Jeff's Sporting Life: Tahoe Trail 100km MTB XC Marathon Race 2014 @ Northstar California, USA

Saturday July 19th, I finished 300th out of 355 in Open Men and Master Men 30 to 39 I was 82nd out of 88, Results. It took me 7hrs 4mins. It was two laps long and a total of 100 km's long. My first lap took me 3hrs 20mins and my second lap took me 3hrs 44mins. The total Elevation gain was 8,484 feet. My average heart rate was 164 bpm and max was 191 bpm. The race was really close to Lake Tahoe. This was a huge race as it saw racers from all over USA including California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Texas, Oregon, New York, Washington, Virginia, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arizona, North Carolina and even New Zealand & Mexico. I was the only Canadian to (carry the weight of a nation on my shoulders LOL) There were a lot of racers that were pro or semi pro. I had trained my but off for this race as it was my A race of the year including riding over 2,000km's in the past four month's. I would for sure say that this was my peak performance of the season. There was two category three climbs in this race and when I asked if it was compared to tour of California cat three climbs I was told yes. The start of the race was a over 7km climb that saw us climb over 1,000 feet right out of the gate a (Cat 3 climb not including the other two). The race starts 6,000 feet above sea level and climbs to over 7,300 feet, a far cry from the 2,000 feet in Edmonton. This was a climbers course as some of them seemed like they went for ever. This was a qualifier for Leadville Colorado 160km race, I was not focused on qualifying, instead I just wanted to finish and in doing so I got a medal that says I was a finisher, and as the guy put the medal on my neck I fell over the barricade because I was so sore. I cramped up a bit at the 70km mark but I pressed on and it was at that point that the race became 100% mental as your body is saying stop. There was a time cut of eight hours to complete the race. The race had about 45% single track and then it used the fire roads for the climbs and a few down hills.

My friend Martin P and I drove down to the race (23 hours over two days) as it was a road trip and vacation. The temperature was 31 deg C and it added to a already hard day. A huge thanks to all the volunteers and Lifetime Athletic Events for putting on the race.