True Grit Epic 2019

With a foot of mud?

 

Did you at least go out and get ceremonial revenge on your cactus and cheer on the IMTB crew?

 

What an awesome race course.
Minimal mud in the first 30 minutes and sunny and present the rest of the day.
A got a million things racing through my mind, all my pre race goals/wishes cam through.
1) I finished.
2) I didn’t crush.
3) I rode well.
4) I managed to finish under 5 hours.
5) my untested bike preform well enough.... with room for improvement.

I don’t see a reason not to do it again next year.

 

Let's just say it didn't go well for me......I'll write a RR later.

 

Acknowledged....not actually liking that it didn't go well.

 

Bummer

 

Well... I thought it was going great! I still felt froggy at the finish, and could have done at least another couple miles...

























Which is apparently about how much I missed with an errant turn in the beginning!

 

Miles/Elevation are similar to R4R. I've never ridden that particular area, though, so the only thing I know about the trail is what all y'all provide.

 

Well phooey guys. Hope it was still eventful. We've been wanting to get back to St. George. Going to put this on the radar for next year.

 

There's a conversion factor out here... 42/5000 feels like 100/10,000

My body aches. In a good way!

 

I enjoyed a 14.2 mile ride of the True Grit Challenge with about 1,400 feet of climbing. It was my first time riding Barrel Roll which did not disappoint! I think I have a new favorite trail. Great day on the bike and the weather wasn't too cold. Good times!

 

Way to charge it, guys – regardless of outcome.

 

Yep... I'm fine that I missed a turn. It was 42 miles of some crazy riding! @HBkites and @horsebikerider were the really big winners today! Awesome finishes...


Staring at this all day wasn't half bad...

 

We woke up this morning to clear skies and COLD temps. 35* or so.

Headed over to the start for a rider meeting at 8:00. So we stood around for a 1/2 hour waiting for a meeting that never took place.

We were told on Thursday night that the 50 mile and 15 mile routes would most likely not be affected by the recent rains. The 100 mile route....not so much.

I was in the 40-49 age group....we had 180 registered riders. Our group was so big, we had our own start wave. By now it had warmed up to a comfortable 42*.



We started about 3 mins late. Was great to be on gears....I didn't get spit out the back on the road section at the beginning.

As soon as we started, I had to pee. Pushed on up the first couple climbs, then finally stopped. @Faust29 passed me. I would spend the next 15 mins trying to reel him back in.

The iniital sections of trail/jeep road were quite wet. Not muddy, but lots of standing water. A mile 6 I had made up all but a few seconds that I had lost on my "nature break". Started down a long jeep road descent where I thought I'd catch Steve. Made a hard right off the jeep road onto a singletrack, that eventually led into some tight slot canyons. Lots of standing water in these. At this point I couldn't lost sight of Steve....man, he must be on today...and just took off on one of the climbs.

A few more slot canyon climbing up through the muddy water and rocks. A few times the conga line came to a complete stop. It just takes one rider to stop it all.

Still chasing, began the climb up the rocks onto Barrel Trail. These little climbs hurt. Before I knew it I arrived at the top of the Waterfall. Now on the SS, I cannot seem to find the line. Well, today on the Hightower, I just went for it. Cleaned the first half of it....then had a slow speed tip over when I stalled out before the next drop. Ended up walking the last half....but at least I know where it goes now. Along one of the climbs on Barrel, another rider asked me what class I was racing...when I told him, he said "good, I thought I got lost....I saw some riders miss a turn and cut the course" .

After Barrel Trail you head to Aid Station #1 at Zen Trail.....I just rolled through as I still had 1/2 a bottle. I still hadn't seen Steve ahead of me. Dude must be on fire today.....or I am really falling off the back. Zen is always fun....always difficult....always rewarding. Got passed by a few, passed a few, followed a few. The Hightower makes the technical aspects of Zen feel like cheating. I was also able to take a few of the "alternative lines" with bigger drops. This puts you back out at Aid Station #1 again.

Quick stop for a Tailwind refill. The fire road climb up to Bear Claw Poppy was warm. At the top, I stopped to removed the second pair of socks I had on. Onto BCP the Hightower just sucked up the big drop on the 3 Fingers of Death. The section through the wash was a little soft. Took as many of the "more difficult" Alt lines I could. BCP was dry....no issues with mud. I also thought that BCP would be faster on the geared bike....turns out not really.

At the end of BCP you make the hard right onto Stucki Springs Trail.....still no sign of Steve. About 1/2 mile in @HBkites passed me. Sounds like Sharone was on fire today. About 2 miles in....things went downhill for me. Suddenly I started feeling nauseous. I kept pushing on....but wasn't feeling any better. Stucki Springs is a 6 mile gradual climb with some areas that are steep. Before too long I was just crawling along. Part of me wanted to puke and get it over with hoping to get my second wind.... part of me didn't.

Eventually made it to the start of Rim Rock and stopped for a few minutes, hoping to settle how I was feeling. After that break, I decided to call it a day. Turned around and followed the trail over a mile or so to the Aid Station at the start of Barrel Roll. Drank some water, ate a couple pickle slices....it didn't help. Followed the trail back down to the street and cruised back to the venue.....stopped by the timing tent to claim my DNF.

Hung out still Steve finally finished.

Even though I felt like garbage the 2nd half of the ride....it was still a great day on the bike. Such a great event.

I'll be back again next year......on the SS.

36.5 / 4330'

Post ride analysis solved why I never caught back up to Steve.....I'll let him explain.

 

Anxiously waiting on for explanation. Bummer you had a bad ride Jason.

 

Don't get me wrong.....I was still having fun. There are no bad rides.

 

I’m 99.9% sure that I didn’t miss any turns (there are hundreds of them on the course).
I did have one Garmin issue on Zen. I accidentally pressed the stop button during the Zen loop, probably during one of the HAB sections). As a result I missed two miles. I finished the Zen trail with 17.8 miles on my Garmin.


Man, what a challenging day (considering how little dirt riding I did in the last 3 months). My tank is empty.
My best ride YTD...... but I hoping to surpass it this summer.

 

Yeah, it's really too bad about the crappy views out there.

 

What an amazing day! Sorry you were feeling ill and chose to abandon, but love your attitude about it.

Congrats also to @horsebikerider @Faust29 and @HBkites

 

Worth it just for the photo!

 

True Grit Epic... The Abridged Version.

 

That guy at 5:50 just disappeared!

 

That happened a lot yesterday.

As for my take of the day...

It was definitely cold when we arrived- like mid 30s cold. But it warmed up really quick, and I made the snap decision to put the windbreaker back in the car, and go with the light IMTB jersey. No arm warmers, no heavy socks, and just regular summer gloves. It was the right call. I was warm enough by the time we rolled through town, and turned onto the fire road. I looked all around the start for @Cougar, but no sign. Hmmmmm... Perfect conditions, great weather, local knowledge, no imminent cactus assaults.

As J says, he pulled over a couple miles in to release some ballast, and I kept going. I figured he'd catch back up before too long. There was a conga line here and there, and I was always with other riders. I think my error came about when I was chatting with the rider just ahead of me. He had a geared hardtail, but he was standing and mashing, using his arms and body weight. I yelled, "that's a single speeder if I ever saw one." He laughed, confessed to his single speed ways, and we talked for a couple miles. I'm pretty sure that was the point that I (we...there were others) deviated from the course. Missed just under 2 miles. But... I had no idea that I screwed up until the very end, when my Garmin was about 2 miles short... Sh!t! Blissful ignorance made the rest of the ride a treat...

Barrel Trail... Yeah I walked the waterfall. It's really more of a succession of large drops in the 3-4 foot range, with no room for a P-line choice. Any one of the drops would be doable, but they are all one right after the other, and you have to know how to line up each time. The guys with the megaphones made sure to let us walkers know that "all the chicks cleared it earlier. Don't worry- they're not here to see you now." They gave extra Sh!t to the guy who cleaned it to the last drop and then face planted at the very end...

Zen... Oh my. Zen was pretty awesome, as usual. I didn't feel like I was pushing the climb, but I ended up with a PR. Did not expect that going uphill on the bigger bike. Downhill I did a lot better remembering the lines, and cleaned everything except one of the large drops. I couldn't remember it... On Lower Zen (?), I finally figured out how to get lined up for this one...

Looking back up the trail...



I stopped at the aid station coming out of Zen, and filled up the bottle. From Zen to the top of Stucki Springs is the longest section of the race, so I drank some extra and headed out for the Three Fingers of Death... Last year I took the middle finger, which is the second hardest way down, with a good sized drop at the end. This year I took the left line, thinking it would also be a drop... It really wasn't. I've watched the videos, and didn't see that the left was a total P-line, which it was... But, it got me down fast, and onto Bear Claw Poppy.

Bear Claw was really tacky in the beginning, but then it gave way to the fast and furious pump track style romp that I remember from last year. There are so many line choices, some easier and some harder. But they are all fast...

After the romp down Bear Claw, you have to pay. Last year I called it "Hell Trail". This year it was at least "Purgatory". It's a 6 mile ridge climb that continuously loses elevation that has to be immediately regained. In some spots, you're high enough that you can see the riders stretched out ahead until their forms disappear into the distance. It's a soul sucker... And I can't imagine that it's much better on fresh legs.

The good news is that the descent after the climb is the fastest single track of the course. It's smooth by Utah standards, and if you know where the little g-outs are, you could easily hit 40+ miles per hour. I hit 33.3, and I was on the brakes... It was on this section that @HBkites went by, looking fresh! I kept him in sight for the next few miles, but then he was gone.

After that , it's on to the Rim Reaper, which is a mile long single track climb, followed by a chunky descent... Shortest loop of the day, and it's over quickly. That leaves only the Barrel Roll Trail loop.

Barrel Roll is a pretty mellow single track climb, but the descent on the back side of the loop has a few spots that rival anything on Zen... extra chunky. Lots of steppy climbing, steppy descending, and lots of chunk... For several miles.

Rolling back through town and through the finish line was cool... Lots of cheering, big crowd, neat atmosphere...

J was there, and it was this point that I saw the mileage was low on the Wahoo... And consistently low on my watch. Uh oh. Mission Control, we have a problem... But it really didn't bother me. It was still a great ride.

Loaded up the bikes, headed out of town, and finished the day with a Red Robin chaser... A couple glasses of Guinness took some of the edge off the sore muscles.

The Hightower was definitely more comfortable to ride this year, but I'm not sure it's a better choice for race day than the Chameleon. I cleaned a few more things this time around, but that was more due to knowing the lines than having the rear suspension. If I do this one again, I may just opt for the Lizard with high volume tires and the dropper post...

What a day...

 

Wow!!! Thanks for sharing this!!!

Edit: Even wraps up with a Red Robin burger and beer, awesome!!!

 

Ya'll see what this crazy dude did... You are a beast Dan.

 

Did they have you guys go across the bottom of Zen as well? I could see that being a logistics nightmare with a plethora of riders. Many of those sections have little margin for error w/o creating a roadblock.

 

We did all of Zen.....no issues.

 

That’s awesome! We knew he was out there grinding away long after we were packed up and had dinner. Didn’t want to say anything before it was in the bag!

And... I believe it’s not his first 100 miler out there? #2 maybe?

 

On Sunday my family and I went to do some “recovery” hiking in Zion NP.

First visit for us. What a great place.

I finally made back to St. George in the afternoon, and manage to find an hour to revisit Bear Clow Poppy.
Took it easy up to the water tank.

Then the fun started.....

This time I was looking for the right “finger of death” drop and blue/black lines. I had a blast.
I can see how this might get old if you ride it all the time, but for me (and other visitors) the opportunity to explore all the options are awesome.

Traveling with a bike is good! I recommend it.