Single Track Sunday
Event: Wilderness 101 Mountain Bike Race
Place: Coburn, PA
Ridden: July 2014
Click on video to play
The adventure for this weekend was the Wilderness 101 mountain bike race. This was the second time Joël and I did this event (2013 being the first time). The course was challenging and fun, great race atmosphere, well organized, good prizes, and tasty post race food and beer- so you can see why we keep coming back. Shenandoah Mountain Touring and Chris Scott put on awesome events, this being one of them.
It is a backcountry mountain bike race held in the Bald Eagle and Rothrock State Forests of PA. The course consists of singletrack, double track, and fireroads with a bit of pavement. It visits many of our favorite trails that we had ridden in TSE, Rothrock Trail Challenge, and Stoopid 50 including Longberger, Three Bridges, Croyle, and Beautiful Trails. These trails are awesome; they are challenging and technical single track but along the way also include beautiful views of the mountains, blooming mountain laurel, abundant green ferns, and bubbling mountain streams. Also included is riding through an old railroad tunnel. Being that the name is "101", yes, it is 101 miles long with around 10,000 feet of climbing.
One great aspect about this event is the camping. Racers are allowed to camp in the town park which is exactly where the start/finish area and registration area is. We set up camp the night before the event and stayed until the morning after. Camping also adds to the social aspect of races; we were able to hang around and talk with other races and enjoy the post race burgers, hot dogs, and beer the race provided. There was even a late night pizza party.
As for our individual races, some days are good and some days are not so good; and sometime Joël and I will each have very different days. I had a good day. I enjoyed the course, smiling the entire day. Many times along the way I was complimented on my color coordination- thanks to LIV and Giant for making the Lust Advanced not only perform great on all the climbs, descents, and rocks but also making it a pretty bike with a perfectly matching LIV kit. Yes this race hurt (as any 101 mile race should) but that is what racing is about- mentally and physically pushing through the bad times. I was able to better my 2013 time by 45 minutes for a finish time of 10:25 which put me in 4th place female out of a decent sized womens field.
Joël on the other hand had one of the not so good days. He was feeling good for the first portion of the race but around mile 45 all of sudden things went bad. As per Joël "I was in a very dark hole mentally". He sat at aid station #3 for quite some time contemplating getting in the sag wagon for a ride back. But as above, racing is about pushing through the bad times, and that is what he did. After taking a break for a while he got back on his bike and finished the remaining 55 miles in a respectable finish time of 9:08.
Another Wilderness 101 behind us. Thanks to Chris Scott for organizing a great race. Many thanks goes out to all the volunteers, especially John, Becky, and Karen- they know us well and always make getting through the aid stations a pleasure.
- written by Jess
- video by Joël