Two Wheel Blogs

Monday are always tough, especially after a long hard fought race on Sunday. Yesterday was one of those long hard fought races for me. It seemed that everything was going against me this weekend to keep me from racing. I like it like that sometimes, because I know that if I trudge through all the BS and finish half way decent, then I'm that much better off afterwards.

It all started when we were trying to true up my Monkey's front wheel. I took a hard hit straight into a tree at Landalh a few weeks ago, and bent her up pretty nice. Not quite a taco, but close. So we jacked with it for awhile only to give up chalking it up as a failure. The wheel was toast...

So if I was to race it was going to be on my SS UAV, the Rockhard. That's urban assault vehicle for those wondering. This thing is my see all do all bike, from launching 10 step staircases, to riding trails it does it all. As I was switching up tires on Saturday night, I noticed the hub would tighten up as I tightened the skewer. This was odd, never had that happen. I played and played with it for an hour or so with no success. Looks like I wasn't destined to race...

I woke early on Sunday and headed to Units, he was either going to fix it for me, or I was going to ride road with him. I finally caught a break when Unit found and fixed the problem. Something about the cone not being tight enough or something. He tried to get me to scratch the race and go out with him, but I figured I went through this much trouble, might as well race.

I forgot my energy gels, so I picked up some Nature Valley bars at Hy-vee. This would be interesting, I never race without gels... They are what keep me running when things turn for the worse. I made it up to register with only minutes to spare, and barely got dressed in time for the riders meeting. No warm up for me...

We had 9 deep in the Marathon class, with Nate Mean present. This is the dude who beat me in the first marathon race I did, he's a beast. The race started, Nate flew off the line with me in tow. That didn't last long because about 5 minutes down the line I wiped out big time, causing me to bend my right brake lever in half and disabling my rear brake. Nice...

A few minutes later and I'm back on it, and I managed to catch about 4 riders. That was until I pinch flatted 5 minutes later. They pass me again, along with a bunch of begginers. Another five minutes pass and I'm back at it.

The next three hours went by pretty quickly. The first two laps killed me, the next two weren't so bad, and the last two were a bag of mixed feelings. I slowly picked my way back up to mid pack throughout the race. The super hot and humid weather made it super tough, along with the super thick mud during the first 3 laps, and the super steep hills on my super sweet SS... I was super wasted to say the least upon finishing. What a workout, everything screamed with pain and my migrain that I had woke up with had returned.

The highlights of the race where:

Pulling a sweet wheelie at the start/finish line as everyone cheered me on at lap 4.

Somehow digging down deep and pulling out the 3rd place finish, which payed out enough to cover my race fee plus a little. This was the first race in which I won money, so I guess I'm pro now huh? Ha, if only...

Spending 3 hours on my SS Rockhard, and returning it to racing after 2 years.

I had the biggest POS bike on the start line, my legs had little in them to begin with, and mentally I was all over the place. Stress at work had reached a climax last week, and all the training was putting a huge toll on my body. But none of it mattered, I was there to lay it all on the line, and I feel confident that I did that. A wise man once told me, excuses are like a**holes, everybodies got one and they all stink. I had my reasons not to race, but none mattered because once you get out and actually do it, all those excuses seem to fade away. Then it's just you, your bike, and how much heart you've got to throw down.

Great race BTW, promoters did a great job, and even though it was muddy to begin with it ended up being nice, tacky, and fast. Plenty of swag, of which none I won. Team Redwheel came out with a great showing, and it was all I could muster to catch Barry V in the last few laps. Barry was also on his SS and was riding strong as usual. Nate absolutely tore up the whole feild, actually laping us and putting down solid 25 minutes laps. I ended up just 2 minutes behind 2nd... Ugh, just a bit harder and I woulda had it. Live and learn, race and learn...

Just picked up delievery on these sweet hubs today. I've got a sweet wheel build up in the mix, look forward to getting them put together. My WB fork is on it's way back from being serviced, which it severly needed. My Monkey can't wait to get all the goodies put on, and neither can I.