My excitement when registering must have prevented me from noticing how far away Fayetteville was (9 hours each way, $200 of gas and within 100 miles of Birmingham, AL). I planned on leaving at 11:00am on Friday, but work was a nightmare and I wasn't able to leave until 3:30, just in time to hit Chicago rush hour traffic. Nicole rode with and we finally arrived at our hotel at 1:00am. Thankfully Fayetteville was on CST, so I didn't lose an hour. There was a significant amount of rain that night and I got to talk with Mark Hendershot about how the course handles water at the hotel's b-fast bar in the morning. Mark said, "Not well."
There's no way I can detail everything, but I'll say it was a tale of two halves. The first 3 laps were a energy sapping, sticky muddy mess. There were several spots where there were 5-10 racers all on the side of the trail pulling large globs of mud from their forks, bottom bracket and stays near their tires. After cleaning the bike you push it through the un-rideable section, just to have it muck up again. I switched between carrying and dragging a 30+ pound brick for the first couple laps. After finishing lap #3 I was completely fried and lethargic. I ate and drank and ate some more trying to replenish energy and took a 30 minutes nap.
I finally mustered the energy to go out for lap 4. A combination of the course drying out, getting comfortable with the course, and possibly switching to Ted's full suspension bike helped a lot. After my legs warmed up I felt great, spinning the short steep hills and flowing on the downhills trying not to scrub speed and conserve energy. It worked and I posted my fastest lap time by 10+ minutes (1:13ish). I felt great, ate a bit, and then rushed back out for lap 5 with similar results. I had some crazy cramping issues that I think I understand now, but at the time were a mystery (hint: too much salt, not enough water). I fought through one last lap and ran to the tent to ask were I sat. She told me I was in 8th and 2 guys went out 10 minutes earlier. In hindsight maybe I could have caught them, but I decided that I had enough and my cramping was getting worse,
I finished 6 laps, 64 miles and finished as 8th solo amateur geared. Tinker finished 11 laps, that dude is amazing, killing guys half his age. Dave Norton, Team Pegasus rider who Ted and I edged out at Rock Cut by mere seconds is apparently an enduro-freak and did 9 laps. I congratulated him on a great race. He finished as the 7th pro.
There is too much that happened during those 12 hours to list everything, but my main takeaway from this race was 1) I love the atmosphere of these races, the people are all laid back and super cool. I got to see some legends of the sport up close and personal as they lapped me and everyone was supportive of each other. Over the course of 12 hours, you are fighting yourself more than any other race on the course. I'm not interested in doing a 24 solo (yet) but I will definitely look for more of these type of races soon. I definitely see myself doing this again next year. Next up: XTERRA LAST STAND
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