Dirty Feet Enduro - Crawford

Tess and I went back and forth over our plans for the weekend but in the end decided that it would be a blast to race in the local 6 hr enduro mountain bike race at our local trails.  A Friday night sign up and with a suitable team of Toss me Taio we were all set.

I think it had to be the hottest day of the summer!  Ok, maybe not exactly but it was definitely up there.  Blasting sun the whole climb up made for some sizzling skin and serious need for fluids.  I think I took in over 4 L of water/electrolyte during the race!

The race started fast, and being on the team I figured I would push to stay at the front.  I stuck with the front group and we essentially finished as a group of five.  I definitely pushed to my limit on the climb, and could have gone a bit faster on the descent but was a bit limited by the riders in front.  All in all it was fun to ride at race pace again!


I tagged off to Tess and she sprinted off.  Tess rocked her lap setting a pace that I had trouble matching come later in the race!  It was good training for her for both the Summerland Tri this coming weekend and the MOMAR adventure race we're doing as a team later in September.

I raced off for my second lap reeling in all the men Tess had politely let squeek by!  The temperature was rising but not too bad yet.  Rode a quick lap and felt good.  When I came back through transition I found out what the rest of my day was going to look like!  "There is nothing you can say to make me do another lap" were Tess' words.  Uh-oh...  I had planned to definitely do some extra laps to give her some more rest but doing the next 4 hours solo was not the plan.  I had gone a little too hard early on for that.  I set off for lap three and felt good until the last punch up out of Fairlane.  Started to feel the cramping coming....  I stopped for a good long feed in transition, getting in lots of fluids, a tortilla wrap sandwich and some Sport Legs for salt.  I rolled out for lap four feeling not too bad.  I rode slower but steady and still manage to feel crampy at the upper part of the climb on Race Classic.  After walking the steep hill and got onto the downhill and had a blast. Again!  Also again, I had cramping climbing out of Fairlane!  This time bad!  I had to stop and stand beside my bike, watching my quads just above the knees twitch like crazy!  I jumped back on the bike and rolled into transition.  I took a good 15 min break this time.  Ate some banana, lots of fluid, some chips, maybe even some m&m's!  I knew another lap would have some serious possibility of pain however a girl that I had passed on the downhill (put got passed by while I stood around cramping!) had gone through for another as a solo.  I had to continue.  This lamp was slow slow slow!  Serious power loss and trying to do anything but cramp I slowly made my way up the route.  I had a good chat with another racer also battling the crampy blues but he eventually dropped me.

Well, the summary is that I really haven't done any mountain bike racing this year and I was not ready for that kind of extended intensity.  Tess rocked her lap,  I did 5 laps for a Toss me Taio total of 6.  That put us in a respectable Second Place for the coed division!

Items of note.  Taio was a rock star!  Super easy going.  Got passed around more than just to Tess and I and was chill with everything.  Even slept in transition!  Had dust in his nose and hair and feet and like always love bath time when we got home!  Also, it was the maiden voyage for the new Union Cycle team kits!  They were awesome!  Look super good and it was fun to have so many people there wearing them! 



Congrats to all that raced!  See the rest of the photos here.