Stony Creek 5.5 hour...uhhh Race? report

This past weekend was my first try at endurance mountain biking.  It was the Stony Creek 6/12 race held at Stony Creek by Fun Promotions.  I originally wanted to race the 6 hour but I had a concert to go to that night and the 6 hour started at 2pm so that wasn't going to work.  I still wanted the racing experience however so I signed up for the 12 hour.  With the 2 hundreds coming up, I wanted to make sure I had all of my questions answered before I did them.  At the beginning of the race during the riders meeting, the promoter said that the race was actually being cut to 5.5/11.5 because they need to be out of the park by 9pm so instead of finishing both races at 8 they were going to finish at 7:30.  Obviously that didn't matter to me.  I was going to finish when I had to. 

I set my pit up at my car which was parked along the start of the course.  That way all I had to do was pull 2 feet off the trail to pit.  I put my cooler with my bottles in it and loaded up my gear.  Earlier in the week I spoke to my coach Curt about tactics and nutrition.  We decided on 1 bottle of sports drink per hour and supplement with gel.  So I I took 2 bottles of Powerbar Ironman Perform and a flask of gel.  I also took a can of Big Air and air chuck, and a bag with a tube and tire lever in case I got a puncture.  I should have take a tool with me too but I didn't.  I paid a little for it later. 

The race began at 8am with the 12 hour teams going out first.  The solo's went 1 minute later.  At the beginning of the race I just wanted to sit back and get a feel for everyone's pace.  Now they're pace was going to be obviously slower than mine as they were doing the 12 and I was doing the 6 so I figured I could catch up with some of the guys in team race as they would probably be keeping a higher pace that the 12 hour solo's.  I sat in about 3rd going into the Rollercoaster section.  Within 10 minutes or so, the group I was with had caught up to the 12 hour team riders at the back of the pack.  This slowed us for a bit but I figured it's such a long race I'm not going to push or be agressive here.  Just wait for the doubletrack and make a move.  That was pretty much what I followed.  Once we exited the singletrack I just pushed past as many as I could on the doubletrack before we got to the Pines section of the course.  I probably pushed a little too hard and paid for it a bit around the 2.5hr mark.  I basically maxed my HR out until I got to the pines.  Once I got about 3/4 of the way into the Pines I caught up to one of the guys on a 12 hour team.  We rode together through some of the doubletrack and then I went on by myself. 

I was pretty much alone from this point on with the exception of when I catch up to someone else here and there.  I got through 3 laps of the course and then decided to pit.  It had been about 2:15 or so and I was all out of fluid and gel.  I stopped at my car and changed bottles and gel flasks.  It took me about a minute to complete. I felt good about this but, it was not the only pit I was going to take.  About 25 minutes into the 4th lap I needed to go to the bathroom.  I pulled off the course and that cost me a little time.  Then on the next lap, I started to feel like I needed more calories and fast or I was going to bonk hard.  This is when I realized that I pushed a bit too hard in the beginning.  I stopped for a second to take in some cola and half of a Powerbar Triple Threat.  Within a few minutes I was feeling good again.  This was good news but the bad news my right shifter was coming loose.  I needed to pit yet again.  I stopped at my car and grabbed a wrench and tightened my shifter and back out on the course.  Did a couple more laps that were only a couple minutes slower than my first few so I was very happy to be keeping a consistent pace. 

I finished my portion of riding with 7 laps in 5:28 minutes.  My Garmin showed 65 miles but I later found out that the course is actually a mile or so more than my Garmin showed.  I actually rode more like 73 miles in 5:28.  The problem is my Edge 500 does what's called GPS aliasing so when I am doing switchbacks, the device doesn't think I'm going anywhere.  Someone on the MMBA website pointed this out to me. 

Overall I am very pleased with how the race turned out.  I think I accomplished what I needed to going into the Hanson Hills 100 and the Lumberjack 100.  Endurance mountain biking is hard though.  Much more than I would have anticipated.  I really beats you up.  I had that 15 miles into the Ironman run feel going about 5 hours into the ride.  I was happy to fnish.  Unfortunatly leaving early like I did cost me a win.  Had I raced the 6 hour race, I woud have been sent out for another lap at 5:28 which would have been 8 total in probably 6:15-20 and would have given me the win.  The person that won the 6 hour event 7 laps in 6:16.  Like I said though, this was a good learning experience for me and adds a lot of confidence going into the next endurance event which is the Hanson Hills 100.  I am also doing the Addison Oaks stage race this coming weekend.  Here is a video of the race from this weekend.  I'm the guy slowly climbing up the hill.