We had a great time.
4 of us got down there by 4:30 and got through reg. and tech no problem.
The hotel was really empty compared to past years.
The race:
The first section was not timed and had a big reset in it. This was the stuff that everybody loves behind the gun club. Fast, flowing, fun.
Another couple really fun sections before the first gas. I get the foot-in-mouth award for next year's banquet. Sat. night I made fun of Shawn for doing the routesheet minutes by hand, but when I set up my computer off by 1 minute, his sheet came in handy. A little later I got it straightened out and everything was good.
Shawn and I rode on 12 and it was a good day to be on an early line. The first and second sections were wet. Sometimes the best line was right through the middle and sometimes you had to bushwhack 30-50' off the side. 4 other PFMC guys were on row 46 and theirs was a very different race.
After the first gas was the section that was called "the meat grinder" last year....except longer. This year it was 10miles of the really, really, tight stuff.....the kind of stuff that makes you wonder why you bother doing that race. Somewhere in this section, Shawn had a real issue. The manifold on his EFI came off and spewed gas all over his engine. Luckily he was able to get it fixed, but not before he houred out.
The second section after gas was a little more open, but not much. There was a reset after the previous section but not enough for me to get back on time. This section was a little more flowing but also somewhat whooped out with braking bumps. At the end of this section there was an innocent-looking little swamp with a blue bike pointed toward the sky and the back buried. Lucky break, because I probably would have taken that line. More bushwhacking to get around spots like this.
Thanks to a long woods-road section at 12mph I got back to the 2nd gas on time and had the full 25 minutes to rest. Right after that there was another 14 minute reset....seemed like they lost some trail or it was not usable due to the huge rains they'd had the week before.
The last section was only about 3 miles of moderately tight stuff, then a very long tar ride back to parking. I would guess that there were probably 15 fewer miles of trail this year compared to last year's ride.
By the time we left I was in 7th, B-vet and it looked like most of the scoring was done. I was pretty happy with how I rode. Felt like I was faster than usual on the faster, flowing stuff. The tight stuff is just not a place that a 6'4", 230lb guy should be....very, very tough just getting my legs and shoulders through some of that. Need to work on getting smother in the tight stuff.
On the long, baby-powder sand roads I felt like my training on the balance board was very helpful. I felt a lot more confident looking far ahead and trusting my body to keep the bike going and upright.
Kudos to Scott F. for zeroing a few check in his first-ever enduro.
The day after Sandy Lane is when you ask yourself "Why do I go to that race?", but next February I'll be looking forward to it.