Donner Hard Enduro ‘24

I told myself I was going to “train for Donner”. Lifting, cardio, and riding took a backseat to, planning and hosting the MotoTrials National at Donner Ski Ranch. I looked at my hour meter and maintenance log book on Thursday, 2 days before the race. I had ridden my bike a total of 10 hours since the beginning of May-it was now the end of July.

Friday, August 9

The ‘Intro to Hard Enduro’ clinic hosted by Louise Forsely, was a nice opportunity to learn from one of the best female riders. After the clinic, a few of the gals walked some sections near by. Spectator Hill, was the focal point of the walk, strategizing plans A, B, and C for when the chaos ensued.

Saturday, August 10

The Prologue started at 2pm. The amateur women were on the last two rows to start the prologue. What a great opportunity to eat some dust. Typically I’m not a sprinter, I tend to start slow and come on hard in the second half of the race. I’m definitely a slow starter and a strong finisher. The other ladies on my row fought for the holeshot, while I started my bike and began assessing lines. Husband of the Year (HotY) told me to hang to the left, so that’s what I did. It was a great line, following the ribbon. I made it through the first technical rock and slab section without much effort. My tires hit the dirt and my only thought was, GUN IT! to dust everyone out. Ripping through the woods for about 3 seconds felt really nice, and then I hit the first bottleneck. A girl on a KX 112 came racing up beside me, and pushed through the bottleneck, I thought, hell if she’s going I should too. Some media and course guys were helping pull riders through the slippery off-camber section. One guy told me there was a line on the left, and to roll back. So I positioned myself, took a deep breath, and sent the big line. I made it! To my surprise, I was on top of the section, and then I started to tip over high-side, with no place to dab. One dude grabbed my handlebar, while HotY pushed to stop me from falling 7’ down to the ground. I blasted off, toward the next obstacle as I shouted thank yous. Up another little slab and then down Spectator Hill and into THE Slab area that Donner is famous for. I let the crowd get into my head, made an impulsive decision, and got stuck in a crack for far too long. Finally up and out, I rode the rest of the granites well, into the rock pile near the lodge, and out for a time of 43 minutes. Just seconds off of first place woman. As a point of reference, 1st Overall in the Prologue did the whole thing in just over 4 minutes.

Sunday, August 11

I had three takeaways from the Prologue; don’t get pressured by the crowd, don’t trash your bike, take it one section at a time. Remember, pain is temporary. Don’t stop, and keeping going- thank you Frank Zappa. The blue flag dropped, the first 100 yards of silt is nasty! Searching for clear air and getting my body warmed up to riding was short lived. Within a few minutes we were into the start of the Prologue. I knew the line, picked through, then WHAM, over the bars. Apparently the little drop off from yesterday, had turned into a big drop off. Pick it up, get back on. Within a moment we were jamming up on Spectator Hill. I had some good sends, got stuck, helped some folks, and some folks helped me. It all happened so fast, I barely remember it. Some smooth silty singletrack into another slab and then up up up… or so I thought. I ended up following another racer who was ahead of me (bad habit) getting sucked into the Pro/AA split of Bear Trap. After seeing where I was, knowing I shouldn’t be there, I hustled back down to the common course. Oops!

I arrived at the next section where I saw some other amateur women, apparently they passed me while I was in Bear Trap. We made our way up and into some suspended logs. The logs were too big for me to zap and too big to slide under, so we worked together to heave our bikes over. We slowly picked our way through granite boulders and side-hilling manzanita. Every step forward felt earned. I rode into the opening section of “Granite”, feet on the pegs, CLEAN! I parked and went to help my competition. Feeling "one with the bike", maneuvering over the rocks, through bushes, and looking far ahead, I could feel the race coming to me. Sitting on the granite, blazing in the sun, looking at lines I wanted to take, I sat there, waiting my turn. Growing impatient. I had a choice. Stay in the conga line, take turns, maintain a manageable pace, and get help when I needed it. Or push hard, risk it, and try to catch the lead girl in our class. I felt the competitive vibration rising, I wanted to catch her. Making a series of risky passes up big sticky granites, pushing, tipping over, picking up my bike, I focused on moving forward. “Make it noisey” I heard in my head, tip over, pick up the bike. I felt empowered, I can do this.

The woods were a welcomed change, that’s where I met another woman, she was in the Women’s Pro class so I didn’t consider her competition. Our paces were similar and we agreed to help each other on the slab just below Checkpoint 3. Seeing familiar faces at the checkpoint, I drank some water, and pushed on. Arriving at AA Hill I saw the girl in the lead, YES! I caught her! She went for a run at the hill, and came back down, this happened a few more times. Oddly, I expected to feel delighted in her failed attempts at the section, and yet I felt a motherly sense of empathy. She had small tires, a lighter bike, and less horsepower, surely that made the climb more difficult. I talked to her dad for a bit, watched my Pro Woman buddy SEND, let a few others go, then took a deep breath, clicked it into 2nd, and let’r eat. I made it to within 20’ of the top, then seat bounced the rest of the way. At the top of the hill was Checkpoint 4. Some friends I hadn’t seen in a while were there, we laughed at our meeting like this, they wished me luck and I took off toward the forest.

Buddies told me I should practice zapping logs. Well, I didn’t, and I paid for it. Riding grippy granite is NOT the same as endless logs. I caught up to the Pro woman, then the former leader, who I passed, caught up to me. We were all jamming trying to get through this snotty slippery tiny lil waterfall. This girl was in full send mode, struggling hard to push her bike through the creek, blocking the path. Once again, the mom in me kicked in. Rather than wedging my bike into her path like any good racer would, I lifted the rear of her bike so we could continue on. I assumed I would catch her once we got into the big logs. For the next hour me and the Pro woman worked together to conquer the beast that is Stick n Stones and Free Firewood. Sometimes she would be ahead of me, and sometimes I would get ahead of her. We shared in the glory of good log sends, shared water, and helped each other over logs. This chic is strong! I was in awe of her abilities, strength, and fortitude, it helped me hold a good attitude and to keep pushing. HotY had run out to the forest sections, providing water to racers, suggesting lines, and cheering people on. It’s in those moments that I am over the moon in love and grateful for my husband. We rallied around the mountain on the siltiest singletrack in California. We came down into checkpoint 5, only to realize we were too late, the crew had left, which meant we had timed out. We made our way back down the mountain to the lodge where my race came to an end.

Completing my first hard enduro was hard. I knew once race-mode wore off I would have better words, but in that moment, I just wanted a burger.

Many months later I am still rehabbing my shoulders from the beat down they took during Donner. I didn’t have any big crashes, I just pushed too hard. I thought I could do a hard enduro off the couch. I thoroughly underestimated the amount of times I would pick my bike up, or move it around in those downed trees. When your bike weighs 2x more than you, it sure pays to have more skills and more bike fitness. Hindsight is 20/20. Had I gone for “smart mountain ride” mode, rather than “go forward at all costs” mode I wouldn’t have damaged my shoulders so severely. Then again, I wouldn’t know how far my mind can push my body. So there’s that.