Saturday I headed down to Charleston for the 22nd annual Black Bear race. Steve Thorne was once again nice enough to open his beautiful house up to me. I arrived at Steve's house around 6pm and I was just in time to wake him up from his nap. You see Steve had just gotten back from Brazil the same morning and hadn't got much sleep in the last 24 hours. Sorry Steve! For dinner Steve, Gina, Larry Perkins, Larry's wife and I ate at Rio Grande #8094. It was really Rio Grande #81 but I swear you can't go anywhere without running into one. Well after a few greasy chips with cheese I was ok with the place. Steve couldn't hang for long but the rest of us sat around the table and chat for a long while. I did have a thought while talking with Larry. Every weekend I travel to a different party of the state and get to have dinner or stay with a different set of friends. How nice is that. It's really a really nice way to live. Last week I had dinner with Pete, Meredith and Klara and the week before Gina's family, you get the picture.
The next morning I woke up around 7am and headed out the door for the race. The Black Bear 40K is one of the longer XC races but I had been feeling pretty good the past week or so and was up for it. Once again I didn't get to warm up before the start of the race do to running registration. Actually the riders had all took off before I even got there. Thanks for waiting guys... The first climb was LONG. Not sure because of some GPS issues but it had to be well over a mile long. I got dropped ASAP. Not being able to climb plus no warm up equals no chance to stay with the other Clydesdales. Once to the top I could still see Rick Pauley and that gave me a carrot to start with. Rick I know was not as good at descending as me so I knew I get by him on the long downhill back towards the start finish area. When I got up Rick's back wheel I started talking to him (which I always do). Not sure if Rick like doing that because every time he just pulls over and lets me by. Guess that’s not a bad thing...
A few minutes later I founded myself passing the Clydesdale that rides for WVU and a few others. It was the second race in a row where I was felling good and passing people. I was smiling and happy.
By the next single track climb I caught up with Roy, talked with him for a while then dropped him. Bigger smile, even happier... About twenty minutes later my back just start hurt really badly out of nowhere. I really had to slow the pace down. It didn't take long for Rick and Roy to bridge back up to me. It was one of those moments when I was 50/50. Just ride with them and suck up the pain and go? Well lucky for me a kind of long and semi technical down came next. I decided to suck it up and few down the decent. I knew Rick would be walking so of the section of the downhill and would put time on him but wasn't so sure about Roy. Once at the bottom it came out right beside a shooting range. Man that was a little nerve raking. The trail went perpendicular to the shoot range and I was just waiting to get hit by a stray bullet. Never happened thank god... Next was another climb of 1 mile+ this was about 10 miles into the race and I really couldn't believe how good I was feeling. I past 3 more people during that climb. Nearing the top I could see Klara and Kelley Shaw. I really wanted to bridge the gap and ride the rest of the race with them. At the top of the mountain I gave it everything I could muster to get up with the girls and it was feeling great! I was out of the saddle and dancing on the peddles. First time this year that I have been able to even think about that after a long climb. Think the not smoking is paying off. Big big big smile, so so happy!
I was flying.. I was a little surprised I had not caught up with the girls after 15 minutes or so.. Then I saw it... The fire road I was riding intersected into another part of the race track like a T. Crap I thought to myself.. I missed a turn.. I figured I had gone a mile or maybe two of course. No smile, not happy.. 
I back tracked to a Y in the road that I just went flying by before because there were no signs to turn there but I did see bike tire tracks. On on, I said but after only 2 or 3 minutes I came to a trail I had road before but at least this time I saw someone. It was one of the race sweepers so I asked him how to get back because I took a wrong turn. He said right up that way. I then asked him if he had seen the girls. He said ya only about 5 minutes ago. Yes, I was back in action somehow. So I just on the trail and it took about 10 pedal strokes and stop. I rode that trail at the beginning of the race. I turned around and went back to the sweeper. Do we ride that trail two times I asked him? No he said.. He must have been high as a kite is he thought the girls had gone by 5 minutes again. I asked the guy which way I needed to go to get back on course and he looked like a deer in headlights. The anger started build up and 1 week of not smoke wanted to pour out on that dude but I rode away. It had been around 20 minutes at that point and I was still no wear near the trail. I never did find it. Super pissed! Thank goodness I had to worry about finding my way back now, that way it gave me some time to cool off. I didn't want to be a poor sport, well at least did want anyone to see me being one, lol.. 
I finally made it back after taking a few trail not made for mountain biking.. That pretty much killed my chances of making the top five for the series, but oohh well.. Next year I am hoping to win the damn thing. When I got to the finish area Gunnar, Jason, Chris P and a few other friends had finished so get to talk about my issues made them just go away. It just sucks to race 15 miles and have to DNF because you got lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment