Saturday I woke up nice and early to test ride the course. I have never ridden at Camp Manatoc and it's about 7 minutes from my apartment. Also the little fact that 363 days of the year the land functions as two Boy Scout camps, Camp Manatoc and Camp Butler. However, I woke up at about 5:30 in the morning to the sound of down pouring rain. Boo! So I figured I would get up at 7 like planned and check the weather again. I think it stopped raining at 6:59 so I pulled up the hour-by-hour forecast on weather.com to see what the heck was going on. It looked like the rain was done and the sun was going to come out at around 10. So off to bed I went for another 1.5 hours of shuteye to give the trails some time to drain.
9:30 Up and at'em! I got up, had some breakfast, took care of the dog, packed up and headed out.
11:00 arrive at Camp Manatoc. There was a full day of kid activities and swop meets going on all day Saturday along with a trail preview for $5. Awesome! I started unloading the car when I overheard the all to familiar voice ot Tenant Nabrowski a.k.a Nab and a small group of North Coast Mountain bikers! Great! I don't have to ride alone! So I got myself registered and ready and then we were off.
12:30 Heading out for out loop around the 9 mile course. All I have to say about the ride was mud, fun and mud. Little draining seemed to have happened throughout the morning. So after getting lost and 12 miles later I made it back to the car cleaned and packed up and watched the bunny hop contest and Huffy toss. Fun! Then I picked up my race registration and headed out to get dinner with my sweet!
3:30 unpacked and began the arduous task of cleaning the bike in prep for the race on Sunday. I got myself packed up and ready for the race and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Sunday
8:30 Up and at'em again! Got up and had a good breakfast, packed up and headed out.
11:00 Arrived at the Camp and get set up. It was pretty cold for whatever reason. Not more that 65 degrees I think. Good for racing though! Got myself and bike ready and headed to the start, well, hit the John then headed to the start! :) I also met some other guys setting up and shared my canopy with them since it was misting/sprinkling.
Red Rider representing!
Our "shop"
1:05ish - We were off and racing! I had a rough start after being jousted off my bike by an offending tree branch after connecting solidly with my bicep. Then roughly 5 miles in I was stung by a bee on my calf. I would have been ok with any where else but my calf and subsequent right leg cramped like a son of a gun on every big climb. It burned like a son of a gun as well. Apparently quite a few people were stung by these hornets. My leg is still pretty nasty and itchy. I felt pretty good in the first lap until all of this happened then I tired to collect myself and keep a good pace to finish the race.
I did stop once to help a fellow racer with a flat tire, she was out of CO2 so I gave her my extra to use. No luck. Gotta love tubeless!!!
My bloodsugar was great throughout the race holding steady and not dropping low enough to cause a scene. I like to think I do a great job of managing my fitness and diabetic needs. So far so good! Let's see at the next race!
Either way, I finished in 2:21:11. Great, no. Ok, no. Not a DNF, yes. I know I should arguably be racing in Novice Class. But how will hammering on people who have never raced before make me a better rider or racer. I'm taking my lumps now but learning and pushing for a better future. I may be crazy but I'm having fun and eventually will start finishing in the front of the pack. Someday.
Here are some more race pictures:
Heading throught the woods
Coming out of the woods
The aftermath, not too bad!
"The sting"
The location of the "joust"
2 comments:
Great race and those pictures are great! Very artistic.
Those pics are pretty cool. Congrats on the finish. Sounds like the bees like BOTH you and me.
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