PreRide
So with the lack of mountain biking this year, I wasn't sure if my bike nor I would be up to par for this year's challenge of the Ironbutt. Although I have been putting in lots of time on the road bike, mountain biking takes a whole different approach than road.
The night before my wife and I went an ate wiseguys pizza for a carob load. It was quite tasty but probably undid all the hydration efforts I did that day. That night we were staying with some friend in Memphis, so we both could be closer to our activities the next day. Unfortunately staying with friends that you don't hang out with end up being a late night. We didn't get into bed until 12:30ish, which was probably 4 hours later than I really wanted to be :) Okay a lil far stretch, I would have been good if I was asleep at 10pm. Because 4:45am the next morning came way too quickly.
One last thing before the start of the event. I was suppose to ride this awesome air nine carbon bike from a local bike shop as a demo, but that morning we were unable to snatch my pedals off to swamp them over to the demo bike. I was very frustrated, because this would have been a great opportunity to test out a 29er MTN bike compared to my 4yr old 26 inch bike. Thanks Kenny for your efforts in bringing it anyways. Maybe next time it will work out.
Ironbutt 2011
As 46 riders left Chris's house, the pace started off pretty fast. Oddly I felt like I was having a hard time keeping up on the road. Not sure why but I pressed on to keep up with the lead pack. We approached Lakeland trails with in a few miles. After a very technical ride there, we set off for the longest road portion to Herb Parson. Again the pace was set around 18 to 20 mph. This would be easy on a road bike, but tough on a mtn bike and even covering 100 miles that day. Majority of us stayed together and approached Herbs with no problems. After the trails once again we pushed it on the road to the connecting path of four wheeler trails that was much bearable than last year. We still had to hike a bike thru many sections but nothing comparable to last year. The worst section was coming up. It a service road of loose large gravel with thigh high weeds in sections. At this point of the day it was starting to cook up pretty good. Charles, Chad, and I stayed within a reasonable distance of each other to keep each other going. From this rocky road we jumped onto the greenline. Smooth asphalt my butt says thank goodness. This stretch was short lived as Charles and I jumped off onto the blue trail north of walnut grove back to Shelby farms. Wait wait wait....... That sounded like it was easy didn't it. At this point unfortunately my buddy Charles ran into some major problems with his bike. It took us a while to rig it back up as we were being eaten by mosquitoes with teeth. The chain kept coming off and he told me to press on. The man is not a quitter and I knew we were within a few miles of the food stop. So if need to be I could have returned if he didn't show. Shortly after eating he pulls up as does most of the 1st group too. We all take a much needed break, down some food liquids, and change into fresh clothes. You have no idea how good fresh socks felt at this point. Charles worked on his bike more as it was unstable prior till. By this point we were at mile 62. TDW wasn't bad, fairly hot in the fields like normal. After TDW, Chad jumped on and we took off for the WRT. Balling down the gravel road, Charles caught a flat. This wasn't his day. Again he told us to press on and we did. I haven't road WRT since the flood. There was about 2.5 miles of sand that made it impossible to ride. Chad and I had a great time trying to stay up right riding thru it. We loop back by where Charles flatted and didn't see him. Check the phone, and suggested he fixed it and was behind us. So we road on to our next stop Stanky Creek. Nothing to exciting here except more overgrown trails with thorns to slice your arms open as your road. Larry and Brad was waiting on riders at Stanky to mark off the list, they also had more liquids which couldn't have been better timing. Chad and I refueled and made our slowest lap ever out at Stanky. We took one small break as there was no breeze or cool air inside the trail. Just more heat and humidity. When we finished our lap, there was Charles and guess what :) He was working on his bike again. Dang it man. He was a trooper, and I also think he became certified to work on bikes after this day too. From here we had about 8 miles of road to go and it couldn't have gotten there quick enough. I had no time in mind of really finishing but just to finish. From start to finish it took a little over 11 hours for 106 miles. Out of the 46 riders only 23 finished. Im glad to say I was one of them again this year. I plan on returning next year and hopefully on a 29er.
Here is a link to my route Ironbutt Route
Here are pic from the race Pictures
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