12 Hours of Dirt, Sweat, and Gears

We all met after work Friday at Brookwood all to head up to Tennessee to camp out before the race. We took a slight detour to get some dinner and it ended up being a pretty good BBQ. We went on and got there a bit late. We set up the tents and had a beer before going to sleep. It began raining at about 3AM and rained until about 7:30AM



The next morning we got up and got ready for the race. It started at 9:00AM and went until 9:00pm. I got registered and was the 3rd in line after Lee and Corb so I grabbed my camera and tried to get a few shots of the start.



Lee took off and we all went back to the campsite as the tail went right past. As all the racers started going by we kept looking for Lee. After about 1:45 hours we started worrying that he had had a wreck. The trail was really sloppy and we saw at least 7-8 broken derailleurs and everyone was caked in mud. Everyone else went to go check to see if there had been any injuries and I stayed at the trail. He finally showed up carrying his bike because the chain had sucked into the spokes on the rear wheel and would not even roll. I offered to swap bikes so he could ride the rest of the way out, but he declined and kept on going. I don't think he realized how far he still had to go. He finally finished it up and Corb took off. He told us he had broken a bit before the halfway point so he had carried the bike 6 miles.



Corb had also had to deal with some mud on the trail, but managed to come out without breaking. I was getting a bit nervous while waiting for him and took off to the start without my gloves. I had time and ran back to get them.



When Corb came in, I took off on my lap. I think I got really lucky as the trail was finally getting dry. For some reason I thought the big climb was near the middle of the trail, but it ended up being near the beginning and I realized I had pushed a bit too hard because I didn't have it in me to make it up without shifting down to granny. I realized this was a mistake in the mud because I ended up spinning the back tire and then I had to walk it because there was no way to get back started again as it was really slick. This happened a couple times and I was getting a bit mad. It really bothers me when I have to walk something. It is a huge sign that I am not in good enough shape. About halfway through I finally started feeling better as the hills were more "rolling" and I was able to keep my speed and enjoy the trail. It was actually a pretty nice trail through this part with a few rocky sections and some short, but nice downhills. I came out on the trail by the campsites and didn't see anyone at our tent as I rode by. I knew the last section was not too long, so I pushed to tr to finish with everything I had. Things were going well until I got to Lucy's trail. This little rocky climb beat me and I had to walk up it as I had no energy for a technical climb at this point. I finally made it to the top and it was a nice ride through the field back to the finish. I made it and thought I had run a high 1:08 according to the Garmin. (I later found it was a 1:10). I was feeling a little nauseous and went back and sat under the tent to recover.



Brannon took off next and ran his lap. I knew we shouldn't have invited a single speed guy as they are so freaking slow. Pokey pokerson finally finished with an annoyingly slow time of 1:05 (this happened to be the best lap for our team). At this point I was almost feeling like standing up again ad getting something to drink and eat.



Mitch was next and after his ride we realized we were in 4th place. Lee ran his second lap and cut his time by over 1/2. I guess it helps to ride the bike instead of carry it. Corb took off on his second lap and I stated getting ready to ride. I knew he would be finishing right about dark, so I was getting my light mounted and ready.



I was pretty excited as this was going to be my first night ride. Corb finished right at about 7:30 so I knew I had 1:30 to finish. I didn't know how much the dark would slow me down but I was pretty sure I could make it. I set off and made it to the trees before having to turn on the light. I just left it on high as I saw no reason to dim it. There was a bit of light at first but I noticed thee were small reflectors on the trees (which was pretty cool). I paced myself much better and saved my energy to take 911 Hill. I made it up and looked at my Garmin and saw the mileage was 3.something. I thought this odd as I thought I was closer to 5, but just kept going. It was pretty dark at this point and I was learning to look with my whole head instead of just my eyes and also to just let the bike handle the trail as some of the roots and rocks were a bit larger than the appeared. I adjusted my light a few times and finally got it where I liked it. I could see other riders off in the woods with their lights which was a little strange, but night riding was pretty relaxing. As I got near the back of the trail and couldn't hear the announcer, It was really quiet and the cool air was feeling nice. One thing a little strange was the intensity of the light as I looked out on the descents. Bouncing down the rocks, the light seemed to be changing intensity as I was looking down the trail. I got back to the trail b the camping and looked at my mileage. It was still 3.something. I must have hit the stop button by accident, so I started it again. I was a bit mad as I lost most of this lap, but I at least have one good map of the trail. I saw the time was about 8:27 so I pushed it a bit as I realized I was on almost the same pace as last time. I once again hit Lucy's loop and I decided Lucy is not my favorite person as once again the hill beat me. I had a bit of energy left and tried to jog up the hill this time. I finished up around 8:40 and felt pretty good this time.



Mitch also rode a night lap. His lap didn't count, but he wanted to get in a night lap since he had also never ridden at night. When he finished, we went ad grabbed some dinner (BBQ) and got ready for the awards ceremony. and Swag giveaway Lee won something right off (I think it was a gift certificate of some sort).



We won 3rd place in the "Here for the Beer" category. We got cool little awards and a bag of a few goodies. We stood around and they gave away a lot of nice stuff. Finally they just stated throwing stuff into the crowd. I caught a jersey and will check it out later (it is a bit dark out). We grabbed a few beers and went to sit by the fire and relax before bed. We were trying to decide where to go ride tomorrow and didn't really make a decision before we went to bed.

Here is a link to the Website for the race:
http://www.dirtsweatandgears.com/

And here is a link to the results, you can click on our name ("BUMP" under the Here for the beer category) to see the lap times:
http://mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=790350

Also my laptop crashed (motherboard failure) so I am going to have to get the pictures on here later.