Holy Sheepsh*t Batman!

Today was a heck of a day, I just got home from a mountain bike race in Garner, NC. It was a benefit race for the Garner Volunteer EMS, they need a new ambulance. The race was coined a “4-hour Endurance Race”. To the true “endurance racers” this was not an endurance event. For me, it was definitely all about endurance. Typically my friends and I will ride in the afternoons after the workday has ended, hard work and a lot of fun for an hour. We might get 8 miles on a good day, 12 if we do a warm-up ride on the Umstead trails.
There was no warm-up for this ride, the solo males started at exactly 11:00. The endurance portion of the race began very quickly for me as my first 4.5 mile loop seemed exceedingly long. We were followed by the solo male single-speed dudes. The 1st place guy single-speed and solo male guys did 9 laps to take the win.
I had a mechanical on every lap, it was horrible to dismount then have to remount and begin the torture of peddling again. It is always so much easier if you never stop peddling. It was my seat moving (I like my seat, but not in that way!), my seat-post dropping, or dealing with chain-suck. At first I was disappointed but I think the rest stops for to fix the bike were helpful by the time I hit my 5th and 6th lap. I finished 6 laps in 3 hours and 48 minutes. Pretty good time for me, 27.5 miles @ a pace of 7.24 mph is probably the longest and fastest I've ever ridden on a mountain bike. I can’t wait to see what my average pace is when this season winds down.
I shouldn’t have stayed out so late last night, but I couldn’t miss the Hank CD release party. Maybe I rode fast because I was still burning last night's race fuel! :)~

Catch ya’ll later, and…

Thanks for reading!