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Stagg Newman staggandcheryl@earthlink.net I believe Jayel Super's time this year at the OD 100 (12:36) is the fastest on the course that basically has been used since 1996. This year I was very fortunate in that 1) the weather was superb for June in the Va. mountains - low humidity - high probably less than 80 degrees. 2) Super had other very good horses to ride with much of the way including Ann Stuart's horse for the first 40 miles and then Cathy Shenk's horse who finished second and Jeannie Waldron's great horse Rambow, who holds the all time record for OD (see below) but who unfortunately had to withdraw at 80 miles (turned out to be a hot nail from a reshoeing at 70 miles). 3) The course was riding a bit easier than normal. 4) My horse had a very good day. More details follow. The fastest time at the OD since it moved to it's location in the Blue Ridge and Masanutten Mountains in the 'late '70s was set by Dr. Jeannie Waldron on Rambow in '94 and was right around 12 hours. Rambow won in both '93 and '94 in record setting time. In 1995 a new course, developed by Valerie Kanavy, was used only once. Then in 1996, the current course, which replaced quite a few miles of road on the old course with mountain trail was developled. This trail combined new trail developed by Valerie with more of the old trail. However even this course has changed a bit each year. Most people believe that this new trail was probably riding about an hour slower than the pre-1995 trail. Jayel Super set the record for this trail in 1999 in about 13:45. He won by over an hour and thus was not pressed at all during the last part of the ride. The weather that day was qutie mild weather for the OD altho humid by Western U.S. standards. This year Super broke that record by over an hour. I believe the course was riding about 1/2 hour faster this year because the trail was probably 1/2 mile to a mile shorter (the OD had probably become about 103 miles) and because the National Forest Service had bulldozed about a 6 mile track to remove rocks from an ATV trail that had lost all its top soil. So what had been very rocky 6 miles was now quite trottable. This year the weather was superb and I was being pressed by the another horse (Cathy Shenk - rider), who also looked quite strong. We rode together from 50 to about 88 miles which of course helped both horses. I left the 88 mile check point (McCoy's Ford) and with just a couple minute lead and finished just 15 minutes ahead of Cathy. For those not familiar with the OD, I believe it is the toughest course that I have ridden. It's the rocks, single track mounatin trail (footing) and humidity that make the OD tough. The climbs are quite comparable to a lot of other rides. Note that I did live out in CA from '90 to '93 and did many of the 100s out West. I did not get a chance to do Tevis (and of course some year have to do that!). For calibration, my horse Drubin set the course record for the Virginia City 100 (which I believe still stands). CA friends who have done both Tevis and OD say the OD rides slower. Both are great tought rides.
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