Fort Yargo State Park is the venue for the mountain bike race. I have never been or raced here before yesterday. The course is very hilly and technical with a long winding hill towards the end of the course.
I get to the park in time to see Nikki and wish her good luck. She is racing in the pro women category which does 3 laps around the course or 30 miles! I can barely complete 1 lap or 10 miles. I guess you just have to pace yourself and have plenty of food and drinks available. I talked to Jose Mendez recently and he says that he has a small cooler set-up at the start finish line with his food and drinks in it. When he goes by, he stops long enough to slam a sandwich and a cold beverage and hits the trail again.
So now I have to wait about 2 hours before we can start the race. They won't start us until all of the pro's have started their last lap. For some reason the race is running a little behind so we have to sit around a wait longer than expected.
Well the time is here and we are ready to start. 3, 2, 1 and we are off! I start on the front row like always trying to get into a good position early. Well for some reason I can't get my left foot into the pedal and am getting passed by everyone. By the time I get going, I am almost in last place. So I now have to kick it in passing gear early on and get back to where I belong.
The first part of the course is relatively flat some rolling hills, but pretty technical. The field has spread out a good bit, so I follow a small group that is ahead of me. I don't get a chance to pass until we get to the first big hill. Since I am pretty string on the hills, I take full advantage of this. I pass several guys on the way up and even a couple on the way back down the other side.
We are now coming to another flat but open area towards the back side of the lake. The guy in front of me has asked me if I wanted to pass and he would pull aside, so I tell him that I am going to go for it now. I see a group of guys ahead and hope to catch them before they go back into the woods. I put the hammer down and am able to catch them and pass about 6 guys in the process! YAY
I hit the woods full steam ahead, but it quickly starts climbing up another incline. Small but long and winding. I feel my heart rate climbing too and soon my heart rate monitor starts beeping meaning that my heart rate is over 180 beats per minute. I slow down a little to try to get it under control, but can't slow down too much. This section of the course is heavily wooded and has several power line crossings.
As we head deeper into the woods the course has some pretty deep revenes. They are pretty close to each other and about 8 feet deep. You really have to be very careful as you can get thrown off of your bike. These a very steep too. You could fly over the handle bars too if you lean to far forward. I hit them almost prefect every time and come out unscathed.
Coming out of this area is another long winding hill to climb. I actually am really close to the guy in front of me and my front tire bumps his back tire. No one is hurt and I don't even think that he felt it. I do eventually pass this guy and continue on to the next area.
I soon catch up to another guy and notice that he riding a single speed bike. I make a comment to him about it and he quickly announces that his bike is also a hard tail and hard nose! Meaning no shocks at all!!! I am quite amazed and tell him that he is crazy. He just shouts back that he loves it and starts to pull away from me! WOW I better keep my mouth shut next time. LOL
We now come to a road crossing. There are several volunteers there to control the traffic. We fly down a small hill dropping down to the road catching a little air for the audience and quickly heading off into the woods again. This section is pretty flat and not so technical. I am still with the single speed guy and we are flying through the trees.
This section comes out at the bottom of the hill and we have to cross a wooden bridge over a creek that feeds the lake. On the other side of the creek is the first of the big hills! It is pretty steep and several switch-backs. We have caught a couple of other riders and have to pass them going up the hill. It is pretty touch, but we make it up with no issues. We are out of the woods now and it is really bright and hot. The top of the hill comes out right next to the main entrance of the park and follows the main road for about a mile or so it seems.
We come to a small section that I call the rock garden. It is probably the area that actually has a large gathering of exposed rocks. These can be very technical to cross as some of them are pretty large. Don't want to fall around them! This section comes out and parallels the road again. We soon go over another bridge and have a 90 degree left turn heading back towards the main part of the lake and the BIG hills.
We are now back into the woods and are taking a long flat and pretty straight trail. But I know that the hills are rapidly approaching. This trail leads right to the bottom of THE hill. This is the hill that I had to get off of the bike and walk it up yesterday. The single speed bike guy is still right in front of me but I think that I can pass him on the hill. As I suspected, we get all of the towards the top and he has to get off of the bike because he doesn't have any gears!!! I quickly go around and take off again.
This section quickly ends and I cross the main road and head into what is the last section of the race. This section is pretty flat but very technical. Only one more small hill towards the end and I am home free. I can't remember if I pass anyone in this section or not as my mind is pretty blurred by now. The start/finish line is right by the main camp ground parking lot and pavilion. There is probably 100 people gathered around watching the finish line. I come flying out of the woods and here all of the cheers. Are they yelling for me? I don't know, but it does bring a smile to my face.
I finish the race in 59:27 with an 8th place out of 20. Not too shabby if I say so myself. The race was pretty grueling and I have an average heart rate of 164.
Official raceResults
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