Marji. Mostly pronounced Marjeh. Many say it’s the hardest single-day mountain bike race in the USA. I kind of believed it based on what I’ve ridden thus far in my very brief MTB career. This is literally my first season on a legit MTB. I have ridden Lutsen 99er the past 2 years on first my full-fat Otso. Then the Otso set as a front suspension fork 29er. The full squish Top Fuel is definitely on an entirely different planet and it’s been a pleasure cutting my teeth on a real MTB. I’ve had the luxury of training on great single track trails in the Borah Epic. I spent a few days in Copper Harbor which is widely known as one of the best in the country. I’ve been in Bayfield and La Crosse both with superb trail systems. They each have something different to offer.
Goals for Marji. The 3 of us were going….to smile. Borah Epic is the only other event I’ve done this year with the intent of a fun day. Marji the same. Just ride the race and smile. No pressure. Except for the hardest race in the country thing. If there, in fact, something harder, I’d like to know about it because I’m going to to try and see for myself 🙂 Speaking of smiling here’s our view from the cabin the evening before. RELAX. Thanks, Courtney and Shelby for cooking us an awesome carb-loaded dinner!
So how does Marji compare? Well…..it doesn’t. It’s so extreme I can’t even explain it. It’s always coming at you. There are breaks that I’ll explain later, but it’s brutal. At nearly 42 years old and an endurance athlete my entire life this was without question the #1. Just to be crystal clear. This was the greatest challenge I have faced as an athlete. Maybe by a lot. Marathons are hard. Full-distance Ironman is hard. The DAMn is DAMn hard. Gravel Worlds was incredibly hard. But all those are hard for a single reason or a couple reasons if you add challenges like cold, hot, rain, etc. Marji can bring all that along with several more challenges. Read on.
My biggest regret is not knowing the course better and researching the route itself before the race. Singletrack is hard to negotiate. Going in and out of trail systems is harder yet. I thought they did a great job signing the course. Part of the Marji challenge is navigation. Many of us got it wrong Saturday. If I go again….ok next year when I go again I’ll know this course like the back of my hand. I will know the course. But I bet they will change it 🙂 Besides that I knew I was underprepared as a single track skills rider. I simply knew the engine would likely make up for much of that. I don’t have the luxury to make riding single track day in and day out a reality. Logistically speaking I need to invest 90 minutes of travel to get to the closest single track. That’s 90 minutes of time I can be on my bike. Therefore I choose to sacrifice single track skills to work on the engine. My 2 biggest weaknesses Saturday were lack of skills and lack of course/route knowledge. But we had GPS and we had signs for the route….read on 🙂
My Sherpa for the weekend and I arrived in Marquette plenty early Friday and we rode the first portion of the course for an hour or so. Chris Wiswell was a lifesaver this weekend. He did it all and provided an incredible amount of organization. He had a support route planned to take him to Thomas, Tanner and, myself about every 10 miles if needed. And get this. On a 105 mile course that only required about 30 miles of vehicle travel. Talk about an event that’s easy to spectate! Incredible. 30 miles by car to watch a 105-mile race (110+ with a speed sensor). No driving a vehicle across the state like DAMn. No waiting hours at a time for us to come back. Marji is the best in that regard. And here’s a secret. Marji is the most urban off-road event I’ve done. It basically skirts and goes through Marquette and Ishpeming. Don’t let that fool you. It’s still darn lonely in the woods when you get a mile or so out of town. Chris, I’m forever grateful. Chris…..will someday ride Marji 🙂
But the course. We rode a section at the recommendation of Matt Acker called Pine Knob. Yeah, there are pines. But….jeepers…creepers. It took the wind out of my sails. I thought after Copper Harbor’s worst and Bayfield’s worst I could handle most of Marji. Within just a few minutes I realized I was wrong.  I’d be walking this one. And it was relatively long at maybe 10 minutes of walking. Ouch. 2 big rock drops, one climb that nobody can ride. A confidence killer. For me anyway. The good news is that wasn’t right away, but after a bit of a flowy man-made section. And some double track. So that helped….maybe.
Let’s get to it. The race:
The 3 of us woke at 5 AM, got ready and got to the start still in the dark. No issues getting ready. I lined up in the first row because we had to run. Yes….there is a run at Marji. It’s a lemans start which is brilliant to reduce the size of the pack instantly. I tell people once a runner….always a runner. But this was not my day. As many of you know I don’t run anymore at all. I ran last Tuesday for 0.53 miles just to feel it. I felt it alright! Many of you also know I had a nasty compound tibia fracture a few years back. I have a titanium rod in that tibia. As the race started and I hobbled off the line in the first row it felt like that rod was coming right out the front of my leg. I was limping BAD right from the start. And to make it worse I was in carbon MTB shoes. Those don’t flex. I won’t do that again. And I’ll make sure I train that titanium rod a bit as in the past I’ve been able to reduce that pain by training some. But again I hadn’t run at all for a long time. Ouch. So my front row start had me gobbled up and spit out the back in an instant. But I wasn’t there to win. Holly Mary, it hurt tho!
On the bike. Instantly to fast double track and a draft fest and guess who was pulling the ants on a log much of the time? Ha. The 3 of us Apex guys got together early and rode well early together in that double track. It was fast and like every other off-road event, everyone was going to hard.  Unfortunately, the lead pack took a very early wrong turn and actually met us head-on in a turn. That made a huge group and hard when we got to the single track. But that section is the man-made section. LOL….cause that’s really not a thing at Marji…read on.
Pine knob was really bad for me and it wasn’t the first bad chunk. With the large group we went over another huge rock a bit earlier (see the bagpipe guy on Facebook) and it was walking there due to the group balling up. Big time lost there to those that came through earlier and rode it. I wasn’t riding that either way! But Pine Knob was worse and Tanner and Thomas got away from me on that one. I bet I spent 10+ minutes hobbling over that 200 yards. My legs hurt so bad from limping the run and hiking down steep drops. So bad as in I was less than an hour in and wondering if I could continue. But I did and soft-pedaled because that’s mostly what single track is 🙂 No real bad stuff for a while after Pine Knob. I felt for me that was my worst section of the entire day because it was the longest bad section.  Here’s the terrain on Pine Knob.Â
I stopped at Chris and the gals about mile 27 for fuel. I felt pretty lousy, but legs coming around. I was ~110th place there apparently. My lack of skills and ability to ride hurt my ability to move up. But that was about to change and fast. I left that spot and ickier single track. Nothing man-made. Mostly rooty in that early section, but definitely some rocky. OK, lots rocky. Some more walking mostly due to others that couldn’t ride at this point. I was warming up. My skills were evolving. Even this early others were beginning to falter. Just 3 or so hours in and my fitness was trumping everyone’s skills. Folks were going backward. I was moving forward and fast.
I was now moving forward fast and what Marji doesn’t want you to know is there are fast sections. Like pancake flat bike trail and even paved sections. Seriously. My best estimate is maybe 10 miles paved (mostly linking Marquette to Ishpeming) and maybe 20-30 miles of double track/gravel. Yes, that leaves something like 60+ miles of singletrack. And it’s the most extreme single track imaginable. And yes….I’ve been on Downtown and Overflow in Copper Harbor. Those are downhill freestyle and a rocky disaster. That’s Marji or at least almost. The extreme single track at its finest….as mother Nature left it! Â
I’ll try to leave out the crying, but my well-advertised navigation error occurred mile 36 and I flew by a hairpin. Again due to my lack of research I had no idea and kept riding as others had missed the same turn. I arrived at the checkpoint at mile 66 and figured it was the checkpoint at mile 50. I had missed the entire south loop. Nobody at the aid station said anything. They let me right past. I found out later they knew I was off course. They let me continue anyway. I had no idea and my GPS only speed sensor is so out of whack in the wooded single track I can’t trust it. Another lesson learned. Get a wheel sensor so you can count miles.
I was, however, feeling really good. I knew my pace was great. I had about 50 miles under my belt and was on pace for a good time. I had no idea I missed a turn. I came to a “Blame Danny” sign a short time later. Those aren’t frequent, but there might be about 20 on the course. Those usually translate to ” walk here.” This was a monster, rocky, rooty, washed out single track climb and I crushed it. #blamechris I thought. The engine was coming alive and I was starting to catch 50 milers. Huh…I wonder what time they started? I had no idea. I should have known. They were cheering for me and I’d cheer back. It was maybe an hour or so later I started to get a sinking feeling. I overheard one of the 50 milers talking about mileage. I asked how many 100 mile riders they’d seen and they said I was in the first place. My heart about hit the ground. I finally realized after 2-3 hours later…I missed a turn.
Absolutely deflated I pedaled on. Soft pedaling. Mentally defeated. How would I find Chris as I was about out of nutrition? I stopped and called him, but we had a hard time connecting on the trail so I began living off the course. Still deflated it was hard to have fun, but I tried to chat it up with anyone I could when I’d stop at the “trail angel” locations for food. Trying to garnish positive energy. I was now on a “see food” diet because I had no choice. Who knew bacon rice crispy bars and hot dogs were race fuel? My mental state was healing. I accepted the official DNF (#Quitter) and continued on. It was time to deal with it and let the engine start running again. So I did and set the cruise to….hard.
Jeepers though. The rocks, the climbs. It’s almost impossible to explain. The climbs? Think a combination of everything you can do to move forward while also balancing over rocks and roots. One bobble and the big climb becomes a steep hike. For the numbers folks, I swear most climbs required around 5 w/kg to move ahead and balance. I was seeing 600-watt efforts for several seconds 8-10 hours into the race. But you get to go down right? Yep. Imagine riding a jackhammer back down while your tires slide much of the time instead of turn. Instead of resting you get the beating every time. Ouch. #blamedanny. One section about mile 75 or so on the course was especially challenging. Extremely slow and technical. I believe the winner averaged about 6.5 for a 10 mile or so chunk. I averaged 5.5 but my centerlock rear nut fell off. I had to try to put it back on without taking the bike apart. That was fun with hands that were done functioning long ago. Holding onto a jackhammer for 11 hours was hard. It’s still hard to type today! And here’s a fun fact. Due to my lack of skills, I bet I got the KOM for the day for most braking! I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to flying down descents through the rocks and trees.  My shoes are proof!!!
Toward the end, I realized that the course was basically like Groundhog’s day. I swear we rode the same thing again and again. Good thing trail names change. Bad thing when you come to trail names like “Red Flannel.” Ugh. The Ishpeming section is basically a counter-clockwise rotation of trail systems around the town ending on top of Jasper Knob at what they call the “world’s largest gemstone.” Google it. It’s beautiful. I stopped there a moment to reflect and even took a video to kind of talk myself through the day (it’s on Facebook). I was happy but frustrated. I enjoyed the beauty and chatted a bit about my day with my heart on my sleeve. Mentally drained. Physically destroyed. Thankfully legs that will go for days at that effort….but only my legs. Everything else trashed.  Thankfully only minutes later I was all smiles at the finish.Â
I have had 5 hours of riding the last 2 days to reflect. I still can’t wrap my mind around how extreme this day was. And I missed an entire loop and it’s a very hard loop. I just don’t think Marji can be explained. The race director #blameTodd met me at the finish as I was the 3rd 100 guy across the line (first 2 rode the entire course 🙂). We had a really nice chat and he thanked me for finishing with a smile and in good spirits. I finished in about 11 flat clock time. I missed 19 miles. Had I ridden safely that puts me about 13 or a hair more had I ridden the entire course and stayed in one piece? I’m listed as the first #Quitter. But I didn’t quit. Qualifying for Boston is hard. Qualifying for IM World Champs (KQ) is much harder than Boston. Getting that sub 12 buckle at Marji? I think it’s harder than or as hard as qualifying for IM World Champs. It requires, even more, to go right. Only 7 buckles were given Saturday. Incredibly….incredibly hard. Incredible. I’m going to say harder than KQ.
Equipment and nutrition-wise besides being forced to live off the course a while until I re-hooked with Chris everything besides that pesky centerlock was flawless. I’m still loving those hot off the press Raptor 29er’s. No issues with tubeless. I ran the R2 tires again. Marji….and not a single puncture. Miracle? Maybe. My bike was flawless. My RD picked up some branches which I had to stop and remove, but nothing broke, nothing damaged. Just fantastic. The 2019 Top Fuel is not the best bike for Marji. It’s a cross country racer and I think the minimum cost of entry at Marji. But it worked and got me through. Nutrition I’ve got enough experience with now that it’s not a challenge. I do a ton of maple syrup and run a concentrated bottle of Sustain. Bars for solid food and I’m not too picky. I had maple bacon/duck egg ride cakes onboard this time….seriously.
I thought this was likely one and done for me. It’s a pretty thankless event. I was mostly alone. Thankfully living through cheering on others and them cheering me back. Thankfully I had Chris and Randi from Smith’s Bike in La Crosse waiting for me at the finish. Randi got a great picture and made me feel good. Chris took care of the rest and got me re-fueled. I felt like I had legs for days, but again…..Marji killed me. She killed me. Next year I plan to kill her back. I will chase that highly elusive buckle and if it doesn’t work out I’ll just keep smiling. But one thing’s for sure. I’m going to make Marji suffer. #blamechris
