The hell with this snow...

Tomorrow, I mountain bike. But today, it came to this....

Dirty Double D

The Dirty Dozen happened this past weekend, and it was fun again. It seemed a heck of a lot easier this year. I might not be any faster, but I guess I am stronger, if that makes any sense at all. Too bad I crashed on my first try up Canton. There was a little bit of a domino effect, that I unfortunately happened to be trying to ride my bike through. Didn't work. Ended up busting a cleat, and bending my rear derailleur a little bit, as I found out in the middle of Boustead. Nice!

Btw, I call it the Dirty Double D, because we drink tequila at the top of the even hills. Or something like that. Have to get a bigger flask for next year. I didn't expect Gunnar to help with it.

Speaking of flasks, the Punk Bike Enduro is this weekend!!! I hope to have a good report from it, and hopefully I won't end up as much of a drunken, bloody mess as I did last year. Things MAY have gotten just a tad out of hand. I should be ok, since we can't get Sparks anymore...

This is November?!?

Got out for a little leaf riding at Moraine on Saturday. I know that there were some rocks under there somewhere!!! The heavy leaf cover sure did make the riding hard!! Had a good time anyways, enjoying the sunny 65 degree day.

Went out Sunday on the road bike for the first time in a couple of weeks, and I really needed it. Took a bit for me to wake my legs up, but it really felt good. Got in a nice 50 miles, and didn't want to stop riding... Got home in time to do a few chores, and made it to the ACA banquet down at the Aviary. Nice time, I guess. Did ok on the powertap margarita machine, scoring 960 watts. Too bad I'm a fatass and they go by power to weight ratio. Gotta drop that 15 pounds soon. Definately feeling like I'm ready to start putting some serious miles in again...

Hope today goes by ok at work. Supposed to get up to 74 degrees or some crap today. Should have just stayed home "sick." Heh, yea right...

Laziness

I had planned on getting out to put in some long road miles today, but instead, I went back to sleep after eating some breakfast! It turned out being a little bit of a bike maintenance day. I put a new front tire on the mountain bike. Opted to put a set of Maxxis Raze 35's on the cross bike in preparation for the "Carrera de los Muertos" race in MoTown this weekend. Went out for a little Frick 'n Schenley ride for about 15 miles, just to test them out. Didn't feel too bad, but the riding was a little tricky with all of the new wet leaves covering everything.

Swung by the shop and hung out for a bit, and Steve pretty much saved my life. I accidentally left my front skewer a little loose after changing the tires, and it had vibrated REALLY loose. Just wanted to give a little thanks to Steve for helping me to keep this season going. THANKS STEVE!!

Got one day of work tomorrow, racin' Saturday, fun mountain ride Sunday, and hopefully some good riding on Monday and Tuesday. Hope the weather holds up!!

Weekend of Racing

Had a really nice, painful weekend of racing. Hit up the Murrysville Cyclocross Race on Saturday. It was my second cross race of the year, and I got a call up! Sweet!! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do too much with it. Was hanging in around the top 5 for the first couple of laps, and then I ran out of steam, and slowly slipped back through the ranks until I ended up in 15th. Still, I am ok with the result, as I do still have a lot to learn.

On Sunday, I had a choice between another cross race at Raccoon Township, or going to Moraine State Park for the last Month of Mud race of the year. Despite not being able to ride the rocks to save my life, I ended up finishing 3rd single speed, behind JPok and Montana, right about where I felt I should have been. Good times.

Got out this afternoon for a little spin around Frick Park, and it felt pretty good. Such a nice day out!!! Now I have to ride into work tonight...

Iron Cross

Iron Cross VII was last weekend, and it was a blast. Beautiful scenery, 40mph fire road descents, a 5 mile detour after missing a turn, it had everything that you could ask for!




Cloud in the road on the way to the start.

Before the race, I was unsure of how to dress. Temps were in the mid 40's, and it was expected to hit the low 60's around 1pm. Decided to go with a short sleeve jersey, wool armwarmers, and my normal bib shorts. This turns out to have been perfect for me, as the armwarmers never came off, they just got rolled down, and back up, a couple of times.




Another steaming lake. It was cold!

We missed the pre race meeting, but from what we gathered, they were lining people up by their estimated finishing time, which seemed to work out well, at least for me. I lined up just behind the really fast guys, in the second group. I had set my goal to be under 4:30, hoping for 4:15. We seemed to stand there forever, and I risked a quick jog to the woods to relieve myself one more time, and as I was headed back to my bike, heard "go!" Didn't lose my position, and did a flying mount onto my bike. Jake, however, was not quite so lucky, and was caught with his pants down!!

We did a shortened version of the IC Lite course, including the spiral of death, and then it was off into the woods along the rail trail. Fell into the paceline, pushing at about 25 or so, gradually moving up, to my surprise. Pop out into a little park, through about a 20 yard sandpit, barely sustaining my momentum without falling, despite having to dodge 2 falling racers.

After this, we had a long, gradual double track climb, where I was somehow able to pass about 10 or so more racers. I was worried that I might have been pushing a little too hard, but my fuel from Dunkin Donuts before the race had me feeling pretty damn good.

Continued up, into some singletrack, more climbing, and then finally hit the infamous powerline hike a bike. I didn't realize that it would be a seriously steep, rocky hiking trail! It was kind of slow going, and noone around me really seemed to be trying to go super fast up it, so I just settled in and worked my way to the top. Someone reminded us to take a look back at the top, and it was a pretty amazing view.

Get up to the aid station, and then more fireroad. Manage to catch up with some pretty fast guys, and worked with them for a bit. Two of us break away, and a third catches us. We make a right turn, the road curves around, and we start hammering the rollers. See another guy that is wondering if we are going the wrong way. Uh oh. He could be wrong, so 2 of us keep going, and then we hit a stop sign. Time to turn around. Apparently, if I would have gone to the pre race meeting, I would have known that there is one turn that is marked on the pavement, instead if the little black arrows on yellow paper that mark out the rest of the course. Yea, that was the turn. Get back on the course, a little upset that I just wasted probably 15 mins, and keep moving.

The rest is a bit of a blur, just kept moving along. Ended up getting passed on the last climb by the 2nd place female finisher, but got ahead of her again on the screaming fast road finish. 4:34, 22nd senior men, 42nd over all. Meh. Next year at least. I'll know better. At least I still beat Jake!!

Not bad for my first weekend of racin' on the 'cross bike!!

Laurel Ridge Painfest

Yesterday, I thought that it might be a good idea to go out and put some serious miles in. The last time that I went up to Laurel Mountain to ride the mountain bike trails, I couldn't believe that they had re-paved route 30 going up the mountain. It was making me wish that I had my road bike to try bombing down it. It is about a 4 mile downhill, with most of it being about an 8% grade (at least that's what the sign says.) It seemed like it was supposed to be a nice day, so what the hell, might as well ride up there!

Left from home, riding my old commuting route out following 993 out to and past Irwin, (made it in record time btw, 51 minutes!!) and went out through Jeannette. Hopped on 130 through Greensburg, and kept going through Stahlstown. Made it to the magical water spring on Lynn Run Road, and this is where things get a little weird.

For some reason, somebody thought that it would be a good idea to cover up the pavement, albeit crumbling pavement, with crushed limestone. Ya know, the stuff that rail trails are made of. But two lanes wide. Needless to say, this was not a good time on the road bike with 23's on it.

Needless to say it was a rough climb. Took me a bit, and it took a lot out of me, but I made it. After riding around a bulldozer and a grader. Get up top, and the dirt/gravel road was actually pretty smooth. Ran into a few friends that were out on their mountain bikes, stopped to put my armwarmers back on, cause it was chilly up there, and took lots of pictures of fall stuff...

After riding across the top, tried to bomb down route 30. Well, too bad there was a serious head wind. I couldn't even break 45 mph. Boo. The nice smooth new pavement was pretty awesome though, railing through the turns. Rode into Ligonier, and stopped for a sugary snack. As soon as I started rolling again, noticed that I had a flat on my rear tire, crap. Changed that, and kept rolling.

Rode past Keystone State Park, Loyalhanna, and kept got on 286, and wasn't feeling well. Stopped and sucked down a can of mountain dew, and as I started to move again, started to realize that I was going to be pushing it getting home in daylight. This was a problem for me, as I didn't bring any lights with me at all, and it was going to be close. I was trying to decide which way that I should go, the longer and flatter way, or the shorter hillier way. Ended up taking my chances with the hills.

Ended up making it back through Penn Hills, in the nick of time....

Made it home in time to shower, and get my butt to wing night at Fatheads!!!

Total for the day 130 miles, 7:56 ride time. Wow, mapmyride says only 6400 feet of climbing. Lame.

Ouch

Yea, so I can't really move very well today. Maybe I should have started out a little slower on the running crap? Going to try and roll around and take the longer way into work tonight, if I can get moving. Blah.

Almost cross season

I'm starting to get excited for cross season finally. Or maybe I'm ready to wrap up mountain bike season? Skipping out on the WVMBA series championship in the am because I am stuck at work tonight. It's looking like my last mountain race of the season will be Revenge of the Rattlesnake in Davis, WV.

I went to cross practice for a bit on Tuesday for the first time this year, and from the small amount of running that I did, I am still feeling it 4 days later. I think that I am going to try and run maybe 2 or 3 days a week. I started today before work, and it really wasn't too bad. Only meant to go out for about 2 mikes or so, but ended up with about 4. I have very hesitant about running, ever since I had some knee issues a few years ago. That probably didn't have anything to do with the issues I had them, I just partially blamed the running, because it sucks!! The real reason that I was having problems then, I think, is that I was riding way too much, in freezing cold weather, without warming up or stretching properly. Ever since, I have shied away from running, but if I'm going to race cross this year, I'm going to have to suck it up a little bit.

It's looking like my first cross race is going to be Iron Cross. Hah, way to start out the season!!

Back to reality

So, I'm now back from the Shenandoah 100, and a few days in Asheville, NC. The race was fun, the vacation was wet. I wish that we could have spent a few more nice days there. Maybe we have to do a little bit of a better job planning next time. It was definately nice to sleep in a bunch of days in a row. The 5 hours of sleep every night is going to take some getting used to again.

I'm pretty happy with my time at the race, with a 9:09. Almost cracked the top 50 ish, I think. Definately getting a lot better at these races. I got stuck for a bit going up one of the singletrack climbs, and waited a little too long to pass. If not for that, I could have cracked 9 hours. At least now I have a goal for next year.

Totally skipped out on racing altogether this weekend, and I feel bad about it, because I know that Chrissy wanted to race, but just didn't feel like spending 4 hours in a car each way to the race. We ended up going kayaking on the river instead, and enjoyed the day.

Still trying to figure out how to race in Morgantown this weekend, since I have to work till 5 am Sunday morning, and be back to work at 5 pm. Blah. Pack fodder once again?? We'll see.

The Black Bear 40 k

This weekend we went down to Charleston, WV, for the Black Bear 40 k, one of the "Scariest races in America" or something like that. I can't remember right now, as I don't have the awesome shirt in front of me.

Saturday started out well enough, got there early afternoon-ish, and made the 15 minute drive from Brad's place to go on a nice little leisurely pre-ride.
Yea. We were shown what happens when you get a little TOO far back behind the saddle on a rocky descent: sometimes the trail likes to slam you in the ribs to remind you who's boss. The trail also likes to punish you when you skip a section and take the beginner section back.

Had a cooling downpour, climbed some more hills, rode past what sounded like the entire population of Charleston exercising their right to bear arms at ye olde shooting gallery, and climbed some more. Eventually we found our way back to the car, and moved on to food and beer preparations for the night. Grilled meat, beer, football, and Rocky IV, wrapped up the night. "If he dies, he dies."

Onto race day... To be perfectly honest, I just wasn't feeling it today. I absoubtely had no motivation to go up this first hill! Oh well, here we go. Started out quick as usual, and I was in my normal mid to rear of the pack. Keep going up for a while, and somehow I am not getting dropped... What's going on?? Decide to turn on the gas a bit, and was surprised to see myself passing Don, and then Brad.... That didn't stick for very long. The double track turned it up a little more, and I popped. Oh boy, this is going to be a long day. Lost all of the ground that I did manage to gain, and now I was dead. Oh well, at the top tried to catch my breath for a second, and into the awesome swoopy singletrack.

The rest of the race, for me at least, was pretty uneventful. Crazy stupid steep downhills that I couldn't ride fast enough to gain any ground on, then right back up to the top again, etc. Didn't crash, although I did kind of hip check a tree early on, but it only resulted in a little scrape.

Didn't finish as far back as I thought I did, but still disappointed with 5th. I think I am just a little worn out from putting some serious miles in last week in preparation for the Shenandoah 100. Also, after this race, I switched my gearing to 34x21, and it seems to be much better for me. I may spin out on the road a little quicker, but I am a faster climber, and I'm nowhere near as fatigued at the top of the climbs. Hopefully it will work out for me this weekend....

The week so far

Sunday, was the Pittsburgh-Roubaix, otherwise known as the worlds hardest alleycat race. It ended up being about 46 miles, with 4600 feet of climbing... on effing cobbles! Check it out: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Pittsburgh-Roubaix-2009-w-Capital

Finished in just about 3 hours flat somehow. It really, really hurt. The Dirty Dozen is hard, but at least you get a break after every hill. This was just nonstop, and I thought that I might puke a couple of times. Buena Vista in the North Side may be the worst hill ever. I ended up with 4th place. Unfortunately, I couldn't stick around for the after party, because I had to go to work all night. It was a good time nonetheless.

Tuesday was looking to be a beautiful day, so I thought that it would be a good day to put in some long miles to get ready for the Shenandoah 100 in a couple of weeks. Found a route called The Thrift Drug Classic 200k. Pretty sick route. Five miles into the ride you have to climb up Sycamore. Ended up in the middle of nowhere on the way to West Virginia, dipping into Ohio for a few miles before heading back into PA. Route 68 pretty much sucks from Ohio to Evans City. Got back in time to hang out at the oval, and watched the women's race, before heading home for dinner. Managed to get 130 miles on the day. Sweet!

Wednesday was the last points race at the oval for the season, and it just so happened that we were going to be racing the P course. The last time that I tried it, I got dropped from the lead group pretty quickly, and got lapped fairly soon after, so I was hoping for a decent result this time.

Started out super fast as usual, and managed to hang on pretty well, despite being really sore from my long day in the saddle on Tuesday. Eric was working for me and Ted, as he could no longer score points in the B race, so that seemed to be working out helping me stay with the lead group when I had to take a little breather for a few seconds. Did pretty well, until with about 15 laps to go, Ted had his second unfortunate crash, right in front of me, and by the time that I caught back up, I was blown up. Hung back for a while, until a pack of guys who had been lapped caught up to me, and then I sat in with them for the remaider of the race. Very fun course, and one hell of a workout.

This weekend takes us to Charleston, WV, to hang out with Brad, and to do the Black Bear race. Hopefully I'll remember to take my climbing legs with me. Should be a pretty good time either way.

Epic ride?

What defines an Epic Ride? Stupid long distance? Overcoming mechanical difficulties? Getting lost? Bonking? Torrential downpours? Bridges out, with unknown detours?? Yea, that sounds about right.

A couple of weeks ago I found in my email a fun sounding training ride, called "The Laurel Ridge Pain Fest." I've been itching to try it out ever sice I read about it. Looked to be around 120 miles from my house, topping out at Laurel Mountain, and then heading back. The plan was to head out around 8, and hopefully beat the weather. It seemed like a good idea at the time anyways.

Managed to get on the road at about 10:30, and made it into Greensburg before my first near-life experience. Just before crossing route 30, on the other side of town, a van cuts me off while he was taking the off ramp to get onto 30, which I happened to be blocking, since I was traveling straight on route 130, but whatever. I guess he was pissed because maybe he thought that all traffic should be going his way?? Oh well, he slid, I slid, and I lived to tell about it, although I was really pissed for a while. Shortly thereafter, we came to the first detour. We could have possibly made it through the construction, but maybe the detour would be nice. Oops, now we're on route 30. Oh well, guess we'll just follow this for a bit. Ended up not being too bad. I never realized how much of a shoulder there is on it. Find the turn for the detour, and then it was time for the big "rollers."

Back on the route, had a couple of mean climbs, with some fun downhills afterwards. Found another bridge out, but this one was easy to get over, just had to jump a couple of jersey barriers. This is about when we started noticing the big dark clouds off to our right. Huh. That can't be good. When the rain did start, it actually felt really good. In the middle of another endless climb, trying to concentrate on getting to the top, thinking, "well, at least there's no lightning." CRACK. Ok, now there's lightning. Finally get to the top of this climb, then downhill with no brakes, pop out in a really cool little field, and the sun decided to rejoin us. Awesome.

Finally make it to Linn Run, refill bottles from the spring, and make the decision to abandon the rest of the route, and try to figure out the quickest way back, as it was starting to get late. Decide to take Route 30 the whole way back to Greensburg. Wasn't a terrible ride, and after a quick flat change made it almost home before getting caught in another quick downpour, sans lightning.

Ended up with 114 miles on the day, not a bad little endurance training ride. Hoping to do one a bit bigger than that next week, to prepare for the Shenandoah 100 in a couple of weeks. Also looking forward to the Pittsburgh Roubaix, in just a hair under 12 hours now.

If only I could get out of this work crap tonight, I could be racing the mountain bike tomorrow. Unfortunately, not this weekend.

Restin'

This weekend pretty much ended up being a rest weekend. The original plan was to head out for a little 120 ish mile ride on Sunday, but I suppose that it just wasn't meant to be.

Caught up on some much needed sleep, and decided that a 60-70 mile ride would be a better idea... until I went outside! Starting a long ride at 1pm in august is probably not the best idea that I had ever come up with. It was probably 90 when we left, and 20 miles in, I knew that we wouldn't be making our planned route. A quick turn, changed it into 35 miles, which ended up being plenty.

Hit up the C race last night, and paid my $10 donation to the guys that like to sprint in that cluster fuck. Ugh, I don't know why I bother with that race sometimes, scares the crap out of me usually. Really looking forward to the P course tonight. I'm hoping that I can get out of work in time so I don't have to be too rushed. Shouldn't be a major problem. Ride home from work, change clothes and bikes, and roll down the hill. My goal tonight is to not get lapped. I'll just get out there and try to have some fun. If it ends up raining, not even sure if I'll go tonight, but probably will. Have to use my season pass, the race season at the oval is almost over.

Planning on doing a crazy EPIC ride tomorrow. From home to the top of Laurel Mountain and back. Have to look up the route at some point today. I can't wait to bomb down Route 30!! Should be fun. As will the bike-in movie tomorrow night, Rad! Totally psyched!

Hopefully I'll have a ride report tomorrow....

Day off, week off??

Well, I suppose that it had to happen sometime. I am tired. Just worn out. I didn't say burned out, just in need of a little break. Between Chrissy moving, work being back to normal with me trying to suck up a few overtime days, and spending a bunch of time going to races, I just haven't been able to catch up.

Yesterday, I had a day off. I figured that since I had a day to myself, I had some business that I should take care of. The radiator in my car has been giving me some crap lately, or more specifically, not doing it's job of keeping the coolant in the car, and it was about time to take care of this.

I had been looking around on the interwebs for a few days, trying to see exactly how to go about changing the radiator on the Jetta. Thought that I pretty much had it figured out, and about 4 hours later ended up with this:



Oh man. I hoped that I could get this thing back together. I had piles of bolts everywhere. It turned out, that it ended up being much easier getting it back together, and I only had one screw left over! Mission accomplished, I hope.

As far as riding goes, I got out on the road bike for a quick 20 miles or so this afternoon, as it had been feeling neglected lately. I don't think that I have ridden it for about 3 weeks. Felt pretty good once I got moving, and it was nice to get a little bit of time in on the fast bike. I'm kinda missing racing at the oval a little bit. Looking forward to the P course next week.

No racing this weekend. Thinking about heading out for a really long ride on Sunday, maybe 120 or so miles, up to Laurel Mountain and back. If not there, maybe something headed north. We'll see how everyhing turns out.

Big Bear Ultra

After the Wilderness 101 last weekend, and no sleep all week, I figured that it would be a fine idea to head out to the Big Bear Ultra. After all, it's only 47 miles, right?

After some late evening shenanigans from the Night Club, who were apparrently trying to burn down tents and blow up pets with fireworks, I ended up getting a solid nights sleep.

Up at 6, stuffed my face, while enjoying more fireworks set to a stirring soundtrack comprised mostly of Pantera. At 6 am. I love West Virginia.

On the line, being told to stay off the road here; on this side of the fence there; be careful on this particular trail, because someone lost 3 teeth there last week, etc. I wasn't really paying attention.

Off we go. Do a little loop around that round building in the front parking lot, then into the woods. First section wasn't too bad. I spun out for a second and almost took out Don, when he ran into me. Pretty sure that he found one of the few mud bogs on the course, and had to put a foot down in it. Cruising along for awhile, across a field, and then into a trail labeled with a sign that read, "VooDoo Rocks, Night Club approved." Uh oh, that probably isn't a good sign. There must have been a ton of bad voodoo there, because I couldn't for the life of me keep my feet on my pedals. I was smashing off of rocks left and right, and just could not find a rhythm at all. I think it was about 8 miles in that I had decided to quit if the course continued like that for much longer. It was probably the toughest section of trail that I can ever remember riding.

Thankfully, before too long, it smoothed out into some double track kinda grass roads, but now we had to climb a little bit. Nothing too bad that I remember, and then oh, look at that, we're in the pines going backwards. Awesome! From the pines, across the airfield, to the next dirt road were a ton of fun, and really lifted my spirits. I caught up with someone, so I wasn't even riding by myself anymore.

Popping out at the next double track, the arrows point right. Is there a trail?? Oh, that might be it there. Yea, um sort of. Needless to say, I was once again pissed off, being on another trail that I could not get any momentum on whatsoever. Climb back up to the top, at the store, and follow trail back to the start area. Rolling in, I see Chris McGill sitting there, I guess he had an even worse day than I did. Fill up water, Don was at his truck, not his day either. Stick rolled past me as I was getting water, so I figured I should go and chase him down.

Caught up to him pretty quick, and we were back and forth for a bit until again, I was by myself. I was finally starting to ride ok, and was waking up a little bit, starting to get a little flow. Managed to catch another singlespeed racer, and one other guy at an unmanned water station. Hit a pretty cool new trail behind the trials area at the airport, which will be amazing once it is ridden in a bit. Cross the airstrip, into the first half of the 24 hour course. Super fast, and riding really well, I pass Rob Loehr, who looks totally dead. Hit the last checkpoint for a fig, and ask how many people had been through, and he said 12. I jumped back on the bike, and started hammering. Bombed the downhill, passing Schultz at the bottom of it. No water in the creek, are you serious!! Had a decent climb, keepin it rolling. Getting back into the final stretch of single track, I could see someone else about 1/4 mile ahead of me, and I told myself that I was going to catch him. Finally got him right at the lake, probably 1 mile from the finish. Cruised on the wide trail, feeling pretty good, and rolled into the finish.

Ended up finishing 4th singlespeed in 4:41, I think. Was only 30 seconds behind Benji, and 1 minute out of 3rd ss. Travis crushed it with a 4:17, and won by about 10 mins. He finished at the same time a woman finished up the 22 mile first lap, and she promptly dropped out of the race.

Afterwards, it took about 2 hours for them to start feeding us, which sucked, but at least the food was good, as was the free beer. Really happy with the result, but I need to work on not getting as frustrated in the beginning of the race.

Wilderness 101

This year was to be my second attempt at the Wilderness 101, in Coburn, PA. Two years ago, I attempted this race as my first 100 mile race, and it was no fun at all. I think that I just made myself sick by being overly nervous, and ended up with a finishing time somewhere around 12 and a half hours. Ouch. This time, I wanted to get around 10 hours. Still on my single speed, and a lot stronger this year, I didn't think that it would be too much of a problem.

Got there late Friday afternoon, set up camp, and went out for a little spin with Jake, Brad, and Steevo. Just about a 40 min out and back on the rail trail to get the blood flowing a bit. Touhed a little of the last section of single track, Which was pretty slick, and turned back pretty quickly. Spun my ass off keeping up with the guys that have gears, and had a little scare when I almost hit a vw head on while riding on the wrong side of the dirt road. Got back to camp for dinner and a few beers, and off to bed at about midnight. Ugh.

Of course, I couldn't sleep. Woke at about 3:00, and that was it, I was up. Oh well, sleep is overrated anyways.

Lined up, and ended up getting a pretty good starting position, due to a last second bathroom stop. Thankfully we had a nice, controlled neutral start with a pretty decent pace. Even at the first turn, nobody really wanted to take off right away. Some people apparrently thought that we were still in a neutral rollout during the first climb. It started spreading out by about halfway up, when Brad passed me, giving me a tap on the shoulder on his way, looking like he was in the zone.

The first 40 miles or so is pretty much fireroad and double track, and goes by pretty fast. I was able to hang on to a couple of pacelines off and on, to help me pick up a little extra speed, and it definately helped me conserve some energy. Jake passed me a couple of miles before station 1, riding with a little group that was flying. See ya later dude...

Skipped station 1, and passed a good dozen people or more that were trying to suck down some water going up the first climb. I just kept hammering along up the climb, until there was nobody behind me. Once again, it looks like I'm riding by myself today.

From here until station 3 is pretty much a blur. Tried riding the climb out of 3, and ran into a little traffic. Got past them, and it got a little steeper than it was worth. Pushed off and on for a bit, until there was finally I couldn't go up anymore.

Pull into station 4, and it looked like they weren't even set up yet. Oh well, top off the water, couple fig newtons, and up the last really bad climb. Walked about the first half, just to take a breather, as I had been going pretty hard for most of the race. Got onto the second part, and a guy was riding up the climb with his kid in a trailer. Well, if he is riding it, I had better ride too. Back on the bike, up, up, up, ok, now we're there. This part of the trail is superfast, mostly flat and downhill, and a ton of fun from what I remember. For the most part it was. Then, wait a minute, where did that fence come from???? And steep little hike a bikes??? Wow, that sucks. Ok, back to the fun stuff. Roll into station 5, handfull of pringles, water is enough for the last 12 miles, we're off.

Ride through the park daydreaming a little, getting hungry for real food, cruising down the little hill, and onto the rail trail. Wait, is this right?? Isn't there supposed to be a tunnel here. Dead end at the river. Crap, missed a turn somehow. Turn around, ride the half mile or so back, and there is a jeep parked in front of the turn arrow. Great. Ok, looks better now. Pass a Mennonite family with 3 women on bikes, and a trailer full of kids being pulled by a pony. They kept yelling at it to move over. It was pretty funny. Out the trail, up the last climb, bomb down the hill, into the last singletrack section. Suddenly, I can't ride my bike, but still pass 2 guys that can ride their bikes even less than me. Crap, they have gears. They'll probably catch me on the rail trail. They didn't, but they did catch me on the road about 1/4 mile from the finish. Ended up with a 9:17, which I am really thrilled with. Good enough for 16th place single speed. I'm getting there. Maybe I'll have to start training.

Finally....

Well, I finally got around to making the blog. Have an incredibly boring day at work, so this should occupy me for a bit. This will be primarily a place to post race reports and riding adventures. I've got a little bit of a backlog of races that I wanted to write about for some time now, so things may be a bit mixed up for a while, but I'll get there.