This may explain our duo's awe inspiring 3 laps in 12 hours. Kylie got our first lap out of the way in very close lighting, loud thunder, and ride saving rain. I did two laps of walking, took approximately 7 hours or so. Awesome. My core muscles, hip stabilizers, back and shoulders got a great work out...for the first 17 minutes. The remaining 6+ hours just really hurt. Wanted to quit multiple times....most of the field quit part way through their second lap (when the mud got angry).
Adding to the feeling of despair was Bruce Dickman's voice careening through the forest, mentioning "beer" or "kegs" more often than racers crossing the finishing line. Clearly the woods was not the place to be this afternoon. I sure didn't get any faster on the bike this weekend, but did learn to suffer a bit...had a lot of fun with Kylie, Dejay, John, Curtis, Rebecca and all the other folks I haven't seen in a while, and may not see again soon. Cheers to everyone who suffered through any of that, be it 100 yards or 8 hours.
Just so everyone knows, because apparently amazing feats don't earn you an interview, my old racing partner and friend Chip Meek absolutely owned this event. He won the Pro Solo Singlespeed category with 5 laps. He basically also won the Pro Men's category as well, because none of those big name guys did 5 laps. A lot of them left enough time on the table to do so, but called a truce. It surely wasn't a traditional bike race scenario, but a race is a race, and winning still matters. Either way, Chip's performance deserves some recognition for his ability to continue when something is on the line but all logic says "quit."
3 comments:
That looks freakin' awesome! I love the close up on the Poison Ivy as ya'll slide between those trees! I sure hope that didn't catch you.
right on, Robert, right on
SSUSA 2009 post? Slacker.
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