While doing my weekly Google of my name to find out how cool I am I found these articles... Check them out.
http://www.planetfear.com/articles/The_Worlds_Wildest_Race__1030.html
http://checkpointzero.com/adventure_racing_news/2008/07/2008-patagonia-expedition-race-race.cfm
http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/spring_2008.pdf
http://www.miketittel.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=27&p=5&a=0&at=0
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Great Glen Long Overdue
To all my loyal readers, I again apologise for the long overdue delay in publishing yet another funny, remarkable and historic memory from the team of all teams...LBF.
It was a rainy Friday afternoon. Tents scattered about like a dusting of pepper on an omelet made of grass and mud. The team arrived one by one with sullen faces at the impending doom of a rainy weekend. There was a last minute shake up in the teams roster with Jamie Belchak succumbing to a long fight with PMS Thursday. Note: Piriformis Muscle Syndrome is no laughing matter and you all should be ashamed of yourselves for chuckling at an innocent man suffering from PMS. Dave Harkless took the bait and signed on as our 5th with one tiny stipulation..."I will arrive at 7PM Saturday." For the record that is 7 hours after the race has started.
Laps where roughly 40 minutes pedaling as hard as you can with intermittent 40-60 meter sprints through ankle to knee deep mud with underlying roots and rocks all while carrying your bicycle and trying to swallow your heart to return it to it's proper location somewhere in your chest cavity. After my first lap I checked my heart rate monitor and found that I had averaged 195 beats per minute for 43 minutes and hit a max of 203...so in the eyes of some physicians I just took 8353 beats of my heart off my overall lifetime in that one lap...
The rain had stopped Saturday morning leaving mud holes the size of Volkswagens full of a think peanut butter consistency kind of muck that caked on everything. Bikes coming off course where 3-7 pounds heavier and riders retained an additional 1-2 pounds of crud on their legs and arms and inbeded into all mucous membranes and body cavities. Often with races, riders find the smooth line and ride it over and over until a 1.5 inch wide packed out trench in laid through the mud that we all ride through as fast as possible. However, this race was a bit different. The lines never appeared and we were all forced to pedal hard, look straight and play the hand we were dealt. It was like riding a psychotic bull on acid with a midget (sorry...little person) on your back hitting you on the head with a plastic hammer yelling faster...go faster you fat ass all the while the bull is trying to buck you off and pitch you face first into a pile of mud!....At least that was my experience, I'm not
sure about the other teammates but that's the way I remember it.
We all rode very well and only made Melanie ride one more lap than each of the four guys. We completed 34 laps in 24 hours finished 1st in our category and came in 3rd overall...Not the result we were going for but an darn good finish I would say.
PS If you ever want to compete in a 24 hour mountain bike race on a team...think twice...unless of course you like 24 hour interval workouts from hell! I would suggest a SOLO 24 hour race any day...it's far more civilized.
Yacky out-
It was a rainy Friday afternoon. Tents scattered about like a dusting of pepper on an omelet made of grass and mud. The team arrived one by one with sullen faces at the impending doom of a rainy weekend. There was a last minute shake up in the teams roster with Jamie Belchak succumbing to a long fight with PMS Thursday. Note: Piriformis Muscle Syndrome is no laughing matter and you all should be ashamed of yourselves for chuckling at an innocent man suffering from PMS. Dave Harkless took the bait and signed on as our 5th with one tiny stipulation..."I will arrive at 7PM Saturday." For the record that is 7 hours after the race has started.
Laps where roughly 40 minutes pedaling as hard as you can with intermittent 40-60 meter sprints through ankle to knee deep mud with underlying roots and rocks all while carrying your bicycle and trying to swallow your heart to return it to it's proper location somewhere in your chest cavity. After my first lap I checked my heart rate monitor and found that I had averaged 195 beats per minute for 43 minutes and hit a max of 203...so in the eyes of some physicians I just took 8353 beats of my heart off my overall lifetime in that one lap...
The rain had stopped Saturday morning leaving mud holes the size of Volkswagens full of a think peanut butter consistency kind of muck that caked on everything. Bikes coming off course where 3-7 pounds heavier and riders retained an additional 1-2 pounds of crud on their legs and arms and inbeded into all mucous membranes and body cavities. Often with races, riders find the smooth line and ride it over and over until a 1.5 inch wide packed out trench in laid through the mud that we all ride through as fast as possible. However, this race was a bit different. The lines never appeared and we were all forced to pedal hard, look straight and play the hand we were dealt. It was like riding a psychotic bull on acid with a midget (sorry...little person) on your back hitting you on the head with a plastic hammer yelling faster...go faster you fat ass all the while the bull is trying to buck you off and pitch you face first into a pile of mud!....At least that was my experience, I'm not
sure about the other teammates but that's the way I remember it.We all rode very well and only made Melanie ride one more lap than each of the four guys. We completed 34 laps in 24 hours finished 1st in our category and came in 3rd overall...Not the result we were going for but an darn good finish I would say.
PS If you ever want to compete in a 24 hour mountain bike race on a team...think twice...unless of course you like 24 hour interval workouts from hell! I would suggest a SOLO 24 hour race any day...it's far more civilized.
Yacky out-
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