Most of the regular Ethos crowd was there such as Kevin, Travis, Sean, Garet, Sarah, JDoug, and Jim Spellman. There was also a laundry list of other jerks that I ride with such as Nick V, Brett S, not to mention some Team Seagal members who had made the long drive across the state.
The start, uphill and paved and not near as frenzied as I anticipated. Hit the single track in good position and killed it for about 10 minutes. Then set it on cruise control and took a nap. That is a lie! I walked the BIG switchback and the jawbreaker switch back without even attempting them in a planned effort to conserve energy. Rode 8-pins, yeah. By the second lap my lower back was tight like a tiger. The rocks were crazy slippery and the tail of my bike, hell my whole bike, was all over the place. All that compensating for my bike taking a schizophrenic line down the trail was wreaking havoc on my back muscles.
On a good note, there was lots of great eye candy on the trail. The Trail Hermits had hilarious signs posted all over the course. "Are we still feeling pretty good about this 32 piece set" was posted just as you exit 8-pins. A blow up doll with fish net stockings and "x'd" out eyes was laying on the side of phase 3 with a sign that read "Dead Hooker Zone," to go along with this there was an overwhelming stench in that area of the woods from a rotting dear carcass. I laughed pretty hard when I rode by the DHZ each lap.
As the laps and time slowly marched forward trail conditions started to improve. The rocks notably less treacherous, and the corners became super tacky. I was fighting to stay cool hydrated and energized. Jer and Zion showed up to cheer us on, I stopped briefly to chat and turned down a chocolate cookie for fear of getting nauseated (doing anything that makes me turn down a chocolate chip cookie is surely a questionable activity). My mom and step-dad showed up to cheer me on as well. then on my final lap my wife arrived to give me encouragement. It was great to have some family there, this was the first time that any of them had ever been to one of my mountain bike races. I always tell them not to come, cause lets face it mountain biking is a pretty lame spectator sport.
I had ridden by myself for pretty much the entire time, it was mind numbing. I had seen Sean once at our pit area. He was having heat issues but still churning out laps on his "tank" of a singlespeed. Kevin was also hanging out in the pit area after his race, er lap! He and Travis' mom were filling bottles and helping me get my camelbacks switched out. At the end of my 7th lap Travis rolls into the pit with JDoug on his heels. We all go out for a final lap just under the 6 hour mark. Travis pushed the pace for me and it hurt big time, but it was just nice to ride with someone. The pain worked well because a guy who was in 2nd place overall didn't go back out for a final lap. And another guy whom I'd been swapping leads with didn't put in as fast a lap. So I took 2nd place overall behind Travis who was a whole lap ahead of me and 1st in SS. Granted there wasn't a huge number of people who showed up for the race, which is real lame. But I had a really good time
After the race we found a nice shady place and hung out with everyone's SO's and kiddo's waiting for awards to be announced. The weather was perfect with a stiff breeze. Ethos peeps had a good showing. Travis took numero uno overall. Sean had to pose for the camera taking 3rd in SS. JDoug took 5th in 30-39. Sarah crushed the ladies as always taking 1st in the 3 hour. Nick V took 2nd in under 29 in the 3 hour and 4th overall in the 3 hour. Garet broke his ferrari of a bike and DNF's, bummer. But he did make up for on Sunday and won the State Singlespeed Championships, who needs gears and full suspension anyway.
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