addison mudfest

whoever said addison was in good shape should be shot! no, not really but what were they thinking??? i was having reservations about doing the race on friday night and with only 2.5 hrs. of sleep on friday night, i really wasn't in the racing spirit. to add to that, when i got to addison, it started raining! so, i got in line to register and was seriously contemplating whether or not to do the 6hr instead of the 12. not wanting to be a big pussy, i reluctantly decided to sign up for the 12. as the 10AM start time rolled around, i started getting excited. little did i know what i was in-store for.

the solo racers started last--two minutes behind everyone else. i stayed at the back of the pack as there was no need to "fight" for position in a 12hr. race. as soon as we hit that first climb and then headed into the singletrack i knew this was not going to be a typical race. i went really slow and had to dismount to get through some of the deeper mud. i think the first lap took me close to an hour. as each lap passed, the course got worse and worse. by my fourth lap i was walking about 1/4 of the trail. it took me just over 4 hrs. to do 4 laps out there! i was thinking the whole time how stupid the whole thing was. i was kicking myself for giving the race promotors 80 dollars that very morning. $20/lap at that point not to mention my bike being trashed. unfortunately for me, i had very little clearance on my front tire/fork/v-brakes and they were constantly getting so plugged up that my front wheel would completely freeze up. on my 5th lap that i was talked into, i was scooping handfuls of mud out every 10 feet. i think that lap took me an hour and 45 minutes although i did stop and walk about a mile and a half w/ mike moss after he blew out his rear derailleur. parts of the course were getting to be completely unrideable...at least for me on my bike. there were obviously people who rode the course all day. maybe they had a better setup. maybe they're better riders. maybe they were mentally tougher. probably a little of all of those. i had nothing more to prove. it just sucked walking 2+ miles per lap. so i hung things up after a measlely five laps.

i was sooooo hungry and the beer was looking soooo tasty. i ate four dogs and had four bells when i went to check the current results. there were 4 guys in front of me w/ only 6 laps. if they weren't on the course then i'd have to do only 2 more laps to put me in third place. so, i put the gear back on and headed back out w/ a nice buzz and a full belly! that 6th lap was definitely my best of the day. i stayed on the bike for probably 90% of the trail and felt great overall! the trail was in the best shape of the day--the mud only plugged up my front tire once. i got back to the pits and jody helped put my light on and i headed back out. towards the end of that lap it just started downpouring and the trail was getting treacherous. i got back, cold and wet and was contemplating on and 8th lap. i went back to the pit to grab my rain jacket but looked at the best brown sitting there and grabbed the beer instead. so, i finished w/ 7 laps which put me 6th out of 8 riders. disappointing. two other guys did 7 laps but faster and then 3rd place had 9 laps. so if i would've went back out for that 8th lap, i would've finished 4th. not a big deal.

lesson learned...don't get pressured into doing a race. i paid $80 to race, my bike is COMPLETELY trashed as are my cycling clothes and shoes. hopefully, boyne will be much better although i'm not done w/ this 12hr solo stuff. i want another chance where conditions are more ideal.