xc ruined my life

Whiskey Off-Road 35-proof!

I've been dreaming of going back to race the Whiskey 50 since I left April of last year. I’ve anticipated this reunion even more since moving away from Arizona and all my beloved friends & family in October. So finally, last week, it was time to trek down to the majestic Prescott national forest where the singletrack, locals and scenery suck you in like a black hole. Doug Johnson, Fernando Riveros Paez, Luis Mejia and myself managed to tetris 4 bikes, 4 bags & 4 bodies into my moderately sized sport utility vehicle and pointed it in a southwest direction. After venturing through Durango & TUBA CITY!, we arrived at the Ooley residence where Tina, Greg, Logan, Jonah & Maynard greeted us with open arms and top-notch hospitality….this was our headquarters for the whole weekend.

Early Friday morning, Tina & I got out for a little spin so I could revisit a couple techy sections of the race course that I had issues with last year. GOODNESS GRACIOUS how I miss riding with this amazing woman!!! We hit up the first part of the singletrack on the course and then cut over to Thumb Butte to ride creekside and then met up with some radical local Prescott ladies for a little loop on some of those 300-something trails and we were both satisfied with our pre-ride.

I got to be reunited with more of my AZ ladies during the pro-crit viewing Friday night…YAY LEAH & ANNA!!! Friday night was mellow and spent strategizing for bottle hand-offs and nutrition plans for the race in the morning. Ultimately, my plan was to take 3 bottles and have Doug meet me at the bottom of skull valley for a couple fresh ones & some moral support.

Saturday morning, Tina, Taylor & I rolled down to Whiskey Row and got all warmed up and lined up for the race and Doug held my spot while I peed a couple times before we went off. (Did I mention how awesome this guy is? He only gets better) BOOMBOOMBOOM………50 milers are off. It’s a 6 mile 1000+ft climb out of downtown Prescott to Camp Perlstein where the singletrack starts and Perlstein is notorious for a bottleneck of epic proportions. I managed to pedal slowly through most of the traffic jam and began climbing up the switchbacks SUPER STOKED…but the dude in front of me fumbled on some rocks and ended up dismounting and resulted in me having to do the same. So I get back on and go to get clipped in and my right shoe feels really weird and won’t get clipped in…DAMNIT. I pull over and check out my shoe and my pedal is attached to my shoe….it has fallen off the spindle. I can’t believe this is really happening because the past two races I’ve attempted have been my only DNF’s and they were due to mechanical issues. There was no way I could have fixed my pedal so I resolved to going back to town, acquiring some new pedals and just riding later. I managed to get a phone to call Doug to tell him not to go to Skull Valley and just meet me at the Shimano tent at the expo instead and I rolled and one-legged pedal my way back into town.

So I get back to Whiskey Row and Doug is in front of the Shimano tent and being the voice of reason that he is…he suggests that I just race the 25 instead. DUH. So Shimano gives me a brand new set of XTR pedals…I get switched over to the 25 mile race and have more than a half an hour to line up and wait for the 25 mile race to start….deja vu. BOOMBOOMBOOM….here we go again, climbing back out of Prescott. The bottleneck at Perlstein goes even more smoothly the second time around and I am SOOOOO happy to be riding my bike! I got to spend most of the climb up 48 and descent down 260 with Ernie and Comino….and no more mechanicals so far YAY! The climb out of Copper Canyon went faster than I remember it being and I’ve been able to clean almost everything, save a few water bars.

This year I didn’t get to turn left down to Skull Valley and instead made an immediate right-hand turn at the aid station making my way for Sierra Prieta. Ouchy. That last section of road is a grunt of a climb, even with the 25-proof course...and it is such a rad feeling when you reach the top with tons of people cheering and passing off PBRs and bottles of whiskey and you know you’re about to turn on to some more SWEET singletrack and it’s pretty much downhill the whole way home. At this point in the race, I had no idea where I was in the standings but I didn’t care cause I was riding my bike and I felt awesome. There’s one little punchy climb before Creekside called “cramp hill,” and I think my body sensed it was coming because my legs started to cramp up a little right before I started ascending it. I quickly downed the rest of my fluids and focused on my breathing & smooth/easy pedaling and I motored right up cramp hill. YEAH!

Creekside was my favorite….everytime there was a creek crossing, I attempted making the biggest splash into the water possible to get spectators wet and I managed to clean THE creek crossing that I fumbled over last year. YAHOO. A few more rocks and cheering, happy people and there was the pavement for a smokin’ fast descent back to the finish line. The whole time down the pavement, I kept asking myself, “is this really happening…am I gonna actually get to finish!?” I crossed the finish line with an official time of 2:58 or something…but more importantly I finished. I got all changed and hung around the finish for awhile to celebrate with friends and naturally checked Facebook on my phone to see what was happening on there and was surprised when Nicole posted something about me getting a podium spot at the race today…..WHAT??? I really didn’t expect to podium and I didn’t want to get my hopes up but I buzzed over to the results booth and sure enough, my 2:58 was good enough for 5^th place….which was just the icing on the cake to spending a fabulous weekend in one of my favorite towns with my favorite people ever.

So I started the 50…and finished the 25 and had a damn good time. Just like last year, I can’t wait to go back again…who knows what next year will have in store.

-Stephanie