Adventures of the Hullabaloo Crew

I was thinking about this as I was driving the kids around getting the last of the 'back to school' stuff today. Imagine that you LOVE ice cream. Wouldn't it be really fun to have all day access to Cold Stone Creamery? You would eat ice cream until your body hurt and then you might have a little more until you don't want ANY more. The SM100 is sort of like a Mountain Bike Binge day I guess. After you are done, you absolutely don't want any more. But then, like eating too much ice cream, quickly after your stomach settles down, you wouldn't mind having a bit more. The 2010 Shenandoah 100 brought a unique combination of camaraderie, pain, pleasure and everything in between. As a last minute entry, Chris Hayes decided to enter the race for the first time and we rode down together and ended up riding the first part of the course at the same pace. Chris had done a bit of reconnaissance on the course with his wife Sherry and knew more about the course than ...

The Shenandoah Mountain 100 could easily become my favorite race of the year. It is without a doubt the most epic race in the state of Virginia. The race begins and ends at the Stokesville campground, or west of what most people may be familiar with - Harrisonburg, VA. The race is in the George Washington National Forest. Approaching the campsite, it becomes clear that you're headed into a mountainous region. The race meanders through these mountains and contains 6 major climbs over 100 miles. If you look at the terrain profile below, you'll see that one of the minor climbs is 1000 ft and the biggest climb is slightly over 2000 ft for a total climbing elevation of 12,000 ft. The venue itself is superior to that of any race that I've participated in. The entire Stokesville campground is reserved for over 500 participants in the race. Dinner, which consists of pasta, bread, salad, drinks (including a limitless supply of beer) is served on Saturday evening and race ...

Shortly after purchasing a mountain bike and doing a couple of races down at Wakefield Park in Annandale, Joe Dombrowski convinced me to race the Shenandoah Mountain 100. This race, I suspect will be the hardest ride or race that I will have ever done. It is 100 miles, 12,000 ft of climbing on a combination of single track and fire roads. The top riders like Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Floyd Landis finish this in something more than 7 hours. It takes some 12 hours and many never get to the finish. Lance just won a like event in Colorado, the Leadville 100. He and Floyd were joking around that the Tour De France was just training for the Leadville 100. It would be cool to see Lance attend the SM100. In preperation for the SM100, Joe took me out to some of his favorite training grounds out west of Front Royal in the National Forest. He's done these rides solo before, but doesn't like to as there are trails on this route that take you 15 miles away from something ...