Levis 100

This past saturday June 9th I decided to race the Levis/Trow 100 WEMS race.  I signed up for the 100 miler because I wanted to get a 100 mile race in before I head out to Leadville for the Leadville Traill 100. On friday my dad and I drove up to Hatfield, WI to Levis Mounds

Up north fools have recognized

We arrived around 7:30pm set up our pit tent, our sleeping tent and tried to relax and enjoy the night. We struggled with that because the mosquitoes were out. They weren't to bad but defiantly noticeable. We headed into the tent and preped as much as we could for the race. Shortly after we headed to bed. The next morning I tried to sleep in a little but my body clock woke me up at the usual 5:30am. I headed to the car made breakfast and waited until 7:00 when I started to get ready. Not knowing how this whole endurance racing works I did a much shorter warm up but found out later it really wasn't needed because the pace was very comfortable on the 1st lap. At 7:45 I headed to the riders meeting and placed my bike about 300 meters down the track for the lemond start. At 8 the shot gun goes off and we take off jogging to our bikes. I grab my Trek Superfly with its newly added Shimano XTR brakes, mount it and take off sitting 4th.  We enter the first section of single track and since I don't know what the pace was going to be like I decided to just follow and see how hard everyone else was going.  After a comfortable 1st lap us 4 make it through the pits where I take a bottle hand up and keep rolling. Now out on lap 2, the 4 of use are still together and before the single track I pop a Powerbar Gel and eat some Clif Shots. A couple miles in Randy Wegener takes off and gets about a 40 second gap not knowing if I should chase I passed 3rd and just stuck with 2nd place.  After a couple more miles around mile 6 we hit the aid station I look behind me abd power past 2nd because I notice he might be a little sick. We start the long climb and 3rd slowly falls off my wheel.  I climb at a steady pace and fly down the technical descent knowing that my new Shimano brakes can stop anything.  After another 12.5 miles I make it back to the pit. I stop and my wonderful pit crew, my dad, hands me a waffle, 2 bottles and I stuff my pockets with Poewrbar Gels and Gu Chomps.  I take off on lap 3 and catch Randy around mile 2. I sit on him taking his pace until mile 10 when his pace slows a little and I decide to take the lead and ride my pace. We hit the last climbs of the lap and Randy falls off my wheel.  I enter the pit with about a 2-3 minute gap.  My dad hands me 2 more bottles a Pop tart and before I head out I squirt some water over my head. Now out on lap 4 the temps have risen to about 85 90 and I'm drinking a lot more. I go through both my bottles in the first 8 miles and fight through the last 4.5 miles driven by the thought of water. I finally make it back to the pit and my dad has 2 bottles and a sandwich waiting for me. I take one of the bottles drink as much as my stomach can handle and dump some on my head. I take 2 bottles eat my sandwich and grab a couple more Gels. I ask my dad to have a Camelback ready for me on the next lap and head out on lap 5 after another 2ish minute pit. Knowing that I'm going to need more water than the 2 bottles I have, when I made it to mile 6 I stopped at the aid station, filled up my bottles and ate some banana pieces then started the grueling climb.  Still feeling good I make it back to the pit in about 40 minutes.  Again I dump some water on my head grab my Camelback from Ken Stuckart another 100 mile racer who had to drop out. I also grab a bottle just incase and my dad tells me 2nd is about 34 minutes behind. I roll out feeling much better because my fluids are replenished.  I make it through lap 6 without any problems except the fatigue is starting. I roll back to the pit with about a 40 minute gap and headed out for, as Ken said "one more WORS race".  The 7th lap went well even though it was much slower. The fatigue in my arms and hands had grow exponentially and it was getting hard to shift but this was due to all the pounding form the bumps and not from a bad bike fit, thank you Randy Jennings for doing such a great job fitting me.  I really tried to enjoy this lap and not do anything stupid knowing that I had a pretty large gap I tried to pace myself so that I wasn't totally trash for the last lap.   When I got to the pit for the last time I lightened the load a little. I dropped the Camelback and 1/2 of the gels in my pocket and took 2 bottles. I did about another 4 minute pit but this time I tried to really make sure everything was working on my bike just to make sure nothing would fall off or break on me for my final lap.  I took off feeling pretty good and tried to keep the pace high. After making it through 97 miles without falling I hit the 9 mile sign and go about .3 of a mile pop up my front tire over an up high root and keep going backwards. I end up in the woods and rip the leg of my shorts on a log.  I get up assess my leg and take off again.  Another teammate Jesse Kruchoski, he did the 50 solo and took 4th, caught me in the last 1/2 mile, I let him by and I stuck on his wheel.  He slows up right before the finish to let me by and we roll in together. I finished with a time of 10 hours 34 minutes which was almost exactly 52 minutes ahead of 2nd. I roll back to the pit area dismount my bike and just stand there not knowing what to do. I walk around in circles kinda in daze still not understanding what I should do.  After about 10 minutes I get changed and wash up.  We drive up to the finish for awards and head to Culvers for dinner.  

                          New Giro helmet as my prize                                            Results after 7 laps
                           
After a long car ride home last night its time for some serious R&R before WORS race #4 CamRock and pick some strawberries with my mom.  Thanks for reading check back soon for a post race report of CamRock.