If that opening line doesn't sum up the weekend then I don't know what would! Gene, Mitch, Woolard, Bill and I traveled up to Old Fort, NC this past weekend for an epic battle known as ORAMM. After a year sabbatical, SGC was back. This year Blueridge Adventures added a new event on Saturday to go along with their stage race theme and added the Jerdon Mtn. Challenge. You can either compete in the one of these fine events or you can choose to compete in both for a chance to be crowned the King or Queen of the Black Mtns. Woolie decided at the last minute that he was going to ride the Jerdon Mtn. Challenge, where as the rest of us had diligently registered for ORAMM months in advance to obtain our spot in an epic battle of man and mountain. Next year we will hunting the King and Queen of the Black Mtns.
Departure from the Good Life City was prompt at high noon on Friday and YES, I (Josh) was on time. After a quick massage from Wil @ WilPower Massage therapy, I met up with the boys at Mitch's house. We loaded the bikes and caravaned out to Wild Bill's. After a quick stop in Warner Robins at The Bike Shop to pick up a new 11-34 cassette we made good time through ATL traffic on our way to Asheville. Yes, I changed my chain at the last minute and my cassette was trashed so I had to get part at the last minute. You would think that I would learn but either way it worked out.
Asheville, NC, need I say more? Wow, what an amazing place. We choose to stay in Asheville this year so that we could enjoy the city a bit more and it worked out great. We checked into the Ramada Inn, which is not the Hampton Inn but for the price it was great, unloaded the gear and bikes and headed downtown for some beer and foodies. The Lexington Avenue Brewery (LAB) is where we landed. Beer flowed and food followed as we took in the diversity of this amazing community, you must remember that we are from Albany, GA. Gene probably could have gone all night as he is still a teenager but myself and the others had visions of sweet cherry blossoms and needed our beauty sleep to be ready for our weekend adventure. So we loaded up with Gene on our heals pouting that we weren't staying out past 11 PM. Gene, you will understand when you get old like us.
Since Woolie was racing The Jerdon Mtn Challenge on Saturday AM, I got up with him and road on over to Old Fort to see him off. Here are a couple photos of Woolie.
Woolie at the start of Jerdon MTN Challenge.
Heading out of Old Fort.
Heading toward the finish line.
Bill, Mitch and Gene rolled up shortly after Woolie headed out. We decided to ride from town up to the bottom of Kitsuma to cheer on Woolie then on over the top of Kitsuma.
Getting ready to cheer on Woolie.
Woolie came through looking strong and we headed toward the epic descent known as KITSUMA! Bill blasted up the climb to stretch his legs while Gene, Mitch and I noodled along enjoying the scenery.
Mitch and Gene taking it all in!
We eventually regrouped to get split again on the singletrack climb up to the top of Kitsuma. Bill and I waited at the summit and chatted with Sean from Florida who was also in town to ride ORAMM. Sean's dad is a high school teacher in the area. Did I mention that I wish I was am a high school teacher that would love to live in this area? While we were chatting Mitch and Gene slipped by us by accident and started the descent. Bill and I being the calculated adventures that we are were sure that we had missed them riding by and decided to start our descent. Apparently they have cut a new and improved line off of Kitsuma b/c Bill and I took the old line and it was even scarier then it use to be two years ago. We regrouped back in Old Fort at the car in time to get cleaned up in the river and cheer Woolie finishing up.
We hung for a bit and decided that we all wanted to get cleaned up properly and find some yummy food in Asheville. We found that yummy food at Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company. Funny how that word BREWERY got into our food selection. After a few beers and lots of flavor explosions from some freaking amazing pizza we headed off to REI-Asheville to pick up what ever we thought we needed. For me the beer and pizza was doing it's job because I fell asleep on the car ride back to the motel and proceeded to sleep more in the room. I am not sure who all took naps but my nap ran till around 9 PM at which time I proceeded to try to find motivation to prep for the next day, just as the others were getting ready to go to bed. OCD set in for me and I finally had everything prepped and ready around midnight. Sorry guys but that long afternoon/evening nap was what the doctor ordered.
Race morning was like most others. We left the motel around 6:30 to arrive to a full parking lot. Man those folks must have gotten up early. It seems that no matter how early you start you never leave yourself enough time race morning. We all prepped behind the Mercer Tahoe, sharing and last minute needs for the days epic adventure. I wanted a position near the front of the 400 or so riders so I wished my friends good luck and headed to find a spot. But first let me tell Mitch, Gene and Bill's story or at least what I remember. (Guys let me know if you would like to add some details)
Bill Riddle - You see Bill has been fighting this terrible battle with vomit! For some reason when every the mtn bike is between his legs and he rides for more than 2 hours he likes to vomit uncontrollably until all that comes up is bile. Many have provided this strong man with advice but nothing has yet to work. I am not sure when the Vomit Monster jumped on Bill's back but I do know that Gene and Mitch passed him on the way down Kitsuma and that the paramedics were heading to find him because they had been told by passing riders that there was a caveman on the side of the trail convulsing violently as though and exorcism was leaving his body. However, if you know Bill he was still able to finish under his own power in just over 10 hours. Bill don't give up, we are going to figure out why the Vomit Monster has chosen you.
Gene and Mitch - Mitch had recently had some issues with stones that had kept him from training as thoroughly as he could considering. Gene and his alter ego, BOLT SPEEDMAN, had been doing some top secret training to prepare for this epic journey that Zues had laid down. They road together through out the race and unfortunately were caught in an early afternoon shower as they approached Heartbreak Ridge. Here is a video clip from YouTube of Heartbreak Ridge, imagine riding this when it is wet and raining. NO WAY!!!! There report was that they were really slowed down on this section. Overall, they had a great time and ride with each other on a great day at ORAMM. They finished just under 10 hours.
Josh - I found a spot that was pretty close to the front but in retrospect I should have pushed my way forward because I spent a ton of energy on the road positioning past folks. Next year! Once in my spot I proceeded with my tradition at starts. I laid my bike down and walked off to the side for a short Yoga session. I know folks probably look at me like I am crazy but I have to say that if I take 10-15 mins before the start of the race and go through a few sun salutations, my body and mind open and I am ready to go.
Like I mentioned, I probably should have pushed my way closer to the front before the start because once the gun went off I was immediately track standing and then racing around people to get closer to the front. All went well getting to the singletrack on Kitsuma other than I probably should have positioned myself a bit better for the singletrack climb. I was able to pass everyone in the second group on Kitsuma and started the descent with Jeremiah, Thomas, Sam, and two others in front of me. I got a little over zealous on the descent and came into a left hand washed out turn way to hot. I tried to recover my front wheel but it would not come back and I launched myself over the bars and into a roll. As I got up and took inventory, I realized that I had ripped off my nipple on my camelbak and my hydration pack was emptying. Crap! I didn't want to play around with it considering that the 3 guys no a 4th had just flown by me, so I just let the water run out. I didn't realize it at the time but I also lost my CO2 cartridge so that meant that I was really screwed if I got a flat out on course. I recovered quickly and passed all of the guys that had passed me.
Now my plan for the day had just changed. I had a second camelbak at aid station 3 and planned to not stop at an aid station till then but now I only had one bottle left and I needed to make sure I stayed hydrated. So I drank the bottle before aid station 1 so that I could stop and get a refill. I did the same before aid station 2. That plan worked out pretty well and only cost me a bit of time at each stop. All of the other guys had folks at the aid stations handing them bottles so they would just ride on through and I would have to catch up to them.
I was pumped to see on Star gap that I was able to catch and ride away from everyone in my group. I guess all those hours at World Camp Crossfit, massages from WilPower Massage Therapy, Yoga with my wife and time on bike were paying off. Before we reached Curtis Creek climb, a 6 mile gravel road grunt, myself and few others were able to real in 2 more riders that had stuck with the Jeremiah, Thomas and Sam till then. We started Curtis Creek in a group of 5 with each of us taking turns setting the pace. At some point about a mile or two in I realized that we were forming a small gap and a couple guys had fallen off. I told Adam and another rider that we should surge and put a bigger gap then sit back in. They said no way. I gave it a go and shifted into my big ring, got on top of the gear and started spinning away. Once again all that hard work at World Camp, massages, Yoga and time on bike were paying off. I was riding away from the group.
At this point I was just focused on myself. Eat, drink, breath, listen to your body, keep a rhythm! Before I knew it I was cresting Curtis Creek. I came up on Sam Koerber on the climb up to the parkway right before Heartbreak Ridge. I was able to get away from him on the climb and hit the short hike a bike in front of him. Unfortunately, I was so cross eyed at the top that I thought I had taking a wrong turn down a step descent and after not seeing any ribbons for quite some time, decided to turn around and head back up the trail. At this point I was in 3rd and didn't want to go down the wrong trail for 30 mins. As I headed back up I ran into Sam which was a welcome sight. I jumped on his wheel which was probably the best case scenario for me. Sam is from Asheville and I would imagine has ridden this trail a few times and he was killing this off camber rooty descent. This is the same trail that Bill, Gene and Mitch had to ride after it rained on them. I just leaned back and held on. Thanks Sam! We rolled through the last aid station and started the gravel road ascent up to the Kitsuma. I was able to find my rhythm again and put a gap on Sam. At this point all that was going through my head was eat, drink, rhythm, eat, drink, rhythm then I looked at my watch and started calculating. I might be able to finish this in under 5 hours. So I dug deeper. I road the last singletrack up Kitsuma as fast if not faster then my first time up. I was deep into the pain cave at this point but it was worth it. I played it a bit safer on the second descent of Kitsuma. No crashes that this time. I hit the pavement and the race was on. I ended up finishing at 4:58 which was a 25 minute improvement from my previous best. This time was good enough for 3rd. Jeremiah Bishop finished at 4:33 and Thomas Turner at 4:37 to crush the previous course record of 4:50.
There are lots of I could have statements that I thought about in my mind and things that I will do differently next time but I am tickled with my time.
Here I am on the podium.
ORAMM 2012 Interview with open men third to fifth
Thanks to everyone at BlueRidge Adventures for putting on an outstanding event. Your volunteers in the aid stations are second to none. The beer and food at the finish line were absolutely amazing and having the river right there to ice down after the event is just outstanding. We will be back again and again.
Here is a link to photos from Off The Road Photos
