The only real thing I didn't care for was the fact that the race was on Sunday. This was not a deal breaker since the race was fairly close to home, but it does make me drive home after the race. I headed over Saturday afternoon and got there in time to get a good spot for the pit tent. The other racers in the group showed up and we went for a lap to check the trail out. It had been a couple years since I have been here. The course was different then the last race. It was a pretty fun loop with a plenty of variety. After the ride we headed to The 857 Taproom and Grill to eat and re-hydrate. It was a real nice place and good service.
Hanging out for the rest of the evening was fun and I even got a pretty good night sleep. I came in to this race with very low expectations. I am not riding as well as I was last year and had really slowed down a lot since Lumberjack. I have been trying to get back in to the groove and get stronger, but my legs have just not been responding. I also knew there were some really fast guys signed up for the SS class, so even if I was riding well, it would take a great day or a mechanical on their part to beat them. I was really just here to support the ride and get some good training in for Fools Gold and BT Epic.
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| Photo credit: @lauralou644 |
The morning moved along pretty quickly. I made my coffee, ate breakfast and did the last minute things to my bike to get ready. As normal on race mornings it seems like you have a ton of time only to be running around last minute to get to the line. Since I was running a little late to the racer meeting, this unknowingly put me in a great place to get a good starting position. I didn't want to be in the front row, but I did want to be fairly close to it. I know my bike of choice can be an issue on the wide open prelude lap, but I also wanted to be right behind the fast guys when we hit the trail so I can minimize the conga line.
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| Photo credit: @lauralou644 |
I didn't do too bad on the field section and went in to the woods pretty far up in the group. I knew there would be a conga line and any tough little tough spots would have people stopping and bunching up. I tried to not get caught up in the race stress and just do what I could. I have 6 hours to race, no need to do anything stupid in the first 20 min. I made passes when it worked out, but didn't force anything. I did have a couple people behind me that were not happy with how slow things were going and wanted to move forward. Getting all stressed out and forcing passes in bad places even had one wrecking. After letting a few people around and passing a few others, I had a pretty wide open trail ahead. Exactly how I wanted it to be. The rest of the lap went really well and I came through the pit section feeling good enough that for some reason I rode a wheelie most of the way toward our pit.
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| Photo credit: @lauralou644 |
My lap time was pretty close to what I had in mind and I was feeling pretty good. I did my planned lap eating/drinking maintenance and headed back out for lap two. The first few laps all blended together in my memory, but I did have some good laps. I rode with several different people for some sections. I was riding better than I expected. Not really going "fast" but I was turning the pedals over well enough and I was climbing everything. I made my normal race lap stop at the pit. Made sure to drink and eat something. What exactly, changed every lap but I felt like I was putting a good amount of calories in and staying hydrated.
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| Photo credit: Kent Baumgardt |
This continued pretty well until lap 4. This is the lap that things started to hurt. I had a couple twinges on the steep parts that made me think I would eventually cramp. I tried to just keep moving at what ever pace the bike liked and to not try to force any sections. I was still climbing everything, but started to think I might have to walk at some point. When I came in to the pits my excitement was a lot lower than the previous laps. I took a little more time to try and take in things that would help me snap out of this hole. Before I left I said only 2 more laps. I had came in to the race thinking I would be content with myself if I could put in 6 laps. But Laura, our awesome pit crew person, told me that I had enough time for 3 more. Ugh!! I was not feeling like I had 3 more in me.
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| Photo credit: Kent Baumgardt |
I started the next lap thinking about needing 3 more laps. I continued to try and ride as smart and smooth as I could to minimize any extra energy being used. I was still riding ok and climbing everything, well except for one tough climb section were Eli was getting ready to lap me. I didn't want to get in his way at all and figured a little walk might do me some good. I made sure and move to the side plenty early as I heard the freight train coming. He looked like he was still riding faster than any of my laps. Maybe someday I can get closer to riding like that.
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| Photo credit: @lauralou644 |
When I came in after my 6th lap I drank a lot more Mountain Dew, some chips and ate some more pickles just trying to find what I needed to make this last lap. I even debated grabbing a beer, but I thought this would not be a good idea and off I went before my brain could talk me out of it. As I hit the woods there was no one around me. I rode almost half of this lap with out really seeing anyone else. It felt like I was the only one in the woods and not part of a big 6 hour race. It was really strange. I knew some people probably were done, but I figured more duo people would be still riding strong and passing me. I also kind of figured that Bushong would be close to lapping me my now since I knew he was running pretty strong.
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| Photo credit: Kent Baumgardt |
I was still climbing most things and only got off on a couple of the harder sections where the hint of cramps were worse in previous laps. I am happy to say that I climbed the wall on all of my laps, I am sure riding it is easier that walking it. I started to see a couple more racers and I even passed some. I was most worried that I had slowed down enough for another SS racer to pass me. I really had no idea what place I was in but didn't want to loose any places at this point so I just kept trying to move forward. At this point I also thought back to that long wheelie I did on the first lap and really wish I had that energy back. Was that energy just wasted?
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| Photo credit: Kent Baumgardt |
I was digging pretty deep in to the well and apparently got a little fuzzy. Toward the end of the lap I looked at my computer and somehow did the math that if I could finish my lap in 30 minutes I would still have an hour left. I knew that if I had that much time I would have to go out for another lap. I didn't really want to do another lap, but would not be happy with myself for stopping. The last couple miles of the lap felt like they took forever. Eventually I hit the last section of single-track and new the finish was not too far away. As I rolled past the finish line and headed toward the pits I saw that I only had 36 min left. That was not near enough time for me to head out for lap #8 and I was just fine with that. I have no idea what numbers I looked at on my computer to think I would still have an hour.
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| Photo credit: Kent Baumgardt |
Once that settled in I was very happy to be done. I ended up with 7 laps and in 4th place SS. It also turns out that even with another lap I would not have moved up any places and would have just been more miles on the legs. It look me a little bit to get my whits about me and get cleaned up. I drank a big bottle of water and ate some food. As I was trying to gather myself some action was still out on course. Turns out that Jeff Wass went out for another lap and came in with a faster time that his previous to barely finish in the time limit to move up to 2nd place SS. I hate that Bushong ended up 3rd because of it and after riding so strong for most of the day, but it was pretty cool to have all the excitement at the end of the day. I then had to pack up my stuff and clean up the pit area and check out the awards. Congrats to both of them and Eli for killing it in the SS class.
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| Photo credit: @lauralou644 |
I want to also congratulate Tammy Bushong, who normally does not race, for lining up and finishing in 3rd place while looking stylish in her Twin Six kit. You are much stronger and faster than you give yourself credit. I want to thank Larua Fritz for being such an awesome pit crew all day. I would have never done 7 laps with out you talking me in to it. I also want to thank the Childress family for bringing 6 hour racing back closer to home and to all of the other volunteers and people that helped them pull this off. I want to thank Kent for being out there selflessly taking pictures all day. It was crazy all the places he would show up and how many times a lap I would see him. This was a top notch event that ran super smooth. It looked to me that everyone had a great time and I can only hope there is another race next year, I know I will be there.
#teamadventuresmtb #twinsix #twinsixmetalmilitia #carborocket #esigrips #wolftoothcomp #truckerco #truckercoposse #hshive #honeystinger #stingorbeestung #dumondetech
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