[Poolie]

I had so much fun this past summer in the Fools Gold 50 mtb race that I'm heading down to White Springs (northern) Florida next month to participate in the 19th annual IDIDARIDE 50 mile off road endurance ride along the Suwannee river. Anyone from the FL area riding in this?

[trainwithstacie]

Poolie, Don't expect anything like the Fool's Gold race. Ididaride is a great event with some really nice people. But, you want have the leg burning climbs and exciting descents. It's a flat course with nothing technical. My son did half the ride when he was around 8. I certainly wouldn't turn a kid lose on Fool's Gold. Btw, Fool's Gold is about the most fun I've had on a mountain bike. See you at ididaride

[Poolie]

There's about 12-15 of us from the Atlanta area headed down tomorrow. This will be my first year, but others that I'm going with do it every year and make a big social event out of it. It's the only 50 miles they'll ever see on a mountain bike. Can't wait to see some 70 degree weather. We have an ice storm forecast for tomorrow here. Hope I get out of town quick enough to avoid it.

I'm looking forward to a rematch with the FG50 this year. Was totally unprepared last year and it kicked my butt, but I somehow still enjoyed it. Earlier this week I was contacted by the organizers of the FG event. They also put on the Southern Cross Endurance race next month and asked if I would volunteer to work one of the checkpoints. Payment for my time would be free entry to the FG50 this year. That was a no-brainer.

Originally Posted by trainwithstacie

Poolie, Don't expect anything like the Fool's Gold race. Ididaride is a great event with some really nice people. But, you want have the leg burning climbs and exciting descents. It's a flat course with nothing technical. My son did half the ride when he was around 8. I certainly wouldn't turn a kid lose on Fool's Gold. Btw, Fool's Gold is about the most fun I've had on a mountain bike. See you at ididaride

[Poolie]

Bike is clean, bag is packed and I'm more or less ready to head south. Going to get in an hour on the trainer while I wait for my friend to get off work at noon.

[rola643]

Maybe next year

[Poolie]

IDIDARIDE 2013 is in the books and I had a great time. I have to admit that since it was in Florida and for the most part flat, I trivialized the ride and figured, how hard can it be? Well, what they lack in hills they more than make up for in deep sand and I tell you the palmetto roots where brutal. The 29er was the perfect bike for the conditions, but a full suspension would have been a nice addition. Overall it was a nice mix of single track and FS road.

I had initially told the group that I went down with that I had planned to just take it easy and just make a social event out of the ride, which was what the most of them had planned to do.

That idea lasted all of about the first three miles. We had quickly slipped to the back of the pack and I was fed up being in a conga line behind a bunch of people that didn't seem to know how to ride. The rider in front of me slammed on her brakes for no apparent reason and stopped in the middle of the trail causing a chain reaction of wrecks behind her. Me being the first to go down. She apparently stopped to put her earbuds in. That was it, I didn't drive 300 miles for this so waved to my friends and told them I'd see them at the finish line. I put my head down and broke away to ride at my own pace.

A little quick math told me I could probably finish in under 5 hours so that was my new driving force. I stopped briefly at SAG 1 and 2 for a PB&J quarter, yum yum and continued on... SAG 3 was around 33 miles in and was designated as the lunch stop, complete with chicken noodle soup (and chili). I was low on fluids so added water to my CamelBak and drop in a couple Nuun tablets. I was still feeling good, but knew i needed food. The two pancakes and a couple sticks of bacon I had for breakfast were long gone, however I couldn't bring myself to eat something that I wasn't sure how my stomach would react to so I avoided the soup (probably a big mistake) and downed a couple crunchy granola bars instead and headed back out on the trail.


All was well until around mile 40. I started to feel the beginning twitches of cramps in my quads. Right there I should have stopped and downed a GU, but no, I continued on. In my head I'm thinking 10 more miles. That's less than one lap around my favorite trail at home. I'm good to go. SAG 4 should be coming up any minute and I was looking at my watch thinking that it was going to be tight so I figured I wouldn't stop. I could hear water sloshing in the camelbak so there was at least some water in it. So as I'm rolling by the SAG I see the sign, 'wine and cheese sag'. Whoa... what was that? There's no way in #$% I'm passing this up. Sure enough, cheese, crackers, fruit and several containers of the box type wine you see at the grocery store. The cup I picked up off the table had peach slices, blueberries and raspberries mixed in with the wine for what I've dubbed mountain biker sangria. Man it hit the spot. A quick look at my watch and oh carp, I've gotta go.


The twitches in my legs were still there but had yet to materialize as a full fledged cramp... well until now. At somewhere around mile 48-49 the left leg seized up with a cramp and as I stood up out of the saddle the right leg joined in. I rolled to a stop and managed to unclip without falling over. For a couple minutes I massaged my quads and the pain with away. I assessed my physical condition. Heart rate was fine and generally I felt great other than leg cramps so back on the bike. I should be hitting asphalt any minute for the final stretch to the finish line.


Hmmmm... mile 50, I'm still in the woods. I'm beginning to understand that 50 miles doesn't always really mean 50 miles. The Fools Gold 50 race last year was 55 miles and as I discover shortly this is a 53 mile course. I continued on for a couple miles and finally hit asphalt and realized where I was. A couple turns away and I'd be done. The last stretch was up hill and I just knew I'd cramp up again and fall across the finish line, but all was fine. Crossed the finish line at 5 hours and 24 minutes. The time for 50 miles was 5 hours and 6 minutes which was darn close to my goal.

The downside to leaving my group behind was that I got to stand around for an hour and a half in my dirty clothes because I didn't have keys to get into the car. It was sunny and 75 degrees so I didn't care :-)

[Xela]

Originally Posted by Poolie

I had initially told the group that I went down with that I had planned to just take it easy and just make a social event out of the ride, which was what the most of them had planned to do.

That idea lasted all of about the first three miles.

Isn't that always how it is?

Nice ride, Man! Great job!!!

[rola643]

Cyclist are the single greatest group of sandbaggers known to man

[INTEGRATE]

Every group ride should come with a "warning: race like conditions may occur" PSA! Never been on a group ride that didn't!

[mars_yeldir]

Cramps are tough. I am signing up to do a 56 mile gravel and pavement ride on March 3. There are supposed to be some serious climbs. Hope I avoid those cramps on that day! Sounds like you did great. Congrats!