Greetings!
Welp, at this rate I post in the blog every 5-6 years. This weekend I raced in the Cohutta 100 mtb race which is a fantastically wonderful race riding in both the Tennessee and Georgia mountains, covering 100 miles and 12,000 feet of elevation gain. My buddy Kevin Conerly and I waited until the last minute to sign up knowing the week leading into the race was riddled with thunderstorms and rain. We eventually decided, it is what it is, and we wanted to race anyways.
Now, it's been 6 years since I've raced my bike, and before that, my last race and 100 miler was in 2014! You can find that post in this blog from November 2014. Sooooo much life has happened since 2014, and the Wyoming race in 2019(also in this blog). Starting around the time my now wife and I starting dating, I was training to give the Everesting world record a go, I reckon I pushed it too hard and I have had a decade of knee issues. Blah Blah Blah basically saw a bunch of docs got a MRI and I have no meniscus left in my right knee - it's gone completely. I think it's from riding with my saddle too high for a long time. but who knows. After taking several years off completely and getting totally addicted to fishing, I have learned to manage my knee pain and inflammation and I can now nurse it if I'm smart and willing to forego riding for some yoga and stretching. Robot knee to come!
Carmen and I like to keep our personal life, personal and don't mention much about it publicly but the last few recent years have been a little difficult for us, with our starter home in Florida flooding twice in 13 months from hurricanes and the first flood happening shortly after adopting our first child, Cece. All well that ends well, we are doing swell now having sold the house and relocated to Roswell, Georgia.
Okay, that's enough life update, I'm old and slow and rode all of 250 miles in 2024. 2025 we are back at it! So why not sign up for Cohutta 100! Here's some photos of the bike before the race and Kevin and I riding the day before:
I've never had a bike this nice before so what a treat, insanely blessed. I don's deserve it.
Kevz at the Boyd Gap overlook.
Yours truly adorning the overlook - haha.
This is a photo from the exact same location from last time I raced Cohutta back in 2012. I was 26 years old at that time!
Kevz and I both have children and are married now, with them in Brevard and us in Roswell, we don't get to hang out as much, but it's so special and comforting knowing we have a small but unique friend group from our time back in the southeast, we have a brotherhood and have known each other for over 1/3 of our lives now. We got a hotel in Ocoee and he raced the Big Frog 65 and got 6th! I believe he said he had a slighly slower time compared to his last attempt but with higher power numbers - so I know he has got to be proud of that effort. The conditions we pretty much a mudfest, maybe not as bad as it could be, but they weren't fast by any means.
My goal was to pace for the longhaul, and to finish without bonking. I have only been back at riding now for 5 months, so I def bit of more than I could chew here. 100s are to be feared and respected I was gently reminded.
I dont have too much to really share in detail. I was 6-7th going into the brush creek singletrack. Gordon got the hole shot(i think). I knew I didn't need to be anywhere near him or the other fast dudes. If I tried keeping up with them, I knew I would blow up and fall apart to limp in later. I was content with the starting pace, and stayed with the front group for about 11-12 miles. The opening singletrack was a slosh to say it at best. Much slower than I remember. I planned to stop at AID #1 and I did. Refilled my bottles and went on. At this point, the leaders were gone and I was settling in for my pace for the day. About 5 more miles later Christian Tanguy caught up to me, and I was shocked. I have memories of him winning these events years ago. The fact I was ahead of people like he, and Brian Schworm was nuts. Tells me, I went out wayyyyyy too hard and turns out, I did. I had issues with my heartrate monitor before the race started, so I had to race without it, I never ride without HR, just because I "felt" okay at the start didn't mean I wasn't punching about my weight. I did pay for that. Christian and I played yo-yo for a while as I would catch up to him on the descents. Eventually, I just never saw him again, dude can climb like a goat!
I spent the rest of the day pretty much in no mans land which is par for the course for me, I have always felt like I was never fast enough for the fast dudes and perhaps a little too fast for the average, IDK who cares, I had so much fun out there. My darkest hour was definitely the Potato Patch climb. I just don't have that snap or extra gear I used to. Maybe I'll fine tune it before Marathon Nationals this year, as I plan to race 40-44 Masters.
I was happy with how I finished, not the placement etc, but with how I felt. I finished strong and felt okay. My knee was in decent shape, but I did have some back and neck pain but that's to be expected in these events and the fact it's been a decade since I've ridding 100 miler on the MTB.
I got to see so many familiar faces and met so many new killer nice people. The endurance MTB scene may not be as big as it used to be due to the rise in gravel racing but man, what a solid beautiful community.
I'm so blessed to be at it again and have to thank God and my family so much for their support to be where I am in this stage of my life.
Check out these photos from post race and I'll be racing a 6 hour next weekend, so Ill post about that here soon too.
Until next time yall!
