The first year Tony and I did this race it had been rescheduled because of a storm that brought down some trees on the course. They moved it to November and the temps at night went down below 30 degrees and I was way unprepared for the cold. In a word it was horrible!
The next year I had an injury that prevented me from racing, so finally getting to race this year was exciting!
Sara, (my wife), and I got there around 1:30. The race started at 4 PM giving us plenty of time to get signed in and set up the PIT. It was pretty hot and we were sweating like mad so I was trying to stay hydrated while running around getting everything set up!The pre-race meeting at 3:15 was nothing major and afterwords I picked up a double espresso on ice at the vendor on site. That was awesome and really hit the spot 30 min before race start!
At the start of the race we did a short parade lap that sort of thinned out the group as we dumped into the single track for the first lap. I was feeling really, really good for the first 3 lap...knocking them out in around 54-56 mins stopping quickly in the pit to change out bottles and then hit the trail again. I wanted to try and get 4 laps in before I had to go out with lights on. The less time I can ride with that light on my helmet the better. After awhile it feels like a brick up there!
On the last 1/4 mile before the PIT I picked up a nail in my rear tire and had to run it into the PIT. This really sucked because I was running smoothly on adrenaline and feeling so good about how the laps were flowing and this threw me off. I was running tubeless so this was not a reparable flat. Good thing I brought my spare wheels! Although this set was not tubeless, and weighed so much more, with Tony's help in calming me down, we changed out the cassette, mounted the wheel and I was off on another lap!I calmed down after that PIT stop and got back into the groove and focused on my main goals at this race:
1. Have fun! Really, that has been my plan for this season, just ride how you feel and have fun!!
2. Complete 12 laps. I just thought that was a nice number :-)
Some time around 12:30 or so I rolled up on Tony and we rode the rest of the lap together. Nice and easy taking it in stride. It was a good thing too because with about 2.5 miles to go on the lap Tony's light went out! Dead battery! So if I would have rolled by like he said to he would have been in the dark...but we made it through the lap without any problems! Awesome..nobody left behind bro!
When we got back to the PIT I had to throw my battery on charge to make sure I had enough juice to get through the rest of the night laps. So I hooked everything up to charge and changed out my Kit, took in some good calories and hydration and stretched for about an hour or so! that felt really great and it was right on time!At 2 AM I rolled back out and knocked out 2 fast laps. I felt like I was flying on these laps. It must have been the dry jersey and the full tummy that made things feel right with the world.
I took a quick break of about 30 mins to put the battery on charge again to ensure I would get through the last dark lap without my lights going out and good thing I did because I think I was running very, very low on juice. But I got through and by that time dawn was coming and things started to lighten up. So I knew when I got to the PIT I could dump the light system for the remaining laps!
I only had to do 3 more laps when 6 AM rolled around so I knew I had no problem reaching the lap goal. I just followed the same plan that was working all race, have fun, and ride how you can each lap, stop at the PIT and change bottles and keep on rolling...and that worked out just fine!The last lap I really took my time. I had 2.5 hours to finish it and was not going to hurt myself getting the job done! I rolled into the timing shoot with 1:16 left to ride but at that point I knew I had 3rd wrapped up and even doing a 13th lap wouldn't move me up any so I called it over at that piont and headed for the showers to wash off the trail!
This was really a better result than I could have hoped for! A great time, great race, great company and some awesome memories until next year!
Maybe I can move up the podium a notch!!
No comments:
Post a Comment