On Sunday July 24th, I competed in the Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell (ORAMM) mountain bike race. The race is 66 miles long and has 11,000 feet of climbing. It took me 12 hours and 46 minutes. ORAMM results are in, and they have some photos too.
The Long Story
This year I have been training to ride this race. I am more of a trail rider, and not really an endurance racer, so training was in order. To train for this event, we had to travel to the town of Old Fort, NC to actually ride the trail. Here in Charlotte, NC we have no hills of any kind that would serve as a training ground. The first time we traveled to Old Fort, I had no idea what I was in for. We did the first two stages and it took four hours. The climbing was crazy hard compared to what I was used to around here in Charlotte. Once we got that done, the next time we traveled to Old Fort, we would start at the bottom of Curtis Creek. Wow! I had no idea how hard that could be. Curtis Creek was a 9.5 mile climb. There is no down at all. From the bottom of Curtis Creek all the way to the Parkway. That proved to be another hard day, and another 4 hours. At this point, we have completed all of the race, just not all at once. In my head, I was thinking 9 hours or so should be ok.
The Bad News
Now that we had all of the trail ridden, we decided to do an 80% ride. We would do the first part of the race, and then go up Curtis Creek. This would give us a taste of how the race would feel after riding hard, and then attempting Curtis Creek. Unfortunately I had an accident on Kitsuma. while riding slow, I lost my balance, and fell over the side. It would be considered a bad fall. I fell approximately 10 feet down the side, and in the process, I injured my legs. My left shin smacked against the rocky side, and my right leg suffered the most injury. I am not certain what happened to my right leg, but I thought at the time it was a charlie horse, or some tree hit my leg hard. I climbed back up the hill and then walked for a while to try and shake it off. I continued the ride and made it down Kitsuma, and then a mile or two up Curtis Creek, I had to walk. I ended up walking about 6 miles that day, and my leg got worse. At about the 8 mile mark on Curtis Creek, I turned back, and rode to the car. At the time I didn’t know how bad the injury was, but the it seemed to be getting more painful.
Pain
Driving home from that ride was very painful. I couldn’t really push the gas pedal, so cruise control was my friend. When I got home, my wife had to help me out of the car, and for the next few days, I was icing my leg, and sitting in bed. This happened the last week of May, and the race was July 24th. I figured I had time to recover. We went to the beach the first week of June, and I spent most of my time sitting on the couch with ice on my leg. Turns out my leg continued to hurt up until two weeks before the race. I believe that my leg hyper extended and hurt all the tendons. That is what took so long to heal.
Decisions
Because of the pain, I was ready to sell my entry to the race. As my friends looked for places to stay in Black Mountain for the race, I was searching to sell my entry. One weekend in July, I decided to try a long ride. I went to Sherman Branch, and attempted 3 laps. I felt that if I could do that, I could possibly try ORAMM. That day was a good day, and I easily did three laps. I did a 1:07, 1:09 and a 1:13 lap. I felt that was pretty good and that I could be back in shape for the race. I talked with Jason Epperly and we came up with a plan. Don’t leave each other, and finish the race together. That was the decision.
Race Day
We stayed the night in Black Mountain, NC and arrived at the race start about an hour early. Our plan was hatched to take it easy up Kitsuma (walk) and go slow to save ourselves for Curtis Creek. We succeeded in our plan. The problem was that we ended up walking a lot on Curtis Creek. For me that mean I got blisters on my feet, and my bottom was completely chaffed. At the top of Curtis Creek, we experienced rain. A complete downpour started, and we had to ride down in the rain. We went from hot to cold in a few minutes. My teeth were chattering. We made it down, and then we made it up the next climb and down to checkpoint 5. At this point I was done. Mile 52 was good enough for me. I had major blisters and my rear was sore. when we got to the checkpoint I got to see my wife Jackie again! She would not let me quit. So, I trudged on. All the while the race sweepers were right on my tail. It seems that Jason and I were dead last. We had to climb Kitsuma again, and come down the technical singletrack again, this time with reduced light, and it was muddy from the rain. I made it down, and we finished the race. I can’t believe we did it, and we finished together. Almost 13 hours on a bike. It was painful, and I don’t think I will attempt the race again. Our friend Mark finished the race in 5th place for Single speed in 6:15, and our other friend Brett finished in a little over 7 hours. Our other friend Jeff finished in 9 hours. Craig and Jana finished in a little over 11 hours.
It was a hard day, but I am glad I finished. Not sure what the next challenge will be, but l will start riding again soon when my bottom heals 
