Ore 2 Shore is over and here I am sitting at home trying to recover and remembering all the good and bad parts of the day. I thought I would try to write down a few of my experiences during my 2 and a half hours of racing.
Just making it to the start line was a chore as the girls were racing at 8:00, Keegan at 9:00, and Geoff and I at 9:45. So, the alarm goes off at 6:00 and everyone slowing begins to wake up. Geoff seems the most excited and as usual Keegan shows no signs of life. We hit the continental breakfast and are packed and out the door around 7:00. The first stop is at the arena where we get 3 bikes ready for Ellie, Kiersen, and the chaperon, Laura. They are doing the 10 mile Shore Rock race. Air in tires, water bottles, gloves, goodbye’s and good luck. We pick up my dad and continue on to stop #2. We arrive at the start of Keegan’s 28 mile Soft Rock and go through the same prep for him and his bike as we did for the girls. He is a little easier to get ready as he has done many more races and is already an “old pro”. We say our goodbye’s and we are off and the clock reads 7:55. Wow, we are a little early as I had expected to be dropping him off around 8:00. Since it is racing being a little fast is a good thing. The next stop is downtown Neguanee and the start of the 48 mile Hard Rock. Geoff has a preferred start, but I do not so we need to get a spot reserved. This preferred start thing has really bugged me and Geoff didn’t help by reminding me of the situation on several occasions. Anyway, we get the van and trailer parked and quickly run to the bathroom (nervous already) and then get Keegan’s road bike out to use as a place holder at the start line. Geoff and I are surprised to see that no one has claimed a spot yet and we scope out the area and lay claim to my spot. Immediately guys come out of nowhere and begin claiming their spots. I guess they were just waiting for me to take mine! It is still a long time to the start so we stand around and small talk with several familiar faces like Dan McGraw, Dave Lenting, my sister, brother-in-law‘s, sister-in-law, Shawn Davidson and Jeff Burtt. About an hour before the race I begin to get my kit on and make final preparations for the race. Geoff, Shawn and myself ride the first 3-4 miles of the race as our warm up and take our spots about 15-20 minutes prior to the start. The final minutes before the race are spent making nervous conversation with the people around me and thinking about how I am going to get to the front.
The gun goes off and the frantic race for the front has begun. I find moving up to be a lot harder than expected and use a ton of energy to get in with the “fast guys”. The first few miles are on pavement and are extremely fast and a little scary as several people show why they are mountain bikers and not roadies. Lots of swerving and hard braking seems to be the norm, but I make my way through it and survive to the dirt. Once we make the sharp right hand turn onto dirt we are met with a wall of dust. The rain the night before seems to have done nothing as it is hard to breathe and even see with all of the dust in the air. I know it is just a little ways and I will soon be met with one of my nemesis’s, Lucy Hill. Every year Lucy makes my heart explode as her placement in the beginning of the race serves as a seperater of contenders and pretenders. I make it over Lucy and feel like I’m in pretty good position. Geoff is just up the trail and I have some people around that look like they are fast. But Geoff’s group isn’t getting closer and the guys at the front of my group aren’t pulling fast enough to catch up. I make my way to the front and proclaim, “get over and I will get us to the next group!” A little arrogant, I know, but Geoff was not going to ride away from me in the first 10 miles. I begin to pull like mad and go through Ishpeming holding 28-29mph all the way through town. At some point I finally make it to Geoff’s group and am surprised that only one other person has made it with me. The middle 30 miles of the race are a little fuzzy and I am not real sure of the order of things, but a few occurances do stick out. The biggest thing that I remember is the first woman hanging with Geoff and I until about the 35 mile point where we finally lose her on a long paved climb. She had incredible handling skills and at one point closed about a 15 second gap to Geoff while going downhill. I was also dropped by her on that decent, but did catch up on the flats. Misery Hill was also something that stuck out in my memory because this is where Geoff and I lost contact with a large group that had placing in the top 20. It wasn’t so much the painful walk up the hill as it was the really rough section right after. Large rocks, deep ruts, loose ground were not very friendly to us and that group just slowly rode away. The only other thing that I remember from the middle of the race was the great bottle hand-up by Laura. It is weird how a familiar face and some ice cold water can make everything seem better.
The last 12-15 miles were beginning to get a little boring as Geoff and I had shed everyone that was with us and there was no one visible in front of us. I think we went about 10 miles where it was just him and I and no one else was in sight. With about 7-8 miles to go a couple of guys could be seen in front of us and they provided a little motivation for us to pick up the pace. It doesn’t take long and we catch them and begin to ride along behind them. Everything is friendly and then at the big sand dune down hill they drop us and we begin the chase. Kirby Hill is next and I take it way harder than I thought I could and get a few seconds back. Geoff takes the lead and we catch one the guys and he throws out his anchor and drops quickly. The other guy is going to make this fun and puts up a hell of a fight. I keep telling Geoff to relax and we will get him once we hit pavement. Geoff has other plans and wants to catch the guy in the twisty stuff. Geoff does an amazing job and keeps gaining ground on the guy. We finally get him and we are all fried. As we roll onto a paved section I come up next to the guy and he complements us on the chase and I do the same for his effort. It is one more dirt section and then about 1-2 miles of pavement to the finish. I begin the dirt section in front with the guy 2nd and Geoff 3rd. Just as I am feeling confident that Geoff or I will beat this guy Geoff yells out that he is getting a flat. Crap, now what?! I continue to lead through the dirt and Geoff drops off the back. We pass another guy that has some obvious cramping issues as he is constantly standing up and pedaling but not going real fast. We hit the last paved section and the guy attacks, I am immediately on his wheel and as soon as he sits down I go around and he has nothing left. I pull away and hammer the rest of the way across the finish line. It feels great to be done and I know sprinting for 33rd place isn’t cool, but it sure made the last part of the race a lot of fun. Geoff crosses the line about a minute later and looks as bad as I feel. The great feeling is soon wiped out with the news that Keegan has crashed and is in the hospital. We will find out later that he is fine, but that whole scenario is another story in itself. The day is finally over and we have done pretty well. Ellie and Kiersen get 1st and 2nd in the girls 11 and under category. I get 33rd and Geoff 36th out of 697 finishers.