DH40- It is in the books and the woulda-shoulda-coulda BS ended roughly 1 hour after they posted the results. 8th place out of 30 some odd starters. Considering I stopped and drank each and every lap I am pretty happy with that result.
Summary:
40 miles of racing/riding- mostly singletrack. Simply put, it was a hard course that required your attention. Some said it was harder than some of the traditional 100 mile races because there was no road sections to break it up. I have not raced a 100, but I will say it was the hardest day I have ever spent on the bike- 24 Hours of Snowshoe is ranked in the mix but the 40 takes the prize for most pain that I paid for.
Crappy legs- What can I do when the levee breaks the night before and my behind passes only liquid as I was a human fire hose? Nada. Next AM, more the same.
Heat- It was f'ing hot!
Beer and a lei for each lap- I am not sure if it was the best formula for a result...I had not planned on doing the race in that fashion but it worked out. Some have hypothesized that it was for the best and it may have helped, but I am not sure about that. 5 minutes plus for each stop (I did not stop any other time other than crashing and getting a little liquid going into lap 4...that I am pretty proud of) added a bunch of time to the clock. And since I don't really drink I am not sure what the effect was on me. I know the first beer got me rocked full tilt- empty stomach drinking coupled with a severe need for liquids does wonders for the tolerance.
The final analysis is that I had fun. I am a little disappointed I did not have the legs I had hoped for (this race was one of my goals for the season) and that I did not honor the race the way I had intended but there is not much I can do about that now. Sometimes you have to roll with what you got and on that Sunday I did the best I could. And at the time, having a few beers in the woods with 300+ of my closest friends did not seem like a bad idea.
3 comments:
Hey George: 8th out of that field sounds good to me. We gotta put that on the schedule for next year. And hey check this out: http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/20/sandinista-free/ I'm downloading it now so if you miss out I can get you a copy.
The number is ok- the time was a little disapointing. I just did not have the legs that day to try and do a sub four hour time sop opted for fun and PBR. The course also changed making it harder than last year- I also think the two 20 mile loops are more fun than 4 (more technical) laps. Great event.
Thank you for the tip on the DL for the Clash. I am going to DL it this afternoon.
George - man, all sorts of famous people were riding around in the sweaty and dank air that day. My plan was, if I were to have dropped out of the money, to then drop into the beer tents and look for money! Hopefully we'll all be back for it next year, that was good honest hard work, and fun...I think.
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