the aid stations and my body felt solid the entire time. Ok, ok, I could have used more chamois butter to ease the chafing from mile 70 on… I finished with energy to spare and think I could have gone below 9 hours. Still, for my first-ever mountain bike race, I’m stoked with the results! Check out the ride details here on Strava.Good Friends, Sage Advice
Let’s be clear: I didn’t race to stand on a podium. High Cascades is a popular race and attracts pro racers and badasses with sustained power output that makes my quads shiver in fear. For me, racing was simply a personal challenge. My buddy Joe, a seasoned 24 hour MTB racer, gave me two pieces of advice for my first endurance race. 1) Don’t stop and 2) Ride to finish, not for a time. Competitive numbers guy that I am, I wanted to shoot for a time – 10 hours or bust! – and so advice like Joe’s was helpful. My friend Julie, a fitness coach and endurance racer, shared a mantra that I adopted: “slow on the uphill, steady on the flats, free speed on the downhill.” For such a long ride, hard efforts early on can torch chances of success later. I stuck to Julie’s advice and am glad I did. Given the energy I had left at the end, next time I can toe the line a bit harder. Since I’m a good descender on a mountain bike, I made up time ripping downhill. That said, High Cascades is more of a cross-country race, so the people who do well are stronger climbers than descenders. It’s no enduro race!By the way, dig these kinds of posts? Sign up for the free 2x/month Traipsing About newsletter for more tales from the mountains and creative challenges like drawing and piano when I’m off the bike.
Great detailed and actionable content Dakota! This is an excellent reminder that it’s possible to accomplish just about anything we want as long as drive and a dilligent plan are key ingredients. Huge congrats and nice to see you rocking the SC Tallboy!
Thanks dude! I figured that if I went through the entire process, I may as well spell out the details and maybe help someone else out. I got the Tallboy so I could ride like my shredder friend AO…and because the second version of that bike is rad!
What an amazing race…it reminds me of a Zen saying from The Ven. Khai Thien, ” Every step of the journey is the journey”, in your case Dakota every rotation of the pedal is the journey, your writing is so descriptive the reader is placed on the seat, excluding the chaffing…thank goodness.
Ah, good quote! So so true. Glad to share the story and exclude the chafing. No one needs that unless it’s part of a bigger experience. Here here to continuing the journey!
Great recap and well done with the prep and execution!
Admirable!!! Such a helpful post. Thanks a lot for sharing the experience.