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Post by dgaddis1 on Oct 27, 2008 7:32:54 GMT -5
Had a good race, didn't get impaled with a stick like I did last year. The race was on Saturday, and it rained all day on Friday, and most of Friday night as well. On the drive to the race, the roads were still wet. Since I knew it was going to be crazy muddy I went ahead and picked up a rear fender before I left Augusta. Last thing you want during a six hour ride is sand/dirt to get between your butt and the seat! (think sandpaper.....). So, I had both a front and rear fender on the bike, and despite all the mud, I stayed amazing clean. The fenders were worth every penny!
The 6 mile course had three sections. There was a big grassy field, which completely sucked to ride in. It rolled so incredibly slow! Ever tried to run in a pool? It was kinda like that...doesn't matter how much effort you put into it, you're not going anywhere fast. Another part of the course which also sucked ran along a sewage line....think power line clearings, without the power lines. Luckily, it didn't stink! Without any overhead trees to catch the rain the day before, this part of the course is where all the mud was. It was bad. It was over 6" deep in a few places. My tires packed up w/the mud, which basically turned them into slicks. It was worse than Bakers Dozen. This section also sucked for us single speed riders because it was flat, so we were spinning at redline through there. So you'd pass someone on the single track, then they'd pass you back out in the sewage line....then they'd slow you down once we got back into the woods again. A little frustrating. Most of the course however, was some very fun singletrack in the woods. No steep climbs, no really long hills, it flowed well, and it was nice and twisty. There were a good amount of roots though...and mud caked tires + wet roots = zero traction. But, there was very little mud in the woods. The trail was wet, but not muddy. Only thing that sucked was it rolled super slow. In the six miles loop, there was very few places to coast. Because everything was wet and slow, you had to pedal the entire time.
I was fairly happy with how I did. I didn't make my goal of doing a metric century, but after seeing how bad the mud was, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I felt great up until about 2.5 hours in, then I started cramping like I did at Fools Gold. So I slowed down the pace and started drinking more (I had a Gatorade/water mix in my camelback), and the cramping problem only lasted about an hour or so. I stopped three times during the race, once to pee, once to refill the camelback, and I fell once when I lost traction on some roots. I was going slow, and didn't get hurt at all. Other than that, it was an uneventful ride, which is good! Saw a few people wipe out in the mud...ran across one guy that thought he broke his foot on a rock...not sure how that happened, there were only like 3 rocks on the whole loop.
I ended up finishing 8 laps (48 miles) in 5 hours and 25 minutes. When I finished my last lap there were 35 minutes of racing left, but my last lap took me 45 minutes, and I knew there was no way I could knock 10 minutes off that time. I was tired, my legs were toast. I called it a day. Ended up 11th out of 15 in the solo male single speed class. The winner finished an amazing 12 laps! Out of all the solo male riders I finished 25th out of 43. It's not dead last, so I'll take it!
My bike was noticeably heavier at the end of the race thanks to the several pounds of mud stuck to it. I took some pictures of it, but haven't got them off the camera yet, but I'll post the pictures later in the week.
My bike needs new bearings everywhere now. ;D
The 6 mile course had three sections. There was a big grassy field, which completely sucked to ride in. It rolled so incredibly slow! Ever tried to run in a pool? It was kinda like that...doesn't matter how much effort you put into it, you're not going anywhere fast. Another part of the course which also sucked ran along a sewage line....think power line clearings, without the power lines. Luckily, it didn't stink! Without any overhead trees to catch the rain the day before, this part of the course is where all the mud was. It was bad. It was over 6" deep in a few places. My tires packed up w/the mud, which basically turned them into slicks. It was worse than Bakers Dozen. This section also sucked for us single speed riders because it was flat, so we were spinning at redline through there. So you'd pass someone on the single track, then they'd pass you back out in the sewage line....then they'd slow you down once we got back into the woods again. A little frustrating. Most of the course however, was some very fun singletrack in the woods. No steep climbs, no really long hills, it flowed well, and it was nice and twisty. There were a good amount of roots though...and mud caked tires + wet roots = zero traction. But, there was very little mud in the woods. The trail was wet, but not muddy. Only thing that sucked was it rolled super slow. In the six miles loop, there was very few places to coast. Because everything was wet and slow, you had to pedal the entire time.
I was fairly happy with how I did. I didn't make my goal of doing a metric century, but after seeing how bad the mud was, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I felt great up until about 2.5 hours in, then I started cramping like I did at Fools Gold. So I slowed down the pace and started drinking more (I had a Gatorade/water mix in my camelback), and the cramping problem only lasted about an hour or so. I stopped three times during the race, once to pee, once to refill the camelback, and I fell once when I lost traction on some roots. I was going slow, and didn't get hurt at all. Other than that, it was an uneventful ride, which is good! Saw a few people wipe out in the mud...ran across one guy that thought he broke his foot on a rock...not sure how that happened, there were only like 3 rocks on the whole loop.
I ended up finishing 8 laps (48 miles) in 5 hours and 25 minutes. When I finished my last lap there were 35 minutes of racing left, but my last lap took me 45 minutes, and I knew there was no way I could knock 10 minutes off that time. I was tired, my legs were toast. I called it a day. Ended up 11th out of 15 in the solo male single speed class. The winner finished an amazing 12 laps! Out of all the solo male riders I finished 25th out of 43. It's not dead last, so I'll take it!
My bike was noticeably heavier at the end of the race thanks to the several pounds of mud stuck to it. I took some pictures of it, but haven't got them off the camera yet, but I'll post the pictures later in the week.
My bike needs new bearings everywhere now. ;D
