Jason Hilimire Racing Diary: Horrible 100: Long Version

My apologies for the lateness. I had to head out of town for work; and then I fell ill over the weekend

Full Writeup from the Horrible 100: Went of this past Sunday the 9th with 19 riders who showed up to brave the rainy conditions.

24HAN and Horrible Hundred 2007 026.jpg As is usual we kicked off as early as possible and got started just past 6am. The rain came down and was there all day long. The trails were wet, but completely rideable. Thankfully it was a predominately warm day.

The first loop (of 3) had us riding up East Hill right away and into Hi-Tor for some fun fire-road climbing then descending down and hitting the 2nd major climb of the route (Burke Hill). We hit the new section of singletrack across the top and then, Hanggi ended up needing to replace his der hanger. While he repaired that our group ended up re gathering and riding out acroos Pulver and onto the Italy Valley descent. Taylor and Chad had ridden thru and I bridged up to them on the descent. We hit the road together prior to the Wood Hill Climb were Taylor and I picked our way up the thru the loose rocky sections while it downpoured on us. We decided to roll on from that point and we pretty much rode together for the remainder of the day. Thru the Orange trail in Hi-Tor and down the DEC. descent was all that was left at this point. The roots in Hi-Tor proved to be pretty damn tricky but negotiable. I was afraid that the DEC descent was going to be super slick due to all the shale rocks being wet, but it was a tree root that took me out about a third of the way down.

Arrived back at base camp, refueled with all the goodies that the girls provided (huge thanks!).

The 2nd loop was epic. Taylor, Chad and I rolled out to the Griesa rd climb. Taylor and I hit it pretty good up the climb and bombed straight thru Ontario County Park with no issues. Took the road over to Stid hill rd and climbed that. The road was brutally steep but not that bad. Got into Stid Hill where it was a bit muddy but tolerable and picked our way clean to the base of Bristol Mt. Bristol was where everyone cracked pretty much. It's a tolerable climb coming fresh into it. The base of the climb is not bad but it get's long after a while and right as you get to the top you hit the steepest points. Needless to say, I was fried at that point and decided to walk. I wasn't the only one.... Bombed the super loose shale/rocky descent on the backside and started the road climb up to Cutler.

The soggy day took its toll

I hit Cutler feeling ok, but by the time I got on to the Carriage Trail I was out of food. I bummed a bar off of Taylor and headed up the climb to the top of the field and into the Pinewoods (Essentialy riding the 24 hour race course backwards). The bar really wasn't enough food at this point and I had scarce energy left. Taylor was riding strong but I was dropping him a little bit on the descents. Seeing as we had to descend the orange trail and ride mostly road back with a short bit of descent through the closed road, I decided to ride on ahead for fear of bonking. I hit the rest area about 5 minutes ahead of Taylor. I was happy to see Lindsey there waiting for me, but just as happy to gorge myself on anything I could put my hands on. I was soo hungry and ate everything I could. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was, because the next group of riders all came in from finishing the loop and everyone had run out of water and food!

4 soldiers decided to head out together for the last loop; although Chad was shortly behind us after some food and change of clothes. Taylor, Hanggi, Jim and I decided to brave it all the way to the end. I was the only one who forgot my light and I paid for it. The rain started to come a little heavier and the temps dropped quite a bit more as we climbed the final few hills. As we descended off of Flint hill, I almost crashed into the guardrail as I had no light. Taylor and Jim decided to turn and head back to base camp. Hanggi and I decided that we would trudge on and make the final push up Wolfanger. A brutal monster of a climb that was the perfect finish to the route. We slogged our sopping wet carcasses up the hill and had a enough time to take a photo at the top. I had to ride side by side with Hanggi down the descent to make use of his light and we arrived back at base camp.