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Michaux Maximus |
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Written by Josh West
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Sunday, 11 May 2008 |
Michaux Maximus
Michaux State Forest
Bendersville, PA
5/4/2008
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Maximus is the first installment of the annual, three race, Michaux Endurance Series. This year the Maximus 50 mile loop was actually 44 miles. Not sure why the promoters trimmed it but I'm not complaining. Anyhow, Jason, Matt and myself left Phila on Saturday afternoon and arrived at the campground (meadow with lots of rocks at start/finish) at around 6PM.
The forecast for the weekend was rain and rain but the clouds held back all day for us and waited until Saturday night to let loose. The rain had well moved on by Sunday morning and sunshine was out. We finally lined up at around 9AM.
I raced the Vet class which had about 30 riders at the start. Vets were the third group to go off. The start was about 3/4 the pace of a standard length XC race. Within about 10 minutes, myself and one other rider pretty much separated ourselves from the Vet pack. He was a bit stronger than me as I struggled to keep his wheel for the first 10 miles at which point I deicided to back down, realizing I'd never keep the pace for another 34 miles.
Generally I was feeling great and just kept spinning at my own pace, picking it up a bit when I came upon riders from the two groups that started before the Vets. The first solid-food aid station was at around 20 miles and was at the top of a climb called Dead Women's Hollow. Crazy powerline that seems to go up and up forever. Last year I decided to pass on the support of this aid station because I felt fine. Big mistake.
This year I invested about a minute and lubed my chain, topped off my bottles, and grabbed a PB&J for the fire road descent. Eating and paying attention to course arrows at Michaux while cruising at around 20 mph is not easy. A few years ago I missed a turn and ended up at the bottom of the mountain - painful!
Anyhow, I was plenty refueled and still in second place. Basically from here it was just more of the same. Rocks, fire road, fresh soggy singletrack, and a steady climb up a runoff trail that was flowing well enough to keep a trout happy, etc.
Stopped again at mile 40 aid station and chowed half a banana on the go and pedaled smoothly for the remaining four miles or so. I rolled across the finish in second. My time was listed as 5:01:48, but the 4 minutes of "stagger" time was not subtracted.
Josh West
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; "click to enlarge")
