I started off the trip by swinging by Cahaba Cycles to pick up the Titus. I was supprised to see they had put the 2008 stickers on it when they fixed it. Titus did an excellent job with the weld and it is impossible to tell it was repaired. I was a bit worried that there would be a giant weld over where the crack was, but it appears they cut off the piece and rewelded a new one on and it looks like new.
Anyway, I headed toward Atlanta and a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 5 hour drive. First I got stuck in traffic because of a wreck, then there were a couple of places where road construction narrowed the road to one lane. The worst part is that it was also rush hour. I was hoping to get to Conyors around 5:30-6, but it was a little after 7 when I finally got there. I really wanted to preride the course (the whole reason for leaving work early) so I got ready quickly and took off with Jay and Brendan. They had arrived a bit before me and Brendan had borrowed one of the Ellsworths to ride. We rode the first half of the course and I was pleasantly supprised. It was relatively fast and not very rooty. This part was a lot of fun but had one shorter uphill that was pretty steep and a second that was longer but not as steep. We got back to the campsite (it was very close to the midpoint of the ride) and Brendan decided to take the bike back as I think they told him he could only borrow it for 30 minutes today. Me and Jay continued on and I was amazed at the change of terrain by crossing the road. We immediately rode out on a huge slickrock section. There was a constant climb that kept getting more steep towards the top. I had to put it in granny near the top to make it without dabbing and I knew my legs would be hating this section during the race. The trail immediately turned down and after a quick descent down the rock, the trail went into the trees. This section of trail has a number of steep descents followed by relatively short but steep climbs. This finally came to a brutal climb that kept getting more and more steep and technical near the top. I had to walk the top bit of this even though we were doing a casual pace. This would definitely be a walk (hopefully a fast walk) during the race. After this, the trail was relatively level and fast through the woods. There were a few spots in the trail that would toss your bike in the air and I thought this would have been a great spot to get some cool pictures. The trail crossed back over onto the slickrock for a bit of technical rocky and rooty sections with some high speed bumpy descents before crossing the road and heading to the finish line.
We got back, changed and headed to get dinner. I was told we were going to go to a buffet and I was a bit uncomfortable when I saw it was a Golden Corral. I have not eaten at one in quite a few years as I generally try to avoid any place where the average person who eats there is very overweight. I know that this is a stupid reason, but I don’t eat at McDonalds or pretty much any buffet (Chinese and pizza are at the top of the list). Back to dinner: I started off with some steak, bourbon chicken, buffalo chicken, mashed potatoes and a few other items. I was pretty full after this plate, but watched everyone else finish 2 or 3. After a rest I got some fruit and Ice cream. I friggin love Ice cream! I think I ate the least out of everyone with Joe slightly edgeing out Brendan for the most. I was probably the only one who did not get my money’s worth. We swung by Walmart where I picked up some tent stakes and earplugs as I forgot to get them at home. Lastly we swung by Brown’s (similar to Green’s) before heading back to camp for the evening. I headed to bed as I wanted to get a decent nights sleep as I figured I wouldn’t get as much tomorrow night.
We got up and got ready for the race. Joel showed up and unloaded tons of food. He borrowed an Ellsworth and him and Brendan rode at least the second half of the course as Brendan did not get to the night before. We came up with our running order: Lee, Joe, Brendan, Me, and Jay.
The start was a running start (I can’t spell Lem???) and Joe took off onto the trail. We headed back to our campsite to see him pass. He came flying by somewhere in the mid to low 20 minutes. At this point we didn’t know exactly how long it would take to finish from this point, but Lee was nearer the front of the pack. We headed back to see him finish and Joe head out on his lap. Lee managed a 50 minute lap even with the run. Joe took off and we slowly figured out we were pretty much exactly in the middle of the course (timewise). Brendan went next and of course I was getting nervous during this time. I don’t know why, but I am always nervous before my first lap. He finished up and I took off. The course was pretty brutal when racing, and I did a bit of walking but still finished with a mid 49 minute.
When I got back to the tent, Joel had made some chicken kabobs and I grabbed one off the grill. We continued rotating out and I got my second lap that afternoon. I figured this would be my fastest lap, so I pushed myself a bit more than I should have and ended up with a 48 minute. Somewhere around this time we realized we were in 3rd place in our division. We were scooting away from the team in 4th, but the team in second was relatively close. Joel cooked some incredible steaks and I ate half after I had recovered for about 30 minutes after this lap. I think Jay finished rig
ht before dark and Lee got to do the first night lap. I decided to try to get a little sleep before my next lap, but at 8:00 it was too early and I could not sleep. My first night lap was at about 11:00. 
This is only the second time I have ridden at night, but I felt pretty good and it is so much fun in the dark. There was something pretty cool about coming out of the woods and being able to see by the light of the moon (it was close to a full moon) and the rock was slightly illuminated but swinging back into the trees it was like going into a tunnel, this course was really like a rollercoaster at night, and going a bit slower (due to the limited sight distance) I enjoyed this lap a lot. My bike started making a rattling noise from the rear near the end of the ride, but it seemed to be OK so I decided to check it once I got back. When I got back I checked out the rear suspension and could not find anything. I also checked the brake and shifter lines and couldn’t really find anything there either. I rode it around in the field and could not get it to duplicate the noise, so I thought it was eit
her the chain slapping the chainstay or one of the brake lines bouncing against the frame. I prepared everything for my next lap and tried to get some sleep, but I only ended up getting about an hour before waking up for my next night lap. I had not planned for this as well as I should have and did not bring but one long sleeve jersey. This second lap I had to put on wet clothes and was pretty cold. It took me a bit longer than it should have to warm up and I could tell I was tired as I was riding a bit sloppy. I still managed to duplicate the time of my first night lap and it was really nice once I got warm. It was really quiet in the woods and I was finally learning the trail well enough to remember what the trail was about to do. My bike was making the rattling noise again, but I realized it was only doing this in the highest gears in the back. I assumed (my mistake) it was just chainslap since the chain had the most slack here. I once again tried to duplicate it when I got back but could not. I thought it must just be because the slickrock was so bumpy (this is where I noticed it most). I had some slight chainsuck but was able to deal with it as it was not bad. I was just going to oil my chain when I got back and figured it would go away. I 
got back to the tent somewhere around 4:00. Joel was awake and offered to make me some Miso Soup. I have not had any in a while and it was just what I needed to refuel. I went back to sleep and slept for an hour and a half before I woke up. I think I was worried about oversleeping and somehow woke up before I had to. I had decided to wait till light to work on my bike as it would be easier and hopefully would finally dry. 
On my last lap I almost immediately was having trouble with the bike. I was having chainsuck every time I tried to downshift to quickly spin up the hills. This killed my momentum and by the time I backpeddled to unkink it I had come to a stop and then had to start from a stop. Also, all of a sudden the low gears in the back started popping between gears. I flipped the bike and tried to adjust the shifter, and it seemed to be lined up over the gears and work correctly, however as soon as I got on and put some weight on the pedals, it would pop and not stay in gear. I was pretty pissed and was trying to run up the hills when this happened and keep going as I did
not want to stop in the woods since there was not much room to get off the trail. Right before the midpoint I flipped the bike again and realized the shifter was pulling to the side when I put some tension on the chain. I tried to bend it back straight and got it close. I jumped on again and headed on my way. At the top of the first climb (before going over the second street), I just bent it back as hard as I could (I was a bit gentle before as I didn’t want to break it). I think I finally got it pretty straight and the rest of the ride I only had minor chainsuck. I had intended this to be my fastest lap when I took off as I though I knew the trail well enough to make up for my diminished strength. However I ended up with about the same time as my night loops. I had really thought I would not be able to do another lap so I had a beer and ate a good bit of food to celebrate. Jay, then Lee ran good laps and we realized that if Joe could run his fastest lap of the day, we could send someone out on one more lap. There was not really a point to this as it would not change our standing, but it would give us the same number of laps as the Columbians (the second place team that we were barely holding off from lapping us). Joe said he was going to have a fun lap and actually enjoy the course, but I decided to wait before taking a shower just in case. Joe flew by the campsite right about 22 minutes. I had no idea if he was trying to make it or not, so I was going to be ready in case he did it. He was on pace for finishing right under the cutoff and I felt that if he killed himself to make it in time, I was going to be ready to do a last lap. We were all waiting on him at the finish and watching the clock count down. Right as the clock clicked to 12, we saw him off in the distance. He ended up only finishing a bit over a minute late. I was a bit relieved as I knew my last lap would have been terrible as beer and a lot of food do not improve my riding.
I finally headed over and took a shower. My shower door did not latch very well and a big wind gust blew my clothes off the side as well as the door open. I was torn between picking up the clothes that were now getting wet and closing the door back. I decided to shut the door and ended up with slightly wet “drawers” but it was all good. It felt good to finally get clean. I left my shirt off while packing trying to lessen my farmer (I think I shall refer to it as a biker from the jersey) tan. We packed up and headed over to the awards ceremony. They had a great pasta dinner with meatballs before the ceremony. We won 3rd place in the 5-Man team and all got a medal and each won a set of tires. This was a nice surprise as I didn’t think we would get anything.
One last thing to mention: If you are going to do one of these races, it makes a world of difference having someone as a pit crew. Joel volunteered to do this for us and kept the whole team fed (with better food than I usually eat at home during the week). I believe this had a lot to do with our results as we were able to spend more time relaxing between laps than worrying about which energy bar we were going to eat (As I would have survived off of energy bars and bananas only if he was not there). A big thanks to him.
Anyway, I headed toward Atlanta and a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 5 hour drive. First I got stuck in traffic because of a wreck, then there were a couple of places where road construction narrowed the road to one lane. The worst part is that it was also rush hour. I was hoping to get to Conyors around 5:30-6, but it was a little after 7 when I finally got there. I really wanted to preride the course (the whole reason for leaving work early) so I got ready quickly and took off with Jay and Brendan. They had arrived a bit before me and Brendan had borrowed one of the Ellsworths to ride. We rode the first half of the course and I was pleasantly supprised. It was relatively fast and not very rooty. This part was a lot of fun but had one shorter uphill that was pretty steep and a second that was longer but not as steep. We got back to the campsite (it was very close to the midpoint of the ride) and Brendan decided to take the bike back as I think they told him he could only borrow it for 30 minutes today. Me and Jay continued on and I was amazed at the change of terrain by crossing the road. We immediately rode out on a huge slickrock section. There was a constant climb that kept getting more steep towards the top. I had to put it in granny near the top to make it without dabbing and I knew my legs would be hating this section during the race. The trail immediately turned down and after a quick descent down the rock, the trail went into the trees. This section of trail has a number of steep descents followed by relatively short but steep climbs. This finally came to a brutal climb that kept getting more and more steep and technical near the top. I had to walk the top bit of this even though we were doing a casual pace. This would definitely be a walk (hopefully a fast walk) during the race. After this, the trail was relatively level and fast through the woods. There were a few spots in the trail that would toss your bike in the air and I thought this would have been a great spot to get some cool pictures. The trail crossed back over onto the slickrock for a bit of technical rocky and rooty sections with some high speed bumpy descents before crossing the road and heading to the finish line.We got back, changed and headed to get dinner. I was told we were going to go to a buffet and I was a bit uncomfortable when I saw it was a Golden Corral. I have not eaten at one in quite a few years as I generally try to avoid any place where the average person who eats there is very overweight. I know that this is a stupid reason, but I don’t eat at McDonalds or pretty much any buffet (Chinese and pizza are at the top of the list). Back to dinner: I started off with some steak, bourbon chicken, buffalo chicken, mashed potatoes and a few other items. I was pretty full after this plate, but watched everyone else finish 2 or 3. After a rest I got some fruit and Ice cream. I friggin love Ice cream! I think I ate the least out of everyone with Joe slightly edgeing out Brendan for the most. I was probably the only one who did not get my money’s worth. We swung by Walmart where I picked up some tent stakes and earplugs as I forgot to get them at home. Lastly we swung by Brown’s (similar to Green’s) before heading back to camp for the evening. I headed to bed as I wanted to get a decent nights sleep as I figured I wouldn’t get as much tomorrow night.
We got up and got ready for the race. Joel showed up and unloaded tons of food. He borrowed an Ellsworth and him and Brendan rode at least the second half of the course as Brendan did not get to the night before. We came up with our running order: Lee, Joe, Brendan, Me, and Jay.The start was a running start (I can’t spell Lem???) and Joe took off onto the trail. We headed back to our campsite to see him pass. He came flying by somewhere in the mid to low 20 minutes. At this point we didn’t know exactly how long it would take to finish from this point, but Lee was nearer the front of the pack. We headed back to see him finish and Joe head out on his lap. Lee managed a 50 minute lap even with the run. Joe took off and we slowly figured out we were pretty much exactly in the middle of the course (timewise). Brendan went next and of course I was getting nervous during this time. I don’t know why, but I am always nervous before my first lap. He finished up and I took off. The course was pretty brutal when racing, and I did a bit of walking but still finished with a mid 49 minute.
When I got back to the tent, Joel had made some chicken kabobs and I grabbed one off the grill. We continued rotating out and I got my second lap that afternoon. I figured this would be my fastest lap, so I pushed myself a bit more than I should have and ended up with a 48 minute. Somewhere around this time we realized we were in 3rd place in our division. We were scooting away from the team in 4th, but the team in second was relatively close. Joel cooked some incredible steaks and I ate half after I had recovered for about 30 minutes after this lap. I think Jay finished right before dark and Lee got to do the first night lap. I decided to try to get a little sleep before my next lap, but at 8:00 it was too early and I could not sleep. My first night lap was at about 11:00. This is only the second time I have ridden at night, but I felt pretty good and it is so much fun in the dark. There was something pretty cool about coming out of the woods and being able to see by the light of the moon (it was close to a full moon) and the rock was slightly illuminated but swinging back into the trees it was like going into a tunnel, this course was really like a rollercoaster at night, and going a bit slower (due to the limited sight distance) I enjoyed this lap a lot. My bike started making a rattling noise from the rear near the end of the ride, but it seemed to be OK so I decided to check it once I got back. When I got back I checked out the rear suspension and could not find anything. I also checked the brake and shifter lines and couldn’t really find anything there either. I rode it around in the field and could not get it to duplicate the noise, so I thought it was either the chain slapping the chainstay or one of the brake lines bouncing against the frame. I prepared everything for my next lap and tried to get some sleep, but I only ended up getting about an hour before waking up for my next night lap. I had not planned for this as well as I should have and did not bring but one long sleeve jersey. This second lap I had to put on wet clothes and was pretty cold. It took me a bit longer than it should have to warm up and I could tell I was tired as I was riding a bit sloppy. I still managed to duplicate the time of my first night lap and it was really nice once I got warm. It was really quiet in the woods and I was finally learning the trail well enough to remember what the trail was about to do. My bike was making the rattling noise again, but I realized it was only doing this in the highest gears in the back. I assumed (my mistake) it was just chainslap since the chain had the most slack here. I once again tried to duplicate it when I got back but could not. I thought it must just be because the slickrock was so bumpy (this is where I noticed it most). I had some slight chainsuck but was able to deal with it as it was not bad. I was just going to oil my chain when I got back and figured it would go away. I got back to the tent somewhere around 4:00. Joel was awake and offered to make me some Miso Soup. I have not had any in a while and it was just what I needed to refuel. I went back to sleep and slept for an hour and a half before I woke up. I think I was worried about oversleeping and somehow woke up before I had to. I had decided to wait till light to work on my bike as it would be easier and hopefully would finally dry. On my last lap I almost immediately was having trouble with the bike. I was having chainsuck every time I tried to downshift to quickly spin up the hills. This killed my momentum and by the time I backpeddled to unkink it I had come to a stop and then had to start from a stop. Also, all of a sudden the low gears in the back started popping between gears. I flipped the bike and tried to adjust the shifter, and it seemed to be lined up over the gears and work correctly, however as soon as I got on and put some weight on the pedals, it would pop and not stay in gear. I was pretty pissed and was trying to run up the hills when this happened and keep going as I did
not want to stop in the woods since there was not much room to get off the trail. Right before the midpoint I flipped the bike again and realized the shifter was pulling to the side when I put some tension on the chain. I tried to bend it back straight and got it close. I jumped on again and headed on my way. At the top of the first climb (before going over the second street), I just bent it back as hard as I could (I was a bit gentle before as I didn’t want to break it). I think I finally got it pretty straight and the rest of the ride I only had minor chainsuck. I had intended this to be my fastest lap when I took off as I though I knew the trail well enough to make up for my diminished strength. However I ended up with about the same time as my night loops. I had really thought I would not be able to do another lap so I had a beer and ate a good bit of food to celebrate. Jay, then Lee ran good laps and we realized that if Joe could run his fastest lap of the day, we could send someone out on one more lap. There was not really a point to this as it would not change our standing, but it would give us the same number of laps as the Columbians (the second place team that we were barely holding off from lapping us). Joe said he was going to have a fun lap and actually enjoy the course, but I decided to wait before taking a shower just in case. Joe flew by the campsite right about 22 minutes. I had no idea if he was trying to make it or not, so I was going to be ready in case he did it. He was on pace for finishing right under the cutoff and I felt that if he killed himself to make it in time, I was going to be ready to do a last lap. We were all waiting on him at the finish and watching the clock count down. Right as the clock clicked to 12, we saw him off in the distance. He ended up only finishing a bit over a minute late. I was a bit relieved as I knew my last lap would have been terrible as beer and a lot of food do not improve my riding.I finally headed over and took a shower. My shower door did not latch very well and a big wind gust blew my clothes off the side as well as the door open. I was torn between picking up the clothes that were now getting wet and closing the door back. I decided to shut the door and ended up with slightly wet “drawers” but it was all good. It felt good to finally get clean. I left my shirt off while packing trying to lessen my farmer (I think I shall refer to it as a biker from the jersey) tan. We packed up and headed over to the awards ceremony. They had a great pasta dinner with meatballs before the ceremony. We won 3rd place in the 5-Man team and all got a medal and each won a set of tires. This was a nice surprise as I didn’t think we would get anything.
One last thing to mention: If you are going to do one of these races, it makes a world of difference having someone as a pit crew. Joel volunteered to do this for us and kept the whole team fed (with better food than I usually eat at home during the week). I believe this had a lot to do with our results as we were able to spend more time relaxing between laps than worrying about which energy bar we were going to eat (As I would have survived off of energy bars and bananas only if he was not there). A big thanks to him.Here is a link to the results of the race. Our team name was BUMP n Uglies.
http://www.grannygear.com/realtime/public/class.php?display_standings_flag=1&class=5M
Here is the link to my pictures:
Here is the link to my pictures:
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