This is a post about my Chequamegon 100 experience, and the first thing I want to say is thanks to my friend JW who rode the whole thing with me. I really don't think I could have finished it without him.
Since taking a new job, I've not had much time to ride in the past month, so I was not feeling terribly prepared coming into this weekend. But, I missed the race last year due to injury and I did not want to be deterred again. So screw it, I don't care how fast we go, I just want to finish. Much easier said than done.
For those of you familiar with the trails around Cable and Hayward WI, or those of you who've done the Cheq 40 picture this: Ride all of the sweet single track in the Namekogan, Cable, Seely and Hayward clusters, and link it all together with most of the Cheq 40 course, including the Fire Tower climb. And do it all at once as fast as you're able. Turns out that was about 12 hours and 17 minutes for me.
I was feeling pretty good for the first couple of hours, but I think I took in too much sports drink too quickly, because around the time we finished the Ojibwe trail I was really feeling ill. We were way less than 40 miles in, and that was almost the day for me. But we took a couple of short breaks and I tried my best to eat and drink. Eventually the feeling passed and after leaving the drop point at about the 60 mile mark I was feeling OK again. Then it started raining.
Basically sprinkles as we were leaving Hatchery Creek, but as we carried on, so did the rain. By the time we got back to Mosquito Brook Rd and the Birkie trail it was miserable. Kind of like riding through grass covered peanut butter. Even though temps were probably in the mid 60's it got pretty tough to stay warm with the wind chill of riding and the totally drenched clothing. Eventually we reached the dirt and gravel roads past OO and had a chance to test our drivetrains' fortitude in the mud.
Once we turned on to Rock Lake Rd I knew that I had a decision to make. We were about 10 hours in at that point, and If we kept going past the turn off for the last 20 miles of singletrack the suffering would be done in just a few minutes. We stopped and discussed; I made the deal with JW that if I was still riding with my wits about me in the muddy, rocky, slippery single track sections then I'd press on to the finish. But if I was riding stupid then I was done. I'm still suprised with how well we were able to chug through the last sections of trail after so many hours and miles had past. Smooth, flowing single track of the Patsy Lake trail was uplifting; just what I needed after the sustained beating leading up to it. But then we finished with the last section of Rock Lake; ugh.
But we finished and it was damn fine. When do we sign up for next year?
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