The short version:
There were no squirrels bears, no anacondas, no Tico the amazing Husky ghost needed to lead me down the trail. No sitting and crying. No dark trudges crying. There were however plenty of challenges, plenty of exciting moments, plenty of friends and support. Plenty of smiles and laughs. Tons of advice received and given. There were spirits of mentors past and present, still here on earth and those who have gone; memories, words and lessons they have shared with us each equally and uniquely valuable. There was immense communication between us. There was a family, a team, out there working together to accomplish one goal, FINISH MARJI GESICK TOGETHER! Crossing the line with my Dad Jeff Doerr and hearing the cheers of our friends who stayed up all day and into the night in the rain, was the greatest race finish feeling I’ve ever had. It was not about the time or the place, it was not about my own personal accomplishment. It was about the teamwork it took from 3/4 of our family to ensure we got to that finish line. But that 4th family member was there as we pulled into the house on Sunday welcoming us with his always warm smile. I truly believe none of us could’ve done it without the other. I know for sure, on that particular day, I could not have done it without Mom or Dad.
This experience was of course for ourselves and one another, but also for those I know can appreciate the gravity of the importance of such a shared experience. It's for Kara Kline Buczek and Kelly and their kids. It's for Sue Kline, you know how Mom felt out there. It's for all the parents out there who are trying to figure out how hard to push their kids. It's for kids who are pushed too hard and for those who aren't. Find your sweet spot, I found mine on the bike with my Dad.
The Detailed LONG Version:
What better way to know one’s true self than to destroy the limits of two generations together, side by side with the support of the one who holds a family together, the mother, the Pit Boss, Roberta Doerr! Nature and nurture were hard at work on Saturday, a social and scientific experiment for sure. I know I felt like I was being experimented on by sadistic ingenuity known as #BlameDanny #BlameTodd. The social side of nurturing (though it felt like the total opposite of nurture) of the mental fortitude to destroy the limits of the body, allowed the scientific heritability of limit destroying and resulted in a #fatherdaughterduo finishing the Marji Gesick 100 in 17:02.
After 6 years of training MTB together and an emotional year of shocking loss, it still took time for us to decide to finally do our first race actually together. Dad didn’t want to hold me back. He said, “what about place”, I said “I don’t care, Marji is not a race, it’s an adventure and I want to share it with you.” Dad said, “it’s just because you think I’ll get lost,” I said, “well maybe that’s part of it ;)”. It’s because we had never raced TOGETHER and I wanted to share an epic event TOGETHER and frankly, I had zero interest in actually racing, I wanted to go into an event stress free and enjoy an adventure for once. He finally accepted that we would ride Marji together. Then two days before my Luna girl got sick and I almost didn’t go. Both our worlds and plans were imploding.
There was no bantering back and forth listening to a Jack Kline pre-race pep talk. But there was definitely some form of talking and I shared a few words with his amazing wife Sue Kline which helped me going into the race.
We toed the line together and it was challenging with all the people to stay in contact with one another. I yelled Jeff and Dad A LOT. He responded A LITTLE 
he still won’t get a hearing aid. The entire day took a lot of communication. We knew I’d climb faster and he’d descend faster. The plan was for me to climb and then as he came down behind me we’d reconnect and pull over and continue to follow his line down. This tactic worked pretty good for the most part. Although I felt off my game and didn’t climb up to Pine Knob well at all, then he immediately got in front of me heading down it, so there was quite a gap which made me pretty nervous. I closed it by the time we got to the guardrail along Forestville road where we had aid. Into Harlow Farms where a not so nice man yelled at me saying “GOD SHE CAN”T EVEN F-ing RIDE” and I really let it get to me because I knew I had been struggling technically that day and I already felt bad about that. All that just because I fumbled and got off my bike instead of taking a chance of running over a little kid coming from the other direction. But that kids father very classily defended me and reminded the man we were all out there together to have fun. DON’T BE THAT JERK ok people.
We expected I would be stronger most of the day, we were wrong. After getting aid at the bottom of Mt. Marquette I was not feeling well at all. I struggled to ride and kept falling over even walking on the first bit of ST out of there. I was stressed and confused as to why I felt so terrible. We got to JP1 and saw Mom again and I said I was ready to pull out and Dad had to keep going on his own. I’ve NEVER quite a race. Janine Lawens Mills and Greg Lavelle showed up looking exhausting from crewing all night and I just wanted to cry I knew I was failing so many people including myself and Chad Mills was out there doing double what I was doing. I just couldn’t figure out why I felt so bad, I still have no idea why as I was getting all my calories and fluid down just fine. Dad said if I was done he was done. I couldn’t be the reason he didn’t finish. So we got on our bikes and continued. I said I would walk the stairs because I was not feeling well, I had REALLY wanted to ride the stairs this year after practicing them at Marji camp. I RODE THE STAIRS following my buddy from camp Nathaniel Darling down them! We trudged forward to Ishpeming and spent a lot of time with Pit Boss Roberta in Ishpeming putting on our lights and trying to figure out what we could stomach, we both stuck primarily with liquid food and took a few tiny bites of peanut butter on bread. We thought the next section was going to feel very long to get back to JP2, but it felt oddly quick to me. There was a bit of confusion as we pulled into JP2 as people were directing us to drop bags but our pit was passed there. Finally, back at the pit and ready to head out into the most dreaded section for me, the one that traumatized me in 2017. But I was so much more prepared this year.
The last 15. I had lights, the story could really stop there!!! I had so darn many lights. I had back-ups for my back-ups and made Dad take a back-up too. I could’ve handed lights out like candy on the trail! As we crested the first ST climb I advised Dad he’d turn left and there would be a slippery rock at the start of the decent. I knew that rock was there and I had noticed that particular type of rock was sweating quite badly that day. Then I heard an OOF. I yelled Dad and no response. I dropped my bike and ran/slid down the hill to see him sprawled out flat on his face. I kept yelling Dad as I approached him and there was no response. It was one off THE MOST TERRIFYING MOMENTS OF MY LIFE. He finally got up and seemed ok. I later asked why he didn’t respond and he said “I was finally laying down so I figured I’d take a nap :)”. No, he didn’t hit his head, he’s just thinks he’s a funny guy! As we kept trudging forward int he dark I would climb in front of Dad and if I chose to stop for a descent I’d scout it for him and tell him to go for it when I knew he had it. It was some pretty impressive teamwork. He’d descend and I’d catch back up on the climbs. If we were both hiking up the climbs we’d often be walking too far so I’d keep repeating “we need to get back on our bikes” which helped eliminate pointless walking. As we approached what I call the infamous lake I was excited because I knew how close we were getting and I rode down that descent without tapping the brakes and led us into the water because my friends Allen Wheeler and Miki Razo had told me it was shallow and totally rideable on the left. Not sure I’ll trust you two next time 
Dad followed my wheel close and had no time to react as I yelled DON”T FOLLOW ME DON”T FOLLOW ME as my front wheel dipped into a hole and we were up to our knees in water. Somehow we magically made it through! Then up the slippery rock climb, which was a breeze to hike up in comparison to my previous experience. I was smiling and laughing and saying how much easier it was than I remembered and the person in front of me clearly did not agree as they turned around and just gave me a LOOK There just seemed to be so much more ledge and edge with dirt that allowed for hiking traction. We were at Cry Baby which I had heard some rough things about, but never seen. After a few moments of scared negative talk in my head, I laughed at Danny and said, I’ve got this, Danny Hill aint getting me. Then as we approached the descending section the sky opened up and the rain came like it had when I lived in a tropical rainforest. Ya got me Danny! I initially smiled and thought it felt great and looked around at how beautiful it was with headlights speckled across the rainforest and the lightening lighting up the sky…but it was a mere number of seconds before I yelled and heard other cries of F*c%. I was really struggling to ride and had no confidence to get on my bike, but I was also unable to stay on my feet. I saw Dad riding some of it and kept trying but failing. Soon I was so focussed on walking and not getting bashed with my bike I just decided to toss the bike down the hills and/or rocks and sit on my butt and slide while yelling WEEEEE. Then as I fell and took a hit from my bike landing on me I got pretty whiney. Dad asked if I was ok and if I needed anything and I responded in the whiniest little toddler voice “please just don’t leave me,” to which he responded “I won’t” as he walked toward me holding out his hand. This scared child quickly stopped being whiney and said “You’re not my Dad” Stranger Danger flight mode hahaha and got on my bike and rode off. To that runner that had just fallen a bunch of times in front of my Dad and then turned back to help me, you are an amazing human and I’m sorry I just took off on you. I wish I knew who you were and could thank you for being out there for me in that moment. But it is a pretty funny comedy. I popped out of Cry Baby and there were two red arrows going in opposite directions, which still confused me. As I was scrolling to my map I was yelling for Dad and saw him just to my right. I turned to ride up the road and nearly lost it as my wheel turned into what seemed like a rushing river. We approached Jasper’s Nob and I told Dad we could ride it, I had done it in 2017, to which the man who lived on the corner said, you can’t ride it I’ve seen people fall all day, turn here and walk. We heeded his warning and hiked up running into a local TC female 50 rider. Then we saw how funny Danny and Todd think they are and Dad said ok let’s go finish to which I responded, no we need a picture, what if there was something here, what if they ask for proof. I was sure they would have some hilarious test for us. So we tried to take a selfie with the sign but in the rain and with the headlights nothing showed up, but I managed to get a picture of the sign without us. I didn’t want to hop on the bike to descend but I had confidence as Dad said “Follow me” so down we went and I listened to Dad yell in the happiest voice possible “3 years, this has taken me 3 years and HELL YEAH WE DID IT WE DID IT”.
Thank you to Team McLain's for the support out there Saturday. Thanks Eric Graf at Train Out Pain for keeping me aligned, I'll see you this week hahah! Thank you Todd Poquette and Danny Hill and Heidi and Stacey for putting together this race and Marji Camp so I could meet all the amazing people I met. Thanks to my fellow Glow Job campers I saw out there on the course for being totally rad Mark Kwartowitz Adam Ruszkowski Nathaniel Darling. There are too many people to thank, so THANK YOU Everybody who didn't fall asleep and got to the end hahaha! Hey, at least it didn't take 17 hours to read it...or did it?!
Chuck Hathaway Nancy Hathaway Shawn McNamara Arian McNamara Josh Scott Kacey Scott George Ernst Diana Ernst THANK YOU and amazing work to all of you as I know it was a long day
