Just riding along

Life's been a lot busier than my entries would suggest, done a few races ranging from bad to alright, added some trail features to Quarry Ridge, traveled to England, Boston, and Nashville, and still managed to get a lot of good rides in.  Writing about my adventures just fell to the wayside...anyways.

The trails at Blue Mounds aren't for everyone as they are littered with roots, sharp rocks, and a number of sections that give even the most experienced riders a bit of trouble.  I love em and try to ride them, easily my favorite nearby dirt, they take some time to get used to but reward the effort with a great feeling of satisfaction once you learn how to stop fighting and start flowing.  That said, whoever decided (I'm looking at you Garett) to put on an endurance race there is simply diabolical.

To add to the fun the temps found their way into the 90's, and the woods there hold a lot of moisture so the humidity was through the roof; it was tropical.  I haven't had the best races this year, and the heat has been giving me a lot of trouble so going in I planned on taking it nice and easy with lots of breaks and taking time to fully cool down between the hourish long laps.  That plan was key for a really enjoyable day.

Last year I didn't know anyone at this race, since then I've gotten to know all the staff of this race and a lot more racers.  I was pitted with Crash, the Mayor, Garrett, and a gaggle of their friends and it made all the difference to come around to a bunch of smiles and cheers.  They were out there in a pair of 4 man teams just having a good time and drinking a lot more beer than riding laps...yes, I was envious.

So the first lap was fun, I was with two other ChainSmokers, Jim and Troy, and a dude with a prosthetic leg on a single speed (he wins the badass award).  Jim and I are both talkers so we were just chatting it up and we generally were a jovial convoy bouncing through the woods.  Jim was riding on a broken foot and had never been on these trails before, that's a really tough way to start a day.  We passed 4 riders with flat and another with mechanical trouble on that lap.  We rode past one guy begging for a pump which I handed to him...really dude, no pump, what were you thinking?!

Overall the day went as planned.  Every lap I stopped for a good 10 minutes to completely cool down and make a token effort to rehydrate, halfway to my goal of 8 laps I stopped for probably 45 minutes to refuel and relax.  Yea, not exactly racing but I was not in the mood to suffer out there in the heat.  The plan was working really well too, I felt great all day, no cramps, no upset stomach (finally), no bonking, not even any fatigue really, just a little bit of a headache from dehydration and slightly raw hands from all the pounding of the rigid fork.

Everything was going well, then came lap 6.  About half way through I ripped the sidewall of my tire on a rock, I was running tubeless with stans juice but it wasn't enough to seal the hole, I wasted my CO2 trying to get the tire to seal but had to resort to the tubes I was carrying as backup.  Now, in my car I had at least 3 brand new tubes in waiting, but was I carrying new tubes...NO!  The first tube I grabbed on the way out the door that morning thinking it was just used, but it had a rip and inch long...ok...good thing I was carrying another tube...with a patch on it...that leaked.  So about every mile I had to stop and put air in it.

I'd hoped that the time I took changing tires would let me cool down a bit, but in the woods there was no breeze and it was especially humid compared to the open field of the start/finish.  So I stood there with sweat pouring off of me and heating up even more as I labored with the minipump (luckily the dude returned it to my pit around hour 4).  By the last 2 miles of the lap I was overheating, bonking hard, and mentally in a terrible place.  It took me so long to finish that Tara had started walking the course looking for me, so at least I walked up the hill to the pits with her.  I was ready to quit though.

Garrett helped me put a new tube in, I cooled off, refueled a bit, and begrudgingly took off with maybe enough time to get in 2 more laps.  Right away I felt great again and decided to put forth an effort.  I had plenty of power left, wasn't overly tired, and the cooling evening was a welcome relief.  I turned out an hour and ten minute lap, one of my fastest of the day, but was really feeling it when I got back.  I had plenty of energy for another go, but alas not enough time.  There was no way I was heading back out without cooling down a bit and I would have had to do an even quicker lap.  So I called it a day at 7 laps, not great but at least I was still feeling good.

That was good enough for third place in the single speed category and if not for the flat an extra lap would have put me in second.  The big win for me though was feeling as good as I did during and after the race, I'm getting stronger and more experienced and looking forward to more racing now.

There's more to say but that's plenty of words for now.

Oh, one last thing, on the final lap I loaned my pump to the SAME GUY who borrowed on the first lap! Dude, you don't need to be a boy scout, but a little preperation never hurt!

 

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