Stottlemeyer 60 miler 2012

When I raced the Stottlemeyer 60 miler last year, it was the furthest I had ever ridden a mountain bike at that time.  One year later and I was back out at Port Gamble for the 2012 edition of the race.  After a wonderful two week streak of sunshine in the PNW, the trails were in tip-top shape, rich with hero-dirt and blue grooves.  The course route was similar to last year, but with some nice little tweaks:  the race now finished back at the start/parking area, the longest singletrack climb was taken out for a faster feel, and some new sections of trail replaced the longest fireroad segment of last year's course.  All in all, the race was said to be 6 miles longer this year, closer to an even 60 miles.

Photo credit:  Tad Sooter / Kitsap Sun

Despite the additional mileage and singletrack, finishing times seemed faster on average this year.  Garett Heitman and I took the lead from the beginning and cruised for the first 3 of 4 laps.  Both of us love riding rooty, twisty, tight trails, so we had a lot of fun.  I grew up riding technical trails like this, but it isn't often that I get to race on them.  At the end of the third lap, Garett decided to sit up and take the fourth lap a little easier.  I was still feeling pretty fresh, so I decided to attack the last lap like it was an olympic-length XC race.  Looking back at my Garmin, my last lap did end up being my fastest, at around 1 hour and 1 minute!  Whitney made her first 60 mile mtb race look easy and finished in just over 6 hours.  All those Trailhead classes she has been doing have really paid off!

Once again, this years Stottlemeyer was a super fun race.  Kevin Reinkensmeyer and the rest of the NW Epic Series crew put together a killer race course and the number of friendly volunteers was awe-inspiring.  Super helpful and enthusiastic course marshalls and feed zone staff.  Speaking of feed zones, they were well stocked with food and drinks and I was able to quickly top-off my bottles with Clif Electrolyte mix and get rolling again.

If you have not checked out the NW Epic Series events yet, you should.  I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking for longer endurance/marathon style races on fun trails.

Kitsap Sun article: here