Boggs (Surrogate) 8 Hour Race - Solo

[Jennifer Hibbitts]

What a race! This year's Boggs race was not held at Bogg's Mountain as the area was decimated by fires last November, 2015, but instead was held at Camp Wente in Willits. I was skeptical about the new venue and course, but all doubts were quickly dismissed.

Camp Wente is a boy scout camp and has fun activities for non-racers and racers -a pristine lake, kayaking, archery, climbing wall, pump track and great camp sites w running water and showers. They even offer day camp for the kiddos on race day!!

We arrived at Camp Wente on Friday, the day before the race, later than hoped and by the time we set up camp it was too late to get in a pre-ride of the new course. In pre-race emails from Bike Monkey, we'd been told a lap was approx. 10 miles, with 1,100' of climbing. The evening before the race I'd heard rumblings at registration that the course was shortened to approx. 8-9 miles.

It was 100 degrees on Friday in Willits. Oh boy, was it going to be a scorcher for the race on Saturday? I don't fare well in big heat.

Having not pre-ridden the course, and not exactly sure how long each lap was going to be, I went into the race not having a set # of laps in my mind that I was focused on achieving. My #1 goal of the day was to ride 8 hours with my stomach being ok. I'd raced Boggs the previous year and by hour 5 my stomach was shut down, nauseous, felt like crap and I didn't want to eat or drink anything. I managed to ride the 8 hours last year, but those final 3 hours were hell on wheels. The same stomach issue plagued me the rest of the season last year w any race over 5 hours. For Boggs this year, I was hoping to get on the podium, but really focused on keeping stomach working for 8 hours and feeling strong the whole way. 

Race started at 8am and it was overcast and not hot. Yes. There were hundreds of riders in various classes - Solo, Teams of 2, Teams of 3, etc. The first lap was awesome - the course was 75-80% single track - smooth, buff, swoopy, beautiful single track. The boy scouts and Bike Monkey did an amazing job of getting that trail in shape. It was perfect. And most all of the course was in the trees...so if it was to get hot, at least we wouldn't be frying in the sun. I kept my eye on my heart rate the first lap and got my pacing down so as not push into Zone 3...but it was hard..so tempting to let it rip on the single track course that first lap w fresh legs! My strategy was to fuel with what I train with and keep heat rate below 160, more in the 150 BPM zone the whole time. Too much time above Zone 3 and I'm burning matches. My fueling was Perpetuem in bottle on the bike ( I go w a "3 hour bottle" I mix w 6 scoops and change out bottle every 3 hours), water in Camelback (my goal was to drink a lot of water), ProBars in pieces as needed. I had salted potatoes and gels w caffeine at my staging area that I could grab if I wanted between laps. Also had Gu Roctane Electrolyte tablets w me ( I ended up having 1/hour in the last 4 hours of the race). . In my sophomore year of endurance MTB racing, I've realized its just an eating contest disguised as a bike race.

Each lap turned out to be 8.4 miles, w approx. 1,100' of climbing.  After a few laps it became apparent which riders were doing the race solo (slower and steady) and which were doing it as a team (faster and always passing!). Because the course was mostly single track, there was a lot of passing, moving over to let the faster, fresher team riders pass.  It got a bit old, but hey, we were all out there having fun and doing the best we could.

I was able to get in 7 laps for 60 miles and approx. 7,000' of climbing. I was 4th out of 12 in Women's Open 40+. Bummed I missed the podium, but so pleased that stomach stayed together and I was able ride steady for the full 8 hours. The weather cooperated and it was overcast and in the 70s all day.

One note to self - In addition to fueling on race day w the same things you train with, use the same gear on race day as what you train with. I made the mistake of using a newer pair of bike gloves for the race. They only had 1-2 rides on them. By 45 miles my palms were so bothered by a seam running across the glove I had to take them off. 2 laps w no gloves. My hands were hurting and I was so wishing I had my tried n true, broken in gloves.

Bike Monkey hopes to have the race at Camp Wente again next year. Be on the lookout for it! I highly recommend this one!

[Cathy]

Wow! Amazing job, Jennifer!