My Saturday was open. My bike was re-cabled and newly chained. There was only one thing to do. Waking up early sucks. I ran out for supplies,
and camped out instead. It was windy, cold and raining, but I stayed warm and dry and I actually got better sleep than usual. As an added bonus, I was able to back my truck right up against the transition area, pop the trunk and set up my stuff right there.
My only spare tube had a schrader valve in it for some reason. Scott Hodge from Addictive Cycles was doing neutral support and found a good one for me. Hodge is great. At the Fools Gold last year I was hungry and he gave me a chicken biscuit. Best support ever.
The bike started out sort-of clean.
I ran into some friends; Russell (left pic) and Norma (left side of right pic).
The race itself was mainly an exercise in slip management. The trail was pretty dry. Or, I should say, the dirt was dry. The roots were not. Slip, slip, slip. All day long. Heritage has so many exposed roots. There's no way to dodge them, you just have to not crash. It's hard to carry speed too. If you like to be beaten relentlessly, that's your trail. By the end I was slow and tired.
This year there was a 4 PM cutoff. If you come in after 4 PM your last lap doesn't count. I crossed the line at 4:00:03. Woohoo.
My bike got a little dirty.
Hot chocolate cured my sadness. That's Hodge on the far left.
Out of pure morbid curiosity I checked the standings. By some miriacle, the big clock at the finish line had been off by 5 seconds. By the official timing, I'd actually made it in at 3:59:58. Woohoo!!! My RFID tag didn't go off on the 4th lap though, so my 5th lap time was wrong, but they'll fix it. I think I got 11th out of 25. Better than I thought.
Norma got 2nd.
Timing mishaps aside, Dirty Spokes puts on very well organized events, and Tim, the race director, is a great guy. If it's your kind of thing, do a Dirty Spokes race.
Update -- Looks like I got 12th out of 26 with 12 seconds to go per the final results.
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