So, I read about this race on the mountain bike series message board and decided to do it. Despite it being the Saturday after Thanksgiving, temperatures below 30f and the chance of freezing rain, the turnout was really good. Most of the participants were teams, but there were 3 solo men and 4 solo women. There's hardly ever as many women racing as men, much less more!
One of the women was my good friend Addie who took the sport women mountain bike series championship this year (I've never beat her). Another was this really nice woman who may have been stoned. The third was camo girl-she was wearing camo shorts, coat, and face mask. Camo girl was asking me questions on the start line-just trying to size me up I guess. "How many laps are you going to do? How many races have you done?" etc. At 6:02 we were off.
My plan was to race the whole 6 hours. I knew that I could stay within 10 minutes of Addie, and I thought she'd eventually quit. Camo girl took off trying to get a lead and I followed her. She was sucking wind and I started chatting. "Do you race much?" "Did you do any of the series races?" She crashed. I passed her.
So, laps 1, 2, and 3 were pretty routine-Addie passed me, but I knew I was on target. Between laps 3 & 4 Addie had to change light batteries and I passed her in the pit. On lap 4 my light battery died and I had to change it mid lap. When I got to the pit, NONE of my batteries worked and while I threw them on the charger and resigned myself to losing, a nice man generously gave up his light system saying he was done-Addie was now about 20 minutes ahead because of all the light panicking (we had came into the gate together). Ahhhh, damnit! Camo girl was just one lap behind me-going out for her fourth while I was trying to find a light source, and thinking my race was over. I was just giving away time to her. Finally, the guy came back and hooked me up with an old skool Light & Motion with one lamp burned out. I took it and headed out!
I made lap 5 slower due to the light, but felt really good. I hit the pit at 11:20 and see Addie hanging out. She looks at me and says "I'm cooked". Really? So, I ask the official "If I finish after midnight does it still count?" Yep. It does.
I grabbed my battery off the charger and rolled out. The course is about 2 miles of singletrack over a mile being these gigantic whoop-de-doos that transitioned into off camber berms before whoop-de-doing again-2 miles of pasture singletrack-2 more miles of singletrack woods-and finishing with 1/2 mile of pasture to the finish. So, the borrowed light made it through the whoop de doos, but burned out while I was still in the first half of the woods. I tried to adjust my other light and it snapped off my bars, breaking the mount (it was THAT COLD!). Shit. Shit. Shit. At this point, if I had to take my shoes off and run I was going to. If I was going to lose, the bitch was going to have to work for it. I ran my bike out of the woods hoping that the other girl wasn't behind me.
I rode the first pasture section sans light and managed to tuck the lamp for my HID light between the bars and break cable where it would point at the trail while jiggling around on the second half of woods-I tried to tie it with the twist ties that held my number plate, but they wouldn't work. I could granny gear it slowly without turning the lamp as long as I walked the really rough stuff. Finally, I saw the sign for the .5 miles left and got out of the woods. As I was leaving the woods-there was a light chasing me. I knew it was her. I just knew it. I tried to sprint it, hitting the line at 12:45 with 6 laps. "Sorry I'm so late" I apologize; the official says "It's okay, you're not the last one off course" and a guy rolls in two minutes behind me
Whew!
Turns out, Camo girl finished her 5th lap after midnight and was denied a 6th lap-though she wanted it. She told Addie she was going to win.
So, the results were:
$100 1st-Me with 6 laps in 6 hours 45 minutes
$80 2nd-Addie with 5 laps in 4 hours 50 minutes
$50 3rd-Camo girl with 5 laps in over 6 hours
4th-never saw her after the start, but she completed 3 laps.
Solo Men
1st - my good friend Dan with 9 laps
More than any of the teams, even.
2nd- 5 laps
3rd- 4 laps