Carrabassett Backcountry Challenge Report

Yup, that's Nina rocking the top step of the podium. She also took second overall and was mid-pack in the 50+ miler at Carrabassett this weekend, which was the first stop of the New England Endurance Series. She crushed it - pretty awesome.
I was a little more so so, though it wasn't too bad all things considered. I've been struggling a lot with asthma this season, not sure what's going on there despite lots of tests and even more meds. Pretty crazy stuff just to breath normally. Which I'm still not quite doing, but things have been working well enough to get me to the front end of our local training races the last couple of weeks, so I was hopeful going into the first big-ish race of the year.
The town of Carrabassett has been putting a lot of money into trails recently, and this race is designed to showcase that effort, and to support it by raising money. It's definitely cool to see more towns jump on the "big trail networks are good" train. Especially mountain towns that are seeing revenue from skiing go down in winters like this last one. Trails, mountain biking, and year round tourism are good things if you ask me.
As for the course, it was a total mix. Some super twisty, yet buffed out, new-school stuff, some straighter, rowdier old school trail which was awesome, lots of rough old logging roads and double-track, some hike-a-bike stream crossings, and great views. In general, the climbing really wasn't that bad. Almost all it was on roads or snowmobile trails or logging roads, and none of it was super steep. It was punchy, but not brutally so. The only misnomer is the claim that the course is 50% double track. Technically that's probably true. But it doesn't ride the way you would expect double track to ride. Really, it's bumpy singletrack that runs through a really wide corridor. In other words, there aren't two ridable lines, and it's slower than you'd think double track should be.
As for the race, I started too hard. Hmmmm, how many times do I have to learn that lesson. By the first big climb I'd recovered though and was riding my way into the race. Then came some sweet singletrack and high speed descents. I used my best trail ninja skills and rallied by Zaboo 29er dullie as best I could to catch 4 or 5 guys pretty quickly despite a couple of diggers (The first on a water bar in the middle of a super high speed descent that was not rollable at speed, the second on a unfortunately placed rock on the backside of a blind corner that send me flying mid pedal stroke). Sweet. Not so bad. By mile 20 or so I was in 7th and only about 7 or 8 minutes back from the top guys. For a minute there I though I might even make a go of it. Ha. Not so much.
We hit the days biggest climb, and I more or less went backwards. I didn't really feel bad; I just wasn't riding nearly as fast as the other guys. And that's pretty much how the rest of the day went. Not bad, just not as fast as everyone else. I just settled in, rode my own pace, and had fun. By mile 40 I was firmly established in 11th. Not much was going to change there. And, fortunately, the last 12 or so miles were pretty tame and fast, so I rolled through feeling pretty good in under 5 hours.
Overall, fun course. I it reminded me a lot of the riding I used to do with my Dad in central NH when I was in high school. Good stuff. Hopefully I'll make it back next year and be a little quicker.