Did an 8 hour team race today with two buddies. You switch off and go as many 7 mile laps out in the woods as you can - part of the Xterra adventure series. Here's an "Only in Idaho" moment: We're lined up for the start and the starter produces a shotgun with presumably some blank/starter type shells. As he points it up in the air, I recognize it's actually a 12g and sure enough, he starts the race with a full on 12g that blows half a bushel of leaves raining down on us. Most were not amused (not from Idaho types), but I was snickering about it for half the race.
Fast flat course with a couple high speed over a low lip things where you land and float through some rocks at 25mph. Coming up on them, you can't see over the lip and your heart is in your throat because you're PRETTY sure this is the safe one where you will land in some softball size rocks and roots that present no harm as long as you don't drift off line or touch the brakes for 100 yards. What a gas! Another similar cardiac event area is a tiny single track through chest high grass that disappears at every turn and you just lean into it with the hope you get the line right and stay on the invisible line. Pure relief when you come out of a curve and get to see maybe 50 feet of straightaway before it curves again. Better than coffee to wake you.
We all had a great time marred by our team captain's decision to do his last lap on a new hardtail. Woof. He realized right away it was a mistake and only had 36 minutes to finish the lap so we could do another two laps after him. Absolute punishment on this rough trail, then a flat and we could only do a single lap to finish, thus getting the team bumped out of the lead. Incredibly, our competition had a similar mishap. Even more incredible, our rider was a bike length behind another rider as they burst out of the trees for the finish line and the announcer picked up on "the horserace happening for the line". My buddy put out a herculean effort just for the crowd and took him by a second with no knowledge he'd just put us back in first place. The other guy didn't know either - just seemingly two random guys prompted by the announcer to engage in a little excitement for the crowd. Turned out the whole race came down to these two and neither knew it. Classic.
DougM
Fast flat course with a couple high speed over a low lip things where you land and float through some rocks at 25mph. Coming up on them, you can't see over the lip and your heart is in your throat because you're PRETTY sure this is the safe one where you will land in some softball size rocks and roots that present no harm as long as you don't drift off line or touch the brakes for 100 yards. What a gas! Another similar cardiac event area is a tiny single track through chest high grass that disappears at every turn and you just lean into it with the hope you get the line right and stay on the invisible line. Pure relief when you come out of a curve and get to see maybe 50 feet of straightaway before it curves again. Better than coffee to wake you.
We all had a great time marred by our team captain's decision to do his last lap on a new hardtail. Woof. He realized right away it was a mistake and only had 36 minutes to finish the lap so we could do another two laps after him. Absolute punishment on this rough trail, then a flat and we could only do a single lap to finish, thus getting the team bumped out of the lead. Incredibly, our competition had a similar mishap. Even more incredible, our rider was a bike length behind another rider as they burst out of the trees for the finish line and the announcer picked up on "the horserace happening for the line". My buddy put out a herculean effort just for the crowd and took him by a second with no knowledge he'd just put us back in first place. The other guy didn't know either - just seemingly two random guys prompted by the announcer to engage in a little excitement for the crowd. Turned out the whole race came down to these two and neither knew it. Classic.
DougM
