Money, Money, Money

After getting a replacement spoke at Harrells installed (bent then later broke because of this), Dennis and I went to Harbison and rode the sport loop. We started out strong but ran out of steam and went to more of a casual pace, probably due to pushing the big ring all of the time. I have been big-ringing it for several rides now because the middle ring I ordered has not arrived.

I am still chasing down problems resulting from the mishap. Running a new chain on the old chain ring was causing a lot of chain suck. It is also causing my checking account some additional suck. I figured the chainring would need to be changed but after spending $90 on the new cassette, $15 on the derailleur hanger, $15 on a new cable and $30 on the chain, was trying to save a few dollars and not replace it. Leah has now designated my bike as a money pit. Anyway, 19.5 miles/11.4 average.

Radical

Saturday, did a 4-5 mile Harbison ride with two boys Corbin(9) and Zane(6) and their Dad(38?). Before we rode I remembered I had a flask of Hammer Gel in my truck door so I told them all REAL mountain bikers take a squirt of Hammer Gel. At first they were scared of it but then they gave in after their dad tried it and liked it.

We set off down firebreak backwards to crooked pine to grassy fire road towards midlands mountain and back around fire break. Corbin bunny hopped every single root he came across on his full squish NEXT rig and and kept asking "where are the mountains". Zane left it all out there on his NEXT rigid single speed with 14"wheels. Never heard more "radical", "cool", "totally awesome", "sweet" on one ride before. Total ride time 1:20 plus/minus and 4-5 miles. Two thirsty boys and one Dad with a map in hand for next time.

Pollen-nation

Last weekend I decided to mow the yard because it seemed as if the weeds had gotten a head-start this year and needed cutting. I am still suffering the ill effects of mowing the yard and it is already Friday. When I was mowing the side yard, I recall slowing my push speed down so the mower would have more time to suck up the large quantity of birch sexual organs laying all over the ground. Evidently, these organs still had a lot of pollen in them and I was overcome by a green cloud. I tried to stop breathing so I wouldn't inhale (no my name is not Bill). Impressed by the dust cloud I was creating, I continued mowing and began trying to suck up more organs under the second birch tree. The mower had no problem sucking them and did a fine job. However, it was only catching the larger material and the pollen was blowing out of the bagger unimpeded.

24 hours later I began a sinus headache and congestion. This has lasted all week. I finally went to CVS and got some sinus meds. These are helping clear me up. An observation on sinus meds: They now have a label on them that says "does not contain ephedrine". I found this to be funny. I guess that is so the meth junkies won't steal it off the shelf. To verify that ephedrine was actually used in meth I did a google search. Here are some of the other ingredients in meth: Alcohol -Gasoline additives/Rubbing Alcohol, Ether (starting fluid), Benzene Paint thinner, Freon, Acetone, Chloroform Camp stove fuel, Anhydrous ammonia, White gasoline, Pheynl-2-Propane, Phenylacetone, Phenylpropanolamine, Rock, table or Epsom salt, Red Phosphorous, Toluene (found in brake cleaner), Red Devil Lye, Drain cleaner, Muraitic acid, Battery acid, Lithium from batteries, Sodium metal. Wow...

Bakers Dozen Race Report

I survived the Bakers Dozen race but it was far from an endurance event. We were only able to get in about 30 miles before the rain set in and washed the event out. Here is a blow by blow anyhoo.

I got up at 5:00 am and grabbed both bikes and loaded them in the truck. The additional bike was for backup/parts if necessary. The rest of the equipment was already packed in the cab last night. Kissed Leah goodbye at 5:30 and set out towards Lexington to meet Dennis. Arriving at Dennis' house it was still early and dark but the garage door was open and some lights were on. As I walked in the garage I noticed the door to the kitchen was open so I thought he and his wife left the door open for me. I walked in and accidentally scared the dickens out of Lori who was making eggs, bacon, pancakes, hash browns and coffee for us. I am glad she didn't have heart issues because I would have caused her a coronary.

We scarfed down the delicious meal and transferred all of my stuff into Dennis' van for the trip to McCormick. I asked Dennis how we could do a 30 mile Pisgah ride last year with nothing but our bikes and a couple of camelbaks but have a packed van for a 70 mile McCormick ride. The ratio of miles to stuff didn't seem to work.

We arrived at Hickory Knob Park at around 8:45 am. This was plenty of time to set up our pit (which was basically opening the tailgate of the van). I spent most of the pre-race time transferring the chain ring from my back-up bike to my race bike. I did not have a chance to do this the night before. Dennis spent the time surveying the competition and doing a meet and greet session (He has never met a stranger).


Our scheme was for Dennis to do the first lap which included a LeMans style start. The goal was for him to pull together a fast initial lap, fighting through traffic and get me in good position for laps 2,3,4 and maybe 5. So he suited up and after going to the pre-race meeting headed for the start line. They blew the horn and off they went, 100 cyclists running 1/8 mile to their bikes which were staged in a lay down area. Picture 100 folks with all the spandex you can bear to imagine coupled with helmets, camelbaks and goofy cycling shoes trying to sprint....scary to say the least.

Dennis entered the forest in about 20th position. I went back to the pit and finished tinkering with my bike. About 35 minutes later I was suited up and headed over to the transition area to wait for him to exit the forest. To my surprise he exited in about 10th place. This meant he picked off ten riders on tight single track and put me in great position. The timing tent acknowledged him and I jumped on my bike and headed into the woods.

I was feeling really good and was reeling in some riders. After passing three or four of them, I got into a nice pace and really didn't see anyone else on the remainder of the first loop. The trail was sloppy from the early morning rains and I could tell it was going to be easy to over exert by pushing through the mud. So I backed off and tried not to over do it. I finished the first lap in 38 minutes which was well below our personal goal of sub 43 laps. I continued past the timing tent and back out for my second lap. I started to notice that the trail was getting a nice semi-dry groove cut in it through the mud. So I was able to carry a lot more speed than the first lap. I reeled in a couple more riders and got behind a single speeder. He had a nice pace so I hung in there with him for a mile or so but he wanted me past him. So he kept suggesting that I pass, but that requires additional pushing as well as getting off the trail into the rough stuff and I wasn't initially interested. After a while, he talked me into it so I went past. About this time the rain started again and it was fairly heavy. The trail got really soupy again and I knew this was not good. The SORBA folks in the Augusta area hand built all 100 miles of trails in their district and are very protective of them. I feared they would call off the race with the amount of rain we were getting. Now I wanted to get back to the start/finish so Dennis could get another lap in before they called it. Also,my bike didn't like the mud and was refusing to shift which meant I needed to do some cleaning or stay in one gear. So I pressed ahead as fast as I could.

Toward the end of the second lap a saw another rider about 100 yards ahead of me. Awesome, I get to play a little cat and mouse. I would get within about 20 yards and he would pull away. We repeated this several times. I never caught him but my second lap was sub 38 which meant I was really getting into a nice pace in spite of the soupy mess. When I entered the pit area, I noticed a lot of people were watching. This really is encouraging. But as I was basking in the glory, I almost wiped out in front of everyone in the wet grass. But I caught myself and was able to make it back to the timing tent. Dennis hopped on his bike and started the fourth lap. The mouse was in the timing tent and we congratulated each other on the little sprint race at the end of the lap.

I started studying the leaderboard and was surprised that Dennis and I were in second place and were 6 minutes behind the leaders. Wow! This is our first endurance event. and we are in the running. We were 8 minutes behind after the first lap and were were trimming the lead by about a minute per lap. 3rd place is about 8 minutes behind us consistently. About that time, the timing folks announce that they are going to do a 2 hour rain delay. So, I went back to the pit and got in dry clothes and went back to the timing tent to watch Dennis arrive. He finishes a 43 minute lap and we both wait for the final results before the delay. After his lap, we are now 4 minutes behind the leaders. Dennis says that he passed them on the course and the dude was struggling.

During the rain delay, they hold a meeting in the shelter and announce that the trails cannot sustain any more damage and they were calling the event. So they hand out the swag and Dennis and I get second place. I win a Thomson elite series seat post valued at about 100 dollars. Cool. We also get a glass mug engraved with 2nd place. My first trophy (a beer glass, Paul will be proud)

Out total mileage was 30 miles/ 15 each. We were prepared for 140/70 so not exactly much of a race. But we were confident that barring a mechanical or crash, we would have overtaken the leaders and won the dual male class. Overall this was extremely fun and I will definitely be doing more of these. I met some really nice mountain biker folk and learned a lot in the process.

Mangled Mess

Leah and I misplaced our camera and have not seen it for several months. If that had not happened, I'd post up a picture of the most mangled up mess you have seen. I set aside tonight as the last full ride before the race this weekend. I was planning on doing 25-30 miles. Everything was going my way until about four miles into the ride. I learned what was making the clunking noise in my rear triangle that I mentioned in a previous post.

I came upon a rather tall (or long) tree that had fallen across the trail and tried to navigate around it through the underbrush because I was too lazy to shoulder my bike and crawl over it. Evidently, and without my knowledge, while I was pedaling through the underbrush, I picked up a small stick in the rear derailleur. At about that same time, I decided the tree was too long to ride around and decided to shoulder the bike and crawl over the tree. No problem. Then back on the trail, I hopped back on the bike and began to ride again......SNAP, Clack, Ping.

I looked down and the derailleur had been ripped off the frame and was mangled up in the rear wheel spokes. The chain was bound up in the cassette as well. It took me 20 minutes to dislodge the mess from the rear wheel so the wheel would roll and I could walk the bike back to the car.

The best I can figure, the derailleur hanger was already cracked and is what was making the clunking noise. The small stick was just the catalyst to the inevitable. I am lucky this didn't happen at high speed and that it didn't happen in the race.

Damage: Rear shifter cable, derailleur hanger, chain and four spokes. And I presume since the bike has over 1000 miles on it, I will have to replace the front center chain ring and the rear cassette because they will not accept an unworn new chain. Hopefully I can get all of this done before Friday afternoon. Luckily, my bike shop has all the parts in stock.

Race to the River - '07

This time last year I was becoming nervous and mentally preparing for the annual "Race to the River" at Harbison. This Sunday is almost the one year anniversary of this event. I registered for the event in the sport class which is not expert and not beginner. The memory of coming in next to last at my first attempt of this race was still fresh in my mind. (I passed the last place guy as he was finishing up his flat repair and beat him by a hair...which tells you how far behind I was.) Additionally, my goal this time was to not get chicked again like the previous attempt when the entire USC women's cycling team passed me on a climb. So, my two main goals were not very lofty by some peoples standards, but the bar was set high for me. I spent several weeks prior to the race training for a 14 mile event. Normally I would ride 10 miles, so I added a few more miles to my rides. Actually the event would end up being 18 miles. I was not prepared for 18 miles. This would be one of my longest rides much less a race. I arrived at the event to find out the Expert class is going to be combined with Sport class because there are only 2 expert riders;not enough for their own class. That is the bad news. The good news is we are not riding Harbison Bluffs which is a trail I struggle to ride and was not looking forward to. I practiced on this trail numerous times and there is a section I had not cleared without getting off the bike. Although hike-a-bike sections are perfectly normal in mountain biking, I had a man-testosterone-pride issue with hiking that section. So I was glad I would not face humility by being forced to ride that section. Before the race even began, there was the thoughts of 18 miles and the thought of no Expert class weighing down my confidence. I was going to struggle with 18 and get dusted by the 2 experts. Before long, the organizers call for all riders at the start line for a brief few remarks. After the remarks, she does a ten count and starts us. The ten count didn't seem long enough. I needed more time to mentally prepare. However, the initial pace was aggressive but to my surprise I was riding in the main pack; doing well until about the 3.5 mile mark. At around the 3.5 mile mark, we are hitting a long smooth section termed the "autobahn" for good reason. This is where you "big ring" it and your speeds would be around 20mph... especially in the draft of the pack. In a pack on single track trail, you cannot see the trail. You just watch the line of the rider directly in front of you and emulate their line. This can be a little nerve racking. My mind went to my mouth which felt like it had a dry sock in it. At this moment, I was reaching for my water bottle and dropped it...it hit the trail and skipped off into the thick underbrush along the trail. Uggghhh, do I go back and get it or keep my place in the pack? Well by the time I thought about it for 5 seconds, I was already 50 yards down the trail. No stopping now. Yet my thoughts went from I'm doing ok (keeping up with the big boys) to I am going to die and the buzzards are going to be feasting on me tonight. I let up, a few riders passed, and now I am out of the lead pack never to see them again AND I have no water. My mind starts to concede and believe in defeat. I let up on the pace and go into survival mode. Then I remember that Leah and the girls will be hiking on spiderwoman trail to watch the racers go by. I knew that Leah would have some water at that point. So I pushed the pace to spiderwoman to the point where I know she will be observing. I notice that she and the girls are about 50 yards off the trail on the other side of a creek. I jump off the bike and run over to the creek bank and tell her that I need some water. She reaches in her bag and pulls out a full bottle of Aquafina. Sweet! She does her best El Duque impression and zings the bottle over the creek but it falls short hitting the bank on my side and rolling into the deep ravine. Yikes! Anna Leigh runs back up the hill to the parked stroller about 25 yards away, grabs another water bottle and runs back down to Leah. This time Leah does her Tom Glavine impression and delivers a strike across the ravine (except Glavine would either bust it inside or pitch me away, but you get the point). She hit me in the numbers (as they say) but I noticed how lite the bottle was when it hit me in the numbers....it only had about a half a cup of water in it. Darn! I have burned up several minutes trying to get water and I couldn't wait any longer. I ran back to my bike, got on and continued on the course. In spite of now being in dead last place due to the water/panic fiasco, I feel pretty good. I reel in a couple of riders and get into a nice pace with another similarly skilled rider. We trade places several times and I begin to notice that he pulls away on down hill sections but I am able to reel him in on the climbs. I liked that feeling and everything seems to be going well. As the rider and I are trudging up one of the climbs I look ahead and behold I see a red cooler alongside the trail. Ecstatic, I thought how nice it was for the race organizers to put a courtesy cooler on the trail. I pulled over, opened the cooler and there were two unopened Gatorade's in the cooler in ice. I grabbed one, opened it up and chugged about half the bottle. Screwing the lid back on, I replaced it in the cooler and continued. Later I find out that the race organizers did not own the cooler. Imagine the surprise of the hiker who must have been off in the woods when he came back to find his drink half empty. The similarly skilled rider and I continue to battle out the to the end of the race. I ended up coming in 5th place of nine riders age 30-39. There were 2 experts so actually I got 3rd place sport class for my age group. Here I am coming out of the woods with the similarly skilled rider just behind me. Dennis has become my main riding partner and we have logged many miles since the race. Good times!

Bakers Dozen

Dennis and I signed up as a two man team for the Bakers Dozen several months ago. It is a thirteen hour endurance event at Hickory Knob State Park near McCormick, SC. The course is a 7.25 mile loop and the winner of the event is the person or team that completes the most laps in thirteen hours. Last weekend we pre-rode the course and got a taste of what lay ahead.

It is scenic but tricky. Not a lot of places to pass. There are a lot of erosion whoop-de-doos with mud holes in the bottom. This course will take its toll on the riders but could be a lot worse. It only has about 400 feet of climbing per lap.

The race was to be held this weekend, but they postponed it due to 90% chance of rain this Saturday. So the new date is Saturday the 12th. This means Dennis is more than likely not going to be my team mate because he has National Guard duty.

Looks like I'll be scrambling for another sucker to join me. I think solo is out of the question.

Wednesday Ride

I arrived at Harbison State Forest right at 6:31 due to some nasty traffic coming out of Cola town. Jim returned from last week but announced that he almost sliced his finger off with his wheel and needed a band-aid. My first thought was, "maybe a band-aid is insufficient", but after looking at the small amount of blood, he looked like he'd survive. He said a ride was not happening for him. That left Monty and I so we entered the forest at about 6:40 pm. Immediatley I started noticing clunking noises from my rear triangle area. We stopped about a mile in and I tried to figure out what was making the noise. Nothing seemed loose although the Giant Maestro suspension has around 6 pivot points and 12 bearings...all of which I expect to loosen up one day. I couldn't figure out what could be making the noise so we commenced with the ride. Chris joined in at this point. We hit Lost Creek and had a very aggressive pace. Monty and Chris pushed and I tried to stay out front. They were both riding strong and I suggested that one of them lead out. We finished Lost Creek in 35 miuntes which is a strong pace for me.

The remainder of the ride was outer loop minus spiderwoman. Average speed was 12.2 and about 15 miles. Short but sweet.