Joined
·
1,973 Posts
Not sure why I can't just go out and ride and be happy, but I like to challenge myself occasionally. Last year I went from barely being able to do 10 miles to doing a century (road bike). This year I guess the mountain bike gets the nod. I'm about 99% committed to signing up for the Fool's Gold 50 mile mountain bike race held in the N. GA mountains each year in September. There's also a 100 mile version (2 laps of the route) but that's just crazy.
20 years ago I used to do a lot of local mountain bike races, but nothing of this caliber. The official length is 54 miles and covers roughly 7000 feet of vertical climb. 50 miles doesn't scare me too much. I know dirt miles are harder that road miles, but what really scares the 'buh-geez-us' out of me is all the climbing. To date my rides are usually in the 2000, 2500 feet range on nice smooth pavement, so a challenge this will be.
In the next week or so I'm going to make the 2 hr ride north and pre-ride a portion of the trail to see if it's something I want to commit to. And did I mention that just finishing isn't good enough... gotta do it in under 6 hours.
At least I'm thinking about this in advance instead of a last minute knee jerk decision. I've got 3 months to prep if I decide to go it.
Updates to follow...
20 years ago I used to do a lot of local mountain bike races, but nothing of this caliber. The official length is 54 miles and covers roughly 7000 feet of vertical climb. 50 miles doesn't scare me too much. I know dirt miles are harder that road miles, but what really scares the 'buh-geez-us' out of me is all the climbing. To date my rides are usually in the 2000, 2500 feet range on nice smooth pavement, so a challenge this will be.
In the next week or so I'm going to make the 2 hr ride north and pre-ride a portion of the trail to see if it's something I want to commit to. And did I mention that just finishing isn't good enough... gotta do it in under 6 hours.
At least I'm thinking about this in advance instead of a last minute knee jerk decision. I've got 3 months to prep if I decide to go it.
Updates to follow...