Happy Birthday, America--Firecracker 50 version

Hi all! I thought I would share my Fourth of July report on my epic Firecracker 50 ride.

My goal was simply to finish the grueling 11,000 vertical feet over 50 miles at 10,000+ feet. During the week prior I was fortunate enough (thanks to my lingering unemployment status) to pre-ride one lap a couple of times. This really helped prepare me for each of the long climbs and rough descents. Everything started out well with the chase beginning on the 6 mile climb up Boreas Pass to Baker's Tank. The stretch of rolling, traversing singletrack that followed was a welcome relief and I started catching some of my competitors again when the course continued climbing up the side of Baldy. Then there was more downhill, and some really sketchy loose double track down Humbug Hill and Sallie Barber to the start of the next ugly climb up Little French. I was feeling really good and continued to gain some ground. The first lap up Little French was tough but I knew what to expect and knew that a long singletrack traverse at the top would give me plenty of recovery time. I grinded my way up, jockeyed ahead of a bunch of people and cruised down the singletrack and blasted down the long descent back toward Sallie Barber. By mile 20 or so I knew I was going to make it, as long as I could continue to eat and drink at every Aid Station and pace myself on the second lap. As I cruised down the tight switchbacks back to the start/finish I tried to ignore the massive crowd tempting me with the freshly tapped kegs, I just kept on going and started hammering back up Boreas.

As expected, the second lap was hard. My legs were getting tired, my ribcage was tightening up, and my saddle...ouch! But I kept going and was still managing to hold my position. I was definitely slowing down a lot, but it was a perfect day for a ride so I just thought of it as a fun day out on the trail. After my second lap up Little French I was feeling a little shaky and when I got on the flat singletrack I think I may have dozed off a little and found myself upside down in the sharp rubble along the trail. Dirty, bruised and now bleeding, I pulled myself together and finished off the last 10 miles.

I didn't ride it fast enough to get my share of the free kegs (damn it!) but I did it. And it was actually fun, and definitely my biggest cycling accomplishment to date.