SoCal EXHILIRATION

Whoa! Out of state races, work and remodeling doesn't leave much room for blogging.

Here's a recap of our Southern California 12 hour race last weekend (Rim Nordic). Carson, Chris & KC, and I headed to Big Bear Lake to crash at a friend's (thanks Fausto and Rose!) cabin which was conveniently close to the race site. We pre-rode a couple of laps Friday and found the course to be very race friendly. There was some fun rolling single track followed by a couple steep but short climbs which dropped us out onto a gradual but long road climb. That was about 1/3 into the course and the rest was essentially all fun downhill! At the top there were some tight, dusty and rutted switchbacks, but other than that the course was on the easy side by Utah standards. So we were surprised to hear the prerace commentary indicating that the course was "quite technical". It looked like we were in for a FUN day! Carson and I were racing Duo open and Chris and KC were racing Duo Coed.

It was a good thing they were in a different category since they beat us. They beat us by about 30 minutes for the day. Incredible! They also were the 3rd fastest team (out of 200 teams) and that included the 3 and 4 man teams!

Carson took the lead lap since I used the strategic excuse of being older, slower and fatter since I figured we'd be only doing 13 laps and he'd have to do the extra and last night lap. What a smart wimp I thought I was. He took off KC and I hung at the pit wondering how quick the laps were. Well we didn't have to wait too long. Chris came in first setting the fastest mens lap for the day and by golly Carson came in third! With that kind of head start I took off REALLY excited to hold the lead and within a mile of the first lap I crashed. The sand was looser than the day before on the pre-ride which caught me off guard. Boy did that deflate that initial effort of mine! I was scratched, dirty and pissed but after the first lap which went well thereafter I had no further mishaps. Carson had a brief soft tire issue on his 3rd lap but otherwise we had a great race. I have to point out how great the ARANTIX II was. It was completely bomb proof AND during the road climb I locked the fork out and just sailed past racers. I realized pretty early on that we had the race in the bag unless we did something majorly foolish. Hell, we were going so fast we ended up having enough time for a 14th lap! There went my strategy. I had to do the last lap and it was the night lap! It was well worth it though. We had lapped the 2nd place team by this time. We ended up 5th over all including the 3 and 4 person teams.

So here is the question that I've been mauling over ever since. How did we so handily defeat the Cali boys when there is a greater population draw and they have a longer season to train, but when I race in little old Utah I'm a struggling middle of the pack kind of guy? Any enlightenment on the issue would be appreciated.

Sunday, we headed back to Gooseberry Mesa for some real 'technical' riding where KC set a blistering (she said easy) pace for a couple of fun hours. I think that was as fun as the 12 hours the day before.

Results:
2-PERSON OPEN
Doc Geek (Me, Carson)
14 total laps
11:43:07 Total time
0:48:49 Carson (with extra one mile 'shakeout' lap)
0:46:43 Me
0:46:10 Carson
0:47:40 Me etc...
0:47:22
0:48:24
0:49:53
0:50:13
0:54:42
0:51:38
0:51:44
0:52:05
0:52:18
0:55:26
#########
2-PERSON OPEN
Chet's Strawberries & Cream (second place)
13
11:48:49
0:53:26
0:53:02
0:48:13
0:54:46
0:50:29
1:01:02
0:50:39
0:55:19
0:52:31
0:57:01
0:54:26
0:59:39
0:58:16