Friday:
Arrived at 9 Mile county forest in the early afternoon of Friday so
Jeff showed me around a bit to show me how things worked. We also found the race director to determine where we were to set up our pit area. The Cannondale truck was coming in for support so we needed a fairly large space. Once that was figured out Jeff and I went out to check the course conditions. The first couple of miles are double track/fireroad with one very short climb before arriving at some easy flowing single track. The single track at 9Mile was really sweet; aspects such as fast flowing sections combined with rocky descents, rocky climbs, and even some fresh trail that was a true pita to find mine groove. Cateye computer read that a lap was 13.5 miles and we covered the pre-ride in 73 minutes at a "afternoon ride" pace. Also got the opportunity to meet
Sloane and his pit crew. Jeff, Sloane, and I were to share a pit area that would be supplied by
Cannondale, mechanic and all.
Saturday:
Out of bed and loaded up the car at 5am and went to get some breakfast at a local restaurant. Hasbrowns and eggs in the morning...yummy. Arrived at 9Mile around 7am and went to our pit area to get setup. It rained pretty hard during Friday evening/Saturday morning so the trail conditions would definately change. Picked up race packets and timing chips and numbers from the registration booth and talked with a few other racers for a while then made our way back to our pit area. We were around 600 meters or so from the Start/Finish area so we had plenty of opportunity to run into people including the Irwin's guys from Des Moines who were racing on a team. Once the Cannondale truck showed up, we got our bikes setup and then dressed for the race. Heading for the start line, I ran into my good friend Vance McCaw and his wife who both work at Trek. Vance is the one who first got me to try MTB racing and taught me a ton of things about repair. Great to see them out racing since I might see them once a year if I am lucky.
Race start:
The plan was to settle into a good pace early and just maintain and shoot for the top half of the field by the finish. I was not going to go out at XC pace and destroy myself in the first couple of laps.
Standing at the start line with all of the other racers that were going for the National Title including riders such as Eatough, Ross, Chambers, Ernesto, and Hendershot to name a few. I was also finaly able to meet Scott Cave before the start of the race. I have talked with him on the phone at
the shop and Jeff went to the Ouachita Challenge with him so it was inevitable to bump into Scott eventually. For clarification, I am not a runner any more. I used to run quite a bit many years ago but unfortunatly I do not now and therefore the Le Mans start sucks...for me. I didn't put too much emphasis on it especially considrering how much wide open trail was in the first couple of miles. There was a lot of shoulder pushing and arm grabbing during the run but no problems that I am aware of.
Lap one:
As I expected, the field was blown apart pretty quickly in the first couple of miles. Lots of the team riders were absolutely flying but they were of no concern to me. My tech skills were dead on and I was catching riders like crazy in the rocky singletrack sections. There was not a lot of area available for passing but many of them some how managed to move out of the way at just the right time. I was feeling really good although I was tempted to follow the wheels of some of the team riders who blew by me but I kept my senses and stayed in my world. There were three or four rocky, technical sections that I was totally digging. My Cannondale Rush ate up the descents as if they were smooth flat trail and the rocky, one riding line sections were a breeze. Not a single problem to be had here. Everything was going to plan until I went into a right hand corner just a wee bit too hot and lost the front end. The trail was covered with small pebbles and my right knee/shin took a real beating right quick. A quick check of the bike and I was off riding again while checking my knee when I would get to the double track sections. I had blood going all the way to my ankle and could see pebbles still in my leg but was unsure of how bad it was. Finshed the lap still within my pace goal of a 1:20 lap time and Amy cleaned off my leg a bit so I set off for lap two.
Laps two through eight:
Started out just fine keeping pace with my first lap until about the half waypoint and the throbbing in my leg became pretty apparent. I pushed through to the end of lap two to my pit area to refuel and have them look at my leg again. We determined that I should see the first-aid station so I went to start/finish area and parked my bike to get my leg cleaned out. Ouch. It was only soap and water with a soft sponge brush but it still hurt like crazy. They cleaned it up really well, gave me some ibuprofen and off I went for lap three. I figure that I lost 10-15 minutes at the first-aid station so my third lap ride time of around 90 minutes was still pretty good all things considered. I was able to maintain this pace for the next two laps also before things just went bad for what ever reason. I don't know if I stressed myself because of my leg or what but I could tell that I was not digesting food which means I didn't want to eat or drink anything. After taking care of that I was able to get back on the bike although my leg was starting to feel really bad. Walking and standing hurt like all get out but pedaling was fine so I was going to try to continue riding. First lap in the dark was no problem but the second one got really sketchy. As I was descending through a set of rocky and rooty switch backs, my front wheel just stopped on a rock and over the bars I went. I landed on my hands of course but was able to roll out of the way before my bike hit the ground. I actually saw it in the air as I was rolling onto my bike, the reflective decals lighting up the sky. My palms took the brunt of it with my right palm getting a rather quick bruise. This course and I were definately not getting along. My rear disc rotor hit something so it was bent enough that it was dragging but would still turn so I finshed out the lap around midnight I think. I sat down for a while in the pit area getting some knee care while Troy (Cannondale mechanic) fixed Rush #2. I sat long enough that I eventually feel asleep. I was to the point where I hurt so much that I couldn't stay focused on the my riding and felt that I was destined to do some serious damage to me or a bike and so I slept until 6am. When I woke up it was pouring rain and I was surprised to see that Jeff was also sitting there. Course was getting pretty nasty but there were still some riders out there turning laps. Jeff and I headed up to start/finsh line at around 7am and turned in our timing chips.
I had nothing left to give, knee hurt like heck, and I wanted a shower.
I am disappointed in the results for this race because I know that I could have done a lot better but some things are just out of my control. Thanks go out to Amy for all of her help with food and first-aid, my parents for their support and company, Jeff's parents and sister for their support and company, Sloane's mother and friend for their support and company, and to Evan and Troy for having the resources available to us for support and repairs. I even received a new rear brake rotor out of it all, sweet.
Results can be seen
here. The race actually got called early because of a torando warning/watch. Jeff and I checked in but apparently there was some confusion and we lost our last laps. I don't understand it all but life goes on.
Today my leg is throbbing. It hurts to bend it in a pedaling motion so I may be off of the bike for a couple of days. Walking up or down the stairs is a nightmare. I should have bought a one story house with no basement and a ramp into the front door.