Oh, Cohutta!
The adventure started Friday morning around 9:30 as I went to pick up Matt for the drive to Tennessee. It is a 9 hour drive to Cleveland, TN and the Ocoee Whitewater Rafting Center. Little did we know it's claim to fame is as the site of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic whitewater rafting competition. Seems like there ought to be a rule about if a state is going to host the Olympics, shouldn't all the events be in that state?
This is a picture of the 'run' for the rafting. Obviously no water is in the river at this point. It is part of the TVA system and that is how they were able to control it for the Olympics. The rocks along the banks were all cemented into place and they had run communications and power tunnels/conduits along the banks in the rocks. I don't recall watching it, but I am pretty sure you would not have been able to see them they disquised them so well in the rocks.
Back to the adventure, we got registered and ate some pasta and salad that they had at registration, thinking there were not many other options in the neighborhood (got lucky on that decision). We headed off to our hotel as the sun was beginning to fade. It was up a road called Greasy Creek Road - thank God it wasn't dark yet! We found the Cherokee Creek Inn with a little bit of luck. Thank goodness we chose the FJ for our cruising vehicle - the road to the Inn and then up to our room was very steep, an indication of things to come. We settled into our lovely room:
I think I heard dueling banjos in the background. It was very isolated and quiet, we were the only ones staying there. We settled in for what was a restless night of sleep for me.
We had a 7am start time so we ate what breakfast we had in our room, clif bar/breakfast bars to get a little bit of fuel in the tank. We also knew it was going to be chilly at the start, but warm at the end so dressing was a bit problematic, but we dealt with it.
Did I mention we saw Tinker at the registration? Then the next morning, Chris Eatough and a couple of his boys, Mark Hendershot, a couple of Tinkers boys. Things were shaping up to be very exciting at the front of the race. The start was pretty tame - nobody did anything crazy on the rollout and the speed did not turn up until the singletrack was reached. The course had about 30-40 miles of singletrack and the balance was mostly fire roads. The tough part about this course was you were either going up, or going down, to the tune of 12,700 feet of climbing according to my data. The uphills were tough, but not impossible by any means. The downhills were a bit frightening. I can't count the number of times I was in a two wheel drift through corners basically praying that 1. a car was not coming the other way 2. I was going to be able to grab enough traction to avoid sliding off the road. I HATE DESCENDING ON GRAVEL ROADS!!
As far as my race, my nutrition was good and I avoided getting caught up in an overly hard effort at the start. My goal was 8:30 and I finished in 8:32. Along the way I stayed with my plan of not burying myself in the power department and was reasonably comfortable until the last 10 miles. Then my legs threatened to cramp up, but never actually locked up on me. I forgot to mention that at mile 13 I smacked my right knee on my crown and now it looks like I have two right knees. Fortunately I kept pedaling so it wouldn't have time to get stiff and I wouldn't have time to think about how much it was hurting.
I had the privelege of riding with Danielle Musto for a bit along the way which was nice. She was in a bit of a tussle for the women's crown, so I tried to help her out. I helped out by giving her my water bottle so she would not have to stop at the last aid station, but I almost really hurt her when she was on my wheel and I almost put us over the edge on a descent - I don't think she likes to descend on gravel roads any more than I do. She ended up beating the second place woman in a sprint - after 100 miles of riding!!
After the race, Matt and I drove all the way back to Toledo - whooo! It was nice to be in my own bed last night - but I still woke up at 6:30 ;-( Did manage an afternoon nap though!
I am hoping my knee is healthy enought to ride tomorrow - we shall see!
This is a picture of the 'run' for the rafting. Obviously no water is in the river at this point. It is part of the TVA system and that is how they were able to control it for the Olympics. The rocks along the banks were all cemented into place and they had run communications and power tunnels/conduits along the banks in the rocks. I don't recall watching it, but I am pretty sure you would not have been able to see them they disquised them so well in the rocks.
Back to the adventure, we got registered and ate some pasta and salad that they had at registration, thinking there were not many other options in the neighborhood (got lucky on that decision). We headed off to our hotel as the sun was beginning to fade. It was up a road called Greasy Creek Road - thank God it wasn't dark yet! We found the Cherokee Creek Inn with a little bit of luck. Thank goodness we chose the FJ for our cruising vehicle - the road to the Inn and then up to our room was very steep, an indication of things to come. We settled into our lovely room:
I think I heard dueling banjos in the background. It was very isolated and quiet, we were the only ones staying there. We settled in for what was a restless night of sleep for me.
We had a 7am start time so we ate what breakfast we had in our room, clif bar/breakfast bars to get a little bit of fuel in the tank. We also knew it was going to be chilly at the start, but warm at the end so dressing was a bit problematic, but we dealt with it.
Did I mention we saw Tinker at the registration? Then the next morning, Chris Eatough and a couple of his boys, Mark Hendershot, a couple of Tinkers boys. Things were shaping up to be very exciting at the front of the race. The start was pretty tame - nobody did anything crazy on the rollout and the speed did not turn up until the singletrack was reached. The course had about 30-40 miles of singletrack and the balance was mostly fire roads. The tough part about this course was you were either going up, or going down, to the tune of 12,700 feet of climbing according to my data. The uphills were tough, but not impossible by any means. The downhills were a bit frightening. I can't count the number of times I was in a two wheel drift through corners basically praying that 1. a car was not coming the other way 2. I was going to be able to grab enough traction to avoid sliding off the road. I HATE DESCENDING ON GRAVEL ROADS!!
As far as my race, my nutrition was good and I avoided getting caught up in an overly hard effort at the start. My goal was 8:30 and I finished in 8:32. Along the way I stayed with my plan of not burying myself in the power department and was reasonably comfortable until the last 10 miles. Then my legs threatened to cramp up, but never actually locked up on me. I forgot to mention that at mile 13 I smacked my right knee on my crown and now it looks like I have two right knees. Fortunately I kept pedaling so it wouldn't have time to get stiff and I wouldn't have time to think about how much it was hurting.
I had the privelege of riding with Danielle Musto for a bit along the way which was nice. She was in a bit of a tussle for the women's crown, so I tried to help her out. I helped out by giving her my water bottle so she would not have to stop at the last aid station, but I almost really hurt her when she was on my wheel and I almost put us over the edge on a descent - I don't think she likes to descend on gravel roads any more than I do. She ended up beating the second place woman in a sprint - after 100 miles of riding!!
After the race, Matt and I drove all the way back to Toledo - whooo! It was nice to be in my own bed last night - but I still woke up at 6:30 ;-( Did manage an afternoon nap though!
I am hoping my knee is healthy enought to ride tomorrow - we shall see!
posted by ask at
2:08 PM
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