The route, rules, description, etc are posted here: http://www.singletracksamurai.com/events/huracan-300/ (please see my previous posts for more detail about the originality, adventure, etc on the singletrack samurai creations!)
2014 bike/gear used: Niner EMD (XS), Stages Power Crank, Stans ZTR Crest, Renegade Control 1.95 tires, SID fork. Bikepacks by Bolder Bikepacking Gear, and the Mountain Feedbag/Gas Tank by Revalate.
Finish Time: 37:19, improved my PR over last year's win by 4 hrs on a 35 mile longer course, establishing a New Women's Route Record!! (http://www.bikepacking.net/ultra-records/ )
word up to some peeps:
Joe Fotia (Frankford Bikes Team) and Henry Spreng (Dirty Harry's Team) for helping me get tires in crunch time!!
of course, PMO for all the help with EVERYTHING all year long.
TJ Platt(TOP Gear)-fork rebuild.
and last and least....my favorite guy JP. For going on the trips with me and always supporting the things I want to do on my own, even things that I shouldn't, like making bike part choices :-)
Full Field Results: (copied facebook post)
SingleTrack Samurai Productions-April 1
Without Further Ado Here are the OFFICIAL RESULTS for the 2014 HuRaCaN 300.
Huge congratulations to all the riders that Lined up and gave the route a go. It is by far the Hardest cycling challenge in the state, and just lining up and giving it your effort is an amazing feat in its own right.
Lots of records were set this year, and these folks definitely deserve the recognition they dutifully earned. I look forward to seeing some of you again next year and hopefully many more will come out and give the Challenge a GO,
Finishers:
1.Eddie O'Dea 1 day 3hours and 54 minutes.(New Overall Course Record)
2. Kevin Greten 1 day 4 hours and 30 minutes(New Masters Course record, masters is fastest over 50 years of age).
3. Mark Sackett 1 day 6 hours and 41 minutes ( new Single Speed course Record)
4. Tom Hoppe 1 day 8 hours and 23 minutes
5.Celso Rodrigues and A. Jeffrey Tomassetti 1 day 11 hours and 17 minutes
7. Jeff Mullen 1 day 12 hours and 52 minutes
8. Derek Tribble and Ian Ritner 1 day 13 hours and 9 minutes
10.Ruth Cunningham(Fastest Female, and new overall Ladies Record)1 day 13 hours and 19 minutes
11. Colin Campbell 1 day 17 hours and 40 minutes
12. Michael Hodges and Josselyn Guitierrez Schrunder(second fastest female, Youngest female/rider finisher of the event) 1 day 22 hours and 15 minutes
14. Brett Davidson and Charles Dowman 3 days 9 hours and 44 minutes
16. William Bailey 3 days 10 hours and 7 minutes (New Lantern Rouge Course Record)
DNS:
Mark Thomson
Finished But not Scored:
Tony Buchman
Ed McCalley
Michael fitzegerald
DNF:
Craig Bozzy
Greg Fredrickson
Seth Jacoby
Michael Boyco
Bryan Frantz
Chad Williams
Chris Tavel
Clay Parks
Jason Murrell
Jason Spruill
Jerry Metz
John MCClure
John Moorehouse
justin pokrivka
mark baldwin
mike pierce
paul harrison
rob williams
scott Grinwis
The creator, Karlos, is known for mixing things up somehow on every run of his FL routes. This year it was to add 35 miles to the route, to a total 315 miles, and to require a few checkpoint photos (for route accuracy, safety, and fun) for a legitimate finish time. The photo checkpoints served their purpose well for the things Karlos wanted to keep an eye on, but on another page, they also kind of take away a portion of strategy and competition if you are there for those. Basically, the checks were at 4 evenly spaced out convenience stores along the way. Realistically, to save time, since you need to stop at those 4 and had gps points for them, there was no reason for anyone to really do any other resource research at all on this route, and could even out everyone's packing to be very similar then. If you had to stop at those 4 evenly spaced locations anyway, then you would just use them for anything else you needed or a break, etc. This creates kind of the 'adventure race' mentality of just racing to each stop, catching up/seeing people, more grouping up, etc. It takes away the strategy of using the best placed resources for yourself vs what you would choose to carry, and it also makes it highly likely that you will see more people when stopping for a bit, which in some cases you may want to avoid!! lol....
In any case, I did just that, used the 4 checkpoints as my only stops...sometimes a little longer than I intended, and yes, coming across more people on route than I may have otherwise. Not entirely a bad thing, but again, the solo adventure (let alone with the growing field size making you have more run ins) is somewhat lost for all but a few.
I was really sad the usual FL bikepack girls, Lynne and Chris, had decided not to attend this year. They are really nice to ride with, and tough competition as they really scout out the course ahead of time and always seem to be switching up their strategies. Instead, there was only one other girl entered, Josselynn, as noted in the pre-race interview in Bikepackers Magazine. She is more at the height of her XC racing, & even though I was possibly predicted to win for the women for this year, I didn't doubt for a second that she would run a strong attempt against my ultra pace and experience. Which she certainly did, although we didn't see each other at all!
The start is again (and probably will remain) at Santos Campground. Another twist by the Samurai was you could pick to race/ride CW or CCW. CCW seemed to prevail for a lot of reasons with most of the crowd, although timing was all or nothing, regardless of direction. The camp is logistically a great spot, it makes the route easier in terms of resources vs the older start in Clermont. I wouldn't choose the easier location, but in terms of having more people realistically finish ongoing, this is a good move. (You can see in the finish list above, there is still quite a bit of DNF. I in fact thrive in doing things that I know most of the pack won't finish for one reason or another, but for the sake of a long running, fun type of event, Karlos is really working hard on making adjustments so the DNF bucket should get a little shorter over time.) The campground owner though, unfortunately, I foresee beginning to up the camp price each year for us, even if you are parking in the field....she doesn't really seem to understand what we are even doing, but initially our parking had been free and now $13/night. I see it soon being the full camp site cost, which is $23/night for each night you are out on course, plus before and after. Still a cheaper option than a hotel....
and a safer place to leave your car than other options.
Starting CCW, you are in a group in the singletrack for 25+ miles. That has it's ups and downs, literally. It took me a bit to get out of the crowd, but it seems I exited the singletrack only 4th or so due to navigating better once I was by myself. I didn't realize this until both two FL flying flatlanders passed me a bit later due to them both being in groups that made some wrong turns, etc.....they usually are way ahead of me right from the start, esp if we start on some road!
So, long story short version.(sorry I am going to leave out a lot of names, etc). I had spread news of the route to a few packers I knew and they attended. (I heard they didn't really like the FL terrain quite as much as I always have!) I never thought of it really, but realize afterwards the reason I knew them is because we met on previous routes as we toggled back and forth. So, unintentionally, it ends up by late evening the 3 of us end up at the same checkpoint from our own paces. We decide to start the night together which was nice to have company for a bit through Apopka Preserve. At this point, I had no idea how Josselynn was doing, I could only assume she was right on my tail, so as usual just kept moving forward the best I could.
I did take one odd pause from my usual routine. I prefer to NOT use or rely on my phone at all and keep it off and tucked away. I don't need external motivation from texts or facebook, nor do I ever feel the need to give anyone a constant update as to what I am doing out there! The SPOT 911 is programmed with my emergency info if needed. So, the pause I take is to actually pull out my phone during a break. I realize Justin is on the route, doing his own thing, but I should have seen him by now and haven't. I ask a few people I come across, no one has seen him. This worries me as Justin comes along on these trips sometimes but isn't into the racing or staying up all night so he's just riding it out without really even listening to ANY of the route info I told him, looking at a map, or the cue cards I made for him. He chose to do a 2 hour late start in the AM, was going to ride to dark and camp/sleep. If he didn't catch up to me that evening for a quick check in, then I would see him by the next day before I finish so we would be back to the car at least maybe within a few hours of each other in order to get our plan ready for driving out of FL. I text him and get a reply that by 30 miles he just wasn't having a good time at all. He found a hotel with a bar and was hanging out for the night!!! lol....the next morning he just turned around and went back to the car. I was a little sad he was having such a crappy time, I was actually having a blast, sore seat and all!! Oh well, at least he gets a second ride back through some nice trails and we have the campsite he can hang out at. With beer.
Off and on, after the sun rises I'm back on my own for a bit but actually end up seeing quite a few peeps as we go back and forth through different sections. I work through the dark colored creepy river crossing, some churned up sand roads, the Seminole Forest gravel, up the Maggie Jones sand pit stutter bumped road in the blazing sun, the final checkpoint stop, the long Paisley MTB Trail, trudge the Billy Bay Wilderness (another FL sand pit that I love :-)), and into the miles of BIG roller clay roads that lead us through the Ocala National Forest. I am super stoked to exit here well before dark!!! The home stretch is close now, a little alternating between pavement and some mooshy sand, the cute little Marshall Swamp zig zag path. I have a little bit of a frustrating moment as I had a drafter for a bit, then I toggle with some guys who are taking turns drafting each other. I mean, it's a SOLO 'race', although drafting is allowed in this one, but typically is not & ethically in bikepacking, pure racers just don't do it and to do it and take a higher finish time than anyone actually SOLO is really discouraging, esp when it's drafting men placing above solo women. As I get to the finish, it starts to hit me not for the first time, just how many guys out here are not as independently solo as I always try to be, and I think really hard about if I want to ever do another route or not. This is my 18th solo bikepack 'race', I've done about as good as I am going to ever do in a pure style, and the group mentality in a formal route isn't for me. If I want to do a group ride, I'll just go on a group ride, no need to formally enter a contest to have my name appear on a list or spend $1000 traveling with gear to do so.....
A little note on using your GPS:
During the first day, 3 different men stopped me and handed me their GPS with statements like 'it's not showing the route', 'what does this button do'. First, if you are going to head out here learn your GPS!! Not by looking at it a few times while walking around your yard, but USING it! Organizers are sometimes lingering around in case there is safety trouble, but not knowing your navigation tool is making a chance for more issues to arise that effect not just you but others on the course as well.
For instance, me having to stop to help these folks took ~1 hour of my ride time. That means I am now that far behind the areas I had determined I felt ok heading into at night, and now I don't know exactly where I will be at those certain times. Since I am a girl alone, this is something I try plan to every moment or landmark, as cell phones are not always reliable in these areas.
And for myself, I actually had a GPS glitch as well, something I thought I had thoroughly worked out on the track log display but then it happened it didn't display correctly at the exact zoom level I needed in some almost overlapping singletrack. I knew right away what the issue was, but was very frustrated as I adjusted it several times and it still wasn't working at that zoom level. This made me think I got all mixed up in the trails for a bit, but I didn't. (I double checked the track log after the race to be sure!!) An experienced rider came by. When I told him 'help I can't get this right', he reminded me 'it's your gps, not mine. good luck'. Thanks for that tip!! I sat along the trail until I got it figured out. I will now NEVER forget that adjustment again :-)
I was happy to finish so much earlier than last year, with quite a bit of daylight left even! The bike shop located right at the camp was still open and as that is the finish line, they greet you when you come in and hand you a complementary beer :-) Since the end of these is really so anti-climatic, esp if you finish during the night, it's sometimes a weird feeling to actually see people that knew wth you were doing out there for so long & why you look like a complete dirtbag!! Thanks very much, I don't drink much but that beer was awesome :-)
A few minutes after Justin comes looking for me. He is well rested and has a boatload of food waiting for me to choose from, which was good because all night I wake up every few hours looking for more! We spent the rainy night camped out, then eagerly got on the road headed north to a cabin up in Pisgah with most members of the PMO Bike team. The guys were having a long weekend of training rides in some weather a little nicer than up in WV/PA so that kept Justin busy while I got to just do some easy rides on my own, checked out an afternoon's worth of miles on the Mountain to Sea trail, and basically chilled out!!
Along the way to Pisgah, we did stop and take in the views, the roaring waterfall noise, and some hill hiking at the Talluleuh Gorge in GA. Really pretty place and a nice reminder that I was going to be sore for a bit yet!
