Granogue

I actually raced my mountain bike! I hadn't done a mtb race since July.
I had planned on racing as long as it wasn't raining, and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. At least that's what weather.com said when I went to bed. As I come to the end of the blue route and merge onto 95, I see the dark cloud ahead! Probably right of Granogue, I can't tell you how close I came to turning around. I got there with about 15 minutes to register, change and get my bike ready. One would think that after racing bikes for over 10 years I'd have figured out that you should get to races EARLY! Needless to say I "forgot" a few things, I didn't have my short sleeve Secret Henry's Team jersey in my bag, I had to wear my long sleeve, I forgot my co2, which I wasn't really concerned about because if I flatted I'd just walk to the finish and I'd DNF. I got to the staging area and noticed I did not have my waterbottles! That's when I saw Paul and he was kind enough to give me two of his bottles, he saved me a trip back to the car. Paul also suggested I take a Hammer Gel, damn good thinking. Thank you Paul! So, the only photo evidence that I was there is this picture taken by Dennis, Paul and I are in the background, I'm the one eating the Hammer Gel.

I lined up for the start, at the back of course due to my lack of fitness, I didn't want to get in anybody's way. (I'd regret this later) So, about 100 yards off the line some guy flats and a crash ensues and a gap forms. I decided I'd try and close the gap. I was surprised how easily I made it across, must be the training crit paying off.

We finally made it into the woods and this is where I started to get frustrated. You see, I'm racing sport class because I lack fitness, but I still managed to keep some of my skills. I spent the entire first lap stuck behind people that couldn't ride a lot of sections on the course. At this point I decided I'd kind of cruise the rest of the way. Got to the top of a climb from the pond, I think, I had no idea where I was the entire race, more on that later. So, at the top of this climb I decide to stop and take off my hat. There is a group of people here and two girls taking pictures. So, they start cheering for "Darren" and girl 1 says "Check out that hot guy behind Darren." Girl 2 was taking video of Darren and she said that when girl 1 said that, she panned to the hot guy. I found that very amusing, I spent the next few sections chuckling about it. More of the "stop, get off the bike, walk over obstacle", until I saw Fitzy. I stopped and talked to him for a bit as people went by. At this point I really couldn't give a hoot about my place in the race. I actually thought I'd stop after the first lap.

Finished the first lap and decided I'd ride down the hill and go to the car. Then I remembered a section that you could get air and figured I'd hit it then decide. Well when I got there, I heard a bunch of people yelling "Droopy". Ah, an audience, so I hit the jump and tweaked it out and got an ovation. I figured I'd do the same thing on the jump right after, but I wasn't as graceful. In fact I did an endo and almost frickin lost it... so much for being smooth. I think this gave me my second wind as I actually started passing people and riding more of the sections, probably because I had more room. Rode for a while and got to Fitzy's "Beer Stop", I had two, as some people passed. This is the part that I wished I knew where I was on the course because the Beer Stop was right at the bottom of the climb to the finish. Let's just say the climb SUCKED! I did out sprint some guy that passed me on the climb, I almost hurled though. I ended up 23rd out of 31 finishers, with a time of 1:54:07 and 18:45 off of the winner.

I was pleased enough with my performance that I actually want to race again! Next race is Guy's, maybe I can get there. Last time I raced there I think I broke my finger.

Thanks to fatmarc and everyone that worked so hard to put on an awesome race!