Racing fool! - UPDATED!
Tonight was the Farmall Hill MTB Challenge. For beginners, such as myself, it's 6 miles of grueling up and down single track trails (meaning the trail is about the width of the handlebars on a mountain bike). It's a no recovery course, meaning you have no chance to recover your breathing before the next hill. And they weren't kidding.
Granted, this is only my second mountain bike race, but damn it was hard! I had to walk up a lot of the hills (but not all!). It was tiring as hell. There were some relatively flat areas where you could recover a little, but then it was back into the hills.
The family came out with me to cheer me on, which was awesome, let me tell you! Nothing like having a cheering section to keep you motivated. After 2 laps, I was questioning whether I'd make it. It was a bit humid tonight, thought there was a breeze. I was cramping up a little and taking water made it worse instead of better. However, I did the only thing I could do. The beginning of the course was a long downhill where you could cruise. I took it on the 3rd lap and got on the trails. Once your in, the only thing to do is keep going. Since I was committed, I had to finish the race.
Overall, I did pretty good. I only crashed once! And not too bad. There was one hill we went down near the end of each lap (the race was three 2 mile laps). You're at the top, there's this little dip that lets you get into a track, then you hit this hill that looks nearly vertical from the top. I swear it's about 70 degrees down or more. I figured if I was going to bite it anywhere, it would be there. Each time I went down the hill leaning back, center of gravity low, applying the brakes as hard as I dared. The only thing going through my mind was not to flip over the handlebars, which I felt in danger of doing each time.
So where did I bite it? A WAY smaller hill that I handled well each time before. On the 3rd lap, I was pretty tired and the hill was right off a turn. As I came around the turn, I didn't get the right line on the hill and ended up in the grass. I totally lost the bike and ended up on my back in the brush with my head pointing downhill. After a quick word or two inappropriate for young viewers, I got back on the bike and kept going. I did walk down the hill because I wasn't too sure about starting out on a downhill like that.
I finished the race in just over an hour according to the "official" timekeepers. I had my stopwatch going and it said 58 minutes. Oh well, still a great time! All I wanted to do when I finished was fall down and die, but I managed to walk it off. I'm not too sore right now, but I'm sure I wil be tomorrow!
All in all I had a blast! It was tiring, scary, challenging, and wicked fun. There are 3 races in the series, with the following 2 races next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that. I won't be competing next week since I have a conflict. But I might not have anyway after today's race. I'm too whipped! I may race the following week. We'll have to see how the weather is and how I'm feeling. At least next time I'll know the course and can pace myself a little better.
UPDATE: Pictures of the race are on the site! Look for number B10 wearing a red Fox jersey, red helmet, on a white bike. Some good snaps of me racing! I'm sure you'll figure out which is me. (In case you missed it, the link is on the word pictures).
Granted, this is only my second mountain bike race, but damn it was hard! I had to walk up a lot of the hills (but not all!). It was tiring as hell. There were some relatively flat areas where you could recover a little, but then it was back into the hills.
The family came out with me to cheer me on, which was awesome, let me tell you! Nothing like having a cheering section to keep you motivated. After 2 laps, I was questioning whether I'd make it. It was a bit humid tonight, thought there was a breeze. I was cramping up a little and taking water made it worse instead of better. However, I did the only thing I could do. The beginning of the course was a long downhill where you could cruise. I took it on the 3rd lap and got on the trails. Once your in, the only thing to do is keep going. Since I was committed, I had to finish the race.
Overall, I did pretty good. I only crashed once! And not too bad. There was one hill we went down near the end of each lap (the race was three 2 mile laps). You're at the top, there's this little dip that lets you get into a track, then you hit this hill that looks nearly vertical from the top. I swear it's about 70 degrees down or more. I figured if I was going to bite it anywhere, it would be there. Each time I went down the hill leaning back, center of gravity low, applying the brakes as hard as I dared. The only thing going through my mind was not to flip over the handlebars, which I felt in danger of doing each time.
So where did I bite it? A WAY smaller hill that I handled well each time before. On the 3rd lap, I was pretty tired and the hill was right off a turn. As I came around the turn, I didn't get the right line on the hill and ended up in the grass. I totally lost the bike and ended up on my back in the brush with my head pointing downhill. After a quick word or two inappropriate for young viewers, I got back on the bike and kept going. I did walk down the hill because I wasn't too sure about starting out on a downhill like that.
I finished the race in just over an hour according to the "official" timekeepers. I had my stopwatch going and it said 58 minutes. Oh well, still a great time! All I wanted to do when I finished was fall down and die, but I managed to walk it off. I'm not too sore right now, but I'm sure I wil be tomorrow!
All in all I had a blast! It was tiring, scary, challenging, and wicked fun. There are 3 races in the series, with the following 2 races next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that. I won't be competing next week since I have a conflict. But I might not have anyway after today's race. I'm too whipped! I may race the following week. We'll have to see how the weather is and how I'm feeling. At least next time I'll know the course and can pace myself a little better.
UPDATE: Pictures of the race are on the site! Look for number B10 wearing a red Fox jersey, red helmet, on a white bike. Some good snaps of me racing! I'm sure you'll figure out which is me. (In case you missed it, the link is on the word pictures).
Comments
Jude: Glad to be a good example. All you need to do is start riding. Speed doesn't matter. Just getting out and doing something does.
It's so great that you've found something you love doing! :)
Love the pictures, too, though I only found 2 of you. Maybe I need to look harder?
Momcani, Google is still angry with me.......
Momcani: Thanks!