Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic: The Thank-You Post

I have to thank SO MANY people for getting me to and through these seven days of racing and Pennsyltucky adventure.

Bob Nunnink, my patient and loyal boyfriend, for first giving me the idea to actually sign up for this race months ago, and for helping me think through details and logistics of the race, as well as planning for possible mechanicals,  and identifying what tools and pieces of equipment to bring on the trail and put on the bike.  He also brought me to and from camp, and drove seven hours round trip after a long day at work to bring my teammate LiLynn's bike after Katie's hardtail beat up my body on the rocks, and my 26-inch bike needed work.  He earned me a free and badly needed massage by giving Buck a hand and doing a couple favors (which he would have done anyway just because he's Bob and he's like that). And he believed that I could do it even when I questioned myself.  He also helped a couple of other racers while he was on site.

Margaret Thompson, my teammate and coach, for helping me make the most of the extremely limited time I had to get ready for this, while working around my full-time job, for advising me on off-road racing logistics and for also assuring me that I could physically and technically handle this race-since I had doubts galore.

The Corning/NoTubes Race Team for all of their continued support and for helping me with a "scholarship" to cover part of the cost of the race.  I felt proud to represent Corning at this race!

Katie Nunnink, Bob's 15-year-old daughter, for lending me her KHS 650B hardtail.  Sure it's a frame size too big and the lack of rear suspension felt pretty tough on my body in the rock gardens, but the bike certainly handled the rocks and roots of the first 3 stages with aplomb that belied its lower-end componentry and bargain price point.  It was my body that couldn't endure 7 days of rocks on a hardtail.

My amazing teammate LiLynn Graves for lending me her brand-new Gary Fisher Edition Trek Superfly full carbon, full-suspension race bike (the bike's name is Matilda).  Matilda safely escorted me through four stages of racing while eating up the rocks and smoothing the bumps along the way, suffering only a small sidewall cut to her rear tire on the first enduro segment of Day 4.

LiLynn gives me a good luck smooch before the Wildcat Epic 100. 

Justin and Jonas of Freeze Thaw Cycles, the race mechanics who helped diagnose my 26-inch bike's ailments, and who helped adjust LiLynn's bike to fit me slightly better.  They also tubelessly mounted a set of new tires in half the time it took to eat dinner.

Richie O'Neil and Cindy Koziatek of Stan's NoTubes and all of the Stan's NoTubes Elite Women who raced Trans-Sylvania:  Amanda Carey, Sarah Kaufmann, Vicki Barclay and Sue Haywood.  Everyone showed real friendliness and encouragement and it seemed like almost every day Sue asked me at dinner, "How did it go today?"  Richie helped set up the Contour camera for Stage 4 and advised me on tire pressure.  He also came to the rescue with a pair of Kenda Kommandos when Matilda needed sidewall protection from the Pennsylvania rocks and cheered me on through the checkpoints.  

Bruce Dickman of ProGold Lubricants.  I've been using ProGold, especially ProLink, to lube my chain for years, but Bruce supplied me with a whole suite of new products by way of introduction:  BikeWash, ProTowels, Foaming Citrus Degreaser, Blast Off Degreaser, more ProLink and ProLink Extreme.  For one, I found it a HUGE relief using the BikeWash to blast off Stage 3's mud and grit from Katie's bike.  Tired after that long wet day of racing, spending extra time on my feet cleaning the bike was the last thing I wanted to do.  My chain hadn't accumulated half the crud I expected, because I'd used the ProGold Extreme on it that morning.  I even used the BikeWash to clean my mountain bike shoes-I'd used an older, dark-colored pair because of the mud, and even right now still look cleaner and newer than they have in a long time.  Later I polished both Katie's and LiLynn's bikes with BikeShine before returning them to their owners.



Dicky and [Bruce] Dickman, hamming it up.

Racers queuing up at the PROGOLD bike wash.

Buck Reich the massage therapist, who worked on my neck, hamstrings, and lower back after the first three days tied me up in knots, and who tuned me up more later in the race when the soreness in my quads peaked to a level that I'd before never experienced in my life.

Dr. Todd, the race medical director, for taking care of my hands.  They had blistered and split open after three days of rattling over the rocks on Katie's bike with less-than-ideal grips.  So for the last few stages Dr. Todd taped over the blisters each morning.  They still hurt and I had to clean dirt and sweat out of them every day but at least they didn't get any worse.


Abe Landes and A.E. Landes Photography for the wonderful imagery each stage.  Abe, you made everybody look great and captured the adventure for us to remember.

Kenda Tires, for providing the Kommandos that fended off further sidewall cuts and kept me rolling through the last four stages of the race. 

All the Eagle Lodge residents, but ESPECIALLY the occupants of Lower Eagle. The lodge may have been full but never felt crowded.  We had Kaarin and Lawrence, Chris and Libbey and their son, Alex and Alan, John, Madonna,  Matt, Anthony and their sidekick Christian (hey guys thanks for reminding me of my brothers and for the comic relief).  Matt:  thanks for lending me the Podium Legs.  Those things MAY be "like crack" as Anthony said (how WOULD you know, Anthony?).  Kaarin and Lawrence, and Chris and Libbey:  two duo teams who dueled all week long but did nothing but support each other on and off the bike.  Alan Avis:  the one other mountain biker I met besides myself who didn't drink beer:  thanks for sharing your drink of choice and your views on the deep philosophical question, "can you be a mountain biker if you don't drink beer?"
People shared everything with each other.  Matt shared his Podium Legs.  Kaarin borrowed my pressure gauge (and my Pocket Rocket pump once on the trail when she couldn't get her own pump off her bike).  I lent Matt a spare CO2 valve and some of my DZNutz Bliss For Her chamois cream.  [I warned him it was GIRL chamois cream but he claimed to like it better than men's DZNuts and said he wasn't going to buy the men's stuff anymore.]  Everyone shared everything:  beer, cookies, crackers, cheese, chips.   I was offered a spare shock and an extra derailleur hanger.  I shared NUUN tablets and occasionally played barista for people with my Tonx coffee travel kit. 
Yes, all you Eagle Lodgers made it great.  Thanks for the memories, everybody.  If I forgot any names here, please FRIEND ME ON FACEBOOK and then yell at me when you read this and I will of course put you back in.  I remember so much of this great experience but as time goes by some of the details fade. So help me get the details!  Thanks, ALL OF YOU.

Click the link for more straight up race info, stage and GC results, and videos from the Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic.

Here is some good reading below about TSE:  blogs from other racers.  I will keep adding to this as I find more around the web.



Sonya Looney, "The Far Ride"
http://bicycling.com/blogs/thefarride/2013/06/13/remembering-the-rocks/#.Ubo9rwC3UQE.facebook

Brian Matter, "B-Matter"

http://b-matter.blogspot.com/2013/05/transylvania-epic-old-schoool-mtbn.html

"Bad Idea Racing" where Dicky explains what Mike and Ray meant by "not screwing around too much" on Day Seven of TSE:
http://teamdicky.blogspot.com/2013/06/2013-trans-sylania-epic-stage-seven.html



 



Rolling out from camp one last time on Day Seven.