Inspired by burly's post about his race, I will tell you about my race last weekend.
The race was sunday and I drove up friday and camped. Rode a little saturday and then there was a pre ride of the course which I didnt go on. The course is super super tough. I thought I would drink alot of water so instead of a couple water bottles like I usually take, I took a camelbak. I figured I would take tubes, pump and tire levers also just in case because I had all the room on my back anyway. This year they had the race parade down the main road before the race actually started. I was at the very front right behind the truck with my pack on ready to blast off. The truck pulled away and it was a mad sprint up the road. I died after about 300 feet. I thought to myself "why the hell do I always have to do that" as groups of 20 people were passing me. There is no way I want to keep going. I was riding slowly up the road, and then onto the 2 track which kept going up. Downhill.....I came upon one of my lady friends and said hey as I ROCKETED down. Sharp right turn.....and instead of making the turn I shot right into the woods after locking both of my slick tires up. "check out your front wheel matt". Oh jesus look at this wheel, it was completely taco'd. I got up slowly and took my time beating the wheel into submission. Off I go (no front brake)...with maybe a couple people behind me
Still riding slowly the camelbak is absolutely killing my neck and back. Ohhh yea I remembered why I dont wear these things....I really need to get rid of this thing because I cant deal with it for 17 more miles. After passing a few of the course helper people, I finally decided to drop it off with this one guy. He was sitting in the back of his truck drinking beer. I stop and take the camelbak off and suck as much water as I can. "Dude....I really need to leave this here because its killing me." "Well I own this one hotel" Alright i'll come get it after the race. So I am off again. I came upon this fat young kid who was giving it up a hill. I thought to myself "what the hell, I am 18 years old, athletic, muscular, strong, and look who is in front of me. I am a piece of crap. I eventually passed him and a few other people and then came across a guy and his gf that I knew. He said he was definately turning off after he got to the end of lap 1 (2 lap race). We shot the ****, walked alot, and then I felt pretty good so I took off. I got to the end of the first lap after the absolutely brutal downhill and there is a lake. I am riding right next to the lake and I decided to jump in. A minute later is the turn off for the people who did one lap, as I was riding up to the turn off I was thinking which way should I go. I decided to keep going!!!!!!!! Very bad mistake and I mean verrrry bad. I did however feel very good after I made it up the first hill. I was crusing along, thinking to myself gee I am going to turn a much faster 2nd lap! My throat starts feeling dry and just as I am really needing water I am back to where I dropped my camelbak off. ----Totally.....sweet----. I chug a whole bunch of water again and I am off again. I make it to about 5 miles from the finish and start feeling a little ****ty. 4 miles and I am going real slow. Then I hit the biggest wall I have ever hit in my life. I literally didnt have any energy left at all. I got off my bike and started walking on the flat trail. I couldent even keep walking. I layed down on the trail and took a nap to see if I could recharge. There is nobody else on the course and I am just laying there relaxing and this is during a race. After a bit I got up and started walking more. There were some raspberry bushes off the trail so I dropped my bike and went to pick as many as I could. Continued walking and literally couldent keep going. I remembered that there were some course workers up the trail farther but I couldent make it to them. I fell down on the trail and layed there for a long time. When I got up I was searching for berries to eat....walking and scanning off the trail for berries which could maybe help me keep going. I am so dead that I am thinking how am I going to make it out of here. I thought about flagging a car down because I heard a road not far off. No...thats stupid so I kept walking. I made it to the golf course and was going to ask one of the golfers if they had food or something but I just decided to lay down again. "Are you ok or are you just takin it easy" one says. I am alright I say. I got back up.....walked about 50 feet and then layed down again. Got back up and vision is all blurred and I am really in bad shape and can hardly walk. Eventually I made it up to where the course workers were. And I mean were....they werent there now. The whole adventure from when I first layed down to where I made it was only like 600 feet...that is how bad it was. I layed there knowing I could take this downhill and make it to the finish where there were brats and hot dogs and lots of stuff to drink. After a little while the course sweepers who were on bikes caught up to me. I asked them if they had food or water. I drank some nasty water out of one of their camelbaks. They said that the people up the trail farther might have a cliff bar. A CLIFF BAR OMG......I am practically in tears after hearing the glorious news. He brings me back a carrot cake cliff bar. I ate it like junk food. They asked me if I could keep going and I was like I dono. All the while they were getting yelled at by somebody on their radios about who was still on the course and stuff. They said they werer giving me a minute to think about continuing. After a few seconds I said I just couldent ride my bike any longer. There was no way I could ride the last 3 miles of the race to the finish. I was at the top of the course ready to ride the downhill....and there was no way my body could handle it. They called somebody up and I got picked up in a truck.
It was my second DNF in a xc race.
The race was sunday and I drove up friday and camped. Rode a little saturday and then there was a pre ride of the course which I didnt go on. The course is super super tough. I thought I would drink alot of water so instead of a couple water bottles like I usually take, I took a camelbak. I figured I would take tubes, pump and tire levers also just in case because I had all the room on my back anyway. This year they had the race parade down the main road before the race actually started. I was at the very front right behind the truck with my pack on ready to blast off. The truck pulled away and it was a mad sprint up the road. I died after about 300 feet. I thought to myself "why the hell do I always have to do that" as groups of 20 people were passing me. There is no way I want to keep going. I was riding slowly up the road, and then onto the 2 track which kept going up. Downhill.....I came upon one of my lady friends and said hey as I ROCKETED down. Sharp right turn.....and instead of making the turn I shot right into the woods after locking both of my slick tires up. "check out your front wheel matt". Oh jesus look at this wheel, it was completely taco'd. I got up slowly and took my time beating the wheel into submission. Off I go (no front brake)...with maybe a couple people behind me
Still riding slowly the camelbak is absolutely killing my neck and back. Ohhh yea I remembered why I dont wear these things....I really need to get rid of this thing because I cant deal with it for 17 more miles. After passing a few of the course helper people, I finally decided to drop it off with this one guy. He was sitting in the back of his truck drinking beer. I stop and take the camelbak off and suck as much water as I can. "Dude....I really need to leave this here because its killing me." "Well I own this one hotel" Alright i'll come get it after the race. So I am off again. I came upon this fat young kid who was giving it up a hill. I thought to myself "what the hell, I am 18 years old, athletic, muscular, strong, and look who is in front of me. I am a piece of crap. I eventually passed him and a few other people and then came across a guy and his gf that I knew. He said he was definately turning off after he got to the end of lap 1 (2 lap race). We shot the ****, walked alot, and then I felt pretty good so I took off. I got to the end of the first lap after the absolutely brutal downhill and there is a lake. I am riding right next to the lake and I decided to jump in. A minute later is the turn off for the people who did one lap, as I was riding up to the turn off I was thinking which way should I go. I decided to keep going!!!!!!!! Very bad mistake and I mean verrrry bad. I did however feel very good after I made it up the first hill. I was crusing along, thinking to myself gee I am going to turn a much faster 2nd lap! My throat starts feeling dry and just as I am really needing water I am back to where I dropped my camelbak off. ----Totally.....sweet----. I chug a whole bunch of water again and I am off again. I make it to about 5 miles from the finish and start feeling a little ****ty. 4 miles and I am going real slow. Then I hit the biggest wall I have ever hit in my life. I literally didnt have any energy left at all. I got off my bike and started walking on the flat trail. I couldent even keep walking. I layed down on the trail and took a nap to see if I could recharge. There is nobody else on the course and I am just laying there relaxing and this is during a race. After a bit I got up and started walking more. There were some raspberry bushes off the trail so I dropped my bike and went to pick as many as I could. Continued walking and literally couldent keep going. I remembered that there were some course workers up the trail farther but I couldent make it to them. I fell down on the trail and layed there for a long time. When I got up I was searching for berries to eat....walking and scanning off the trail for berries which could maybe help me keep going. I am so dead that I am thinking how am I going to make it out of here. I thought about flagging a car down because I heard a road not far off. No...thats stupid so I kept walking. I made it to the golf course and was going to ask one of the golfers if they had food or something but I just decided to lay down again. "Are you ok or are you just takin it easy" one says. I am alright I say. I got back up.....walked about 50 feet and then layed down again. Got back up and vision is all blurred and I am really in bad shape and can hardly walk. Eventually I made it up to where the course workers were. And I mean were....they werent there now. The whole adventure from when I first layed down to where I made it was only like 600 feet...that is how bad it was. I layed there knowing I could take this downhill and make it to the finish where there were brats and hot dogs and lots of stuff to drink. After a little while the course sweepers who were on bikes caught up to me. I asked them if they had food or water. I drank some nasty water out of one of their camelbaks. They said that the people up the trail farther might have a cliff bar. A CLIFF BAR OMG......I am practically in tears after hearing the glorious news. He brings me back a carrot cake cliff bar. I ate it like junk food. They asked me if I could keep going and I was like I dono. All the while they were getting yelled at by somebody on their radios about who was still on the course and stuff. They said they werer giving me a minute to think about continuing. After a few seconds I said I just couldent ride my bike any longer. There was no way I could ride the last 3 miles of the race to the finish. I was at the top of the course ready to ride the downhill....and there was no way my body could handle it. They called somebody up and I got picked up in a truck.
It was my second DNF in a xc race.
