Shenandoah Mountain 100

The SM100 is right up there at the top of the list on the NUE calendar when it comes to that sketchy, rocky, east coast style singletrack trail which is kinda like my kryptonite. But, on the plus side, the SM100 also has tons of Herriman-friendly fireroad climbs, so I was still hopeful to be competitive. The race started out great and I made it over the first big climb of the day with no issues. Starting out on the second big climb of the day (mile 12) it was the top three masters in the NUE series (Doug Andrews, Roger Masse, and myself) riding wheel to wheel on the trail. I was the first to drop off as I struggled to keep the bike on the trail in the steep rocky singletrack. I would catch back up to Roger with a flat tire at about mile 20. On the next road I saw a little black bear run across the road about a hundred feet in front of me. That was pretty cool. From there on Roger and I swapped spots several more times as he flatted a second timeand would catch back up in the technical trail. The race seemed to pass by very quickly for me and was mostly uneventful from there until I happened across my good buddy Mike Simonson who'd had a wicked crash. Mike was with medical aid crew and was waiting for a four-wheeler to get him out of the woods. He gave me a message to relay to Michelle that he was just scraped and banged up (I think he was lying to me). It was a scary moment for sure and put things into a different perspective. I finished up the race and then discovered Mike had been air-lifted out. Yikes! Michelle and I packed things up and drove the 60 miles to join Mike in the ER. I missed being able to chat with friends after the race but obviously there are some things that are more important.

2011 Hundo #43 confirmation photo!!  :-)