Thursday, June 12, 2008

Thursday, June 05, 2008

DINO Race #2

Race #2 is finished and the standings are up (http://www.dinoseries.com/2008race2-BeginnerMen.htm) - 30th out of 32. Not very good I'm afraid.

The trails at Brown County State Park (http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/6725.htm) are a lot of fun but require a lot of stamina. That's because they have long downhill stretches that can be blazingly fast but require climbs that are at least as long. And since I'm not able to do longer rides (right now), I suffered tremendously.

The course started with us riding on about a mile of the paved North entrance to the park. Sounds easy right? Well, there's a section of this road that has to have at least a 30 degree incline! I did well enough on this section to not be last in my group and stay in the saddle but it took everything I had. In later climbs I had to hike to make it to the top.

Also, this was the first time I crashed during a race. Nothing bad, just a cut on my knee and some scrapes and scratches on my arm. I was going around a hill at a good rate of speed and my front tire got caught in the soft stuff. This normally wouldn't have been a big deal but it was right in front of a tree. Basically, my bike stopped and I kept going. Amazingly enough, I didn't have a bent wheel.

And to prove that I was actually there, a photo of me is up on the DINO site (http://www.dinoseries.com/photos/dinophotos.html). Click on the "2008 MTB Race 2" box, then click on the pause button - it'll make it easier to navigate. Now click on the "next" button till you get to the last page. There will be 3 photos. Click on the last one to load it. That's me on the bike! I just got finished saying bye to the wife and kids and am riding up towards the starting gate.

'Til next time...