Ed and I left here around 5:00 Friday afternoon. We drove a few hours and got a hotel in northern Maryland for the night with the plan to finish the drive to SC on Sat....just about 8 hours left of drive time. We screwed up because neither one of us looked ahead on the weather forecast. When we got up they were predicting 8-12" across VA and ice in NC. Well, the forecasts were exactly correct. By the time we got to VA, there was 4" on the highway and piling up fast. Southerners DON'T know how to drive in the snow and the southern states don't seem to own many plows. Before lunch we spent 3-4 hours going no faster than 30mph. In NC the snow changed to ice and the pace was a little faster but not much.
We got to the start area early got checked in. Everything went really smoothly, the club seemed to to have everything well organized. Lots of cool people to see there including the pros with their huge haulers. Biggest enduro that I've seen. 600 riders were registered, but 500 ran...probably because of the tough weather. 5 or 6 times bigger than a NETRA enduro.
Ed and I left on row 94, more than an hour and a half after the first riders. We had time to watch the first few pros in the first trail. Awesome. Probably doing 30-35mph in very tight trees. There were 120 rows total - five per line. I purposely left last off of our line. Other than Ed, the other three guys were all A riders. After about a mile, Ed let me by and I was feeling pretty good. Lots of fun rhythm riding. I pulled over about 1/4 of the way through the section because I was really hot under the enduro jacket. Opened it up and was good. The front suspension felt perfect, but the rear was just a little jarring on the roots and sharp acceleration bumps. Traction was awesome and I had a blast catching back up to and passing Ed. Unfortunately he got back passed me when I missed a turn because I fixated on another rider that I was trying to pass. That cost me about 2-3 minutes. Pic from section 1 here: SECTION 1 PIC
I found Ed at the Section 2 check in just about 1 minute before our minute flipped. No time to adjust the suspension, just take a few sips from the Camelbak. Ed was right on my rear for the first couple miles, but I was able to pull away just a little. Then I didn't hear him after that....he'd gotten stuck in a mud hole where I saw another guy up to his seat. I really pushed hard in this section and had a lot of fun. There were just a couple sections that were super tight....narrower than the bars. But they were less than a 1/4 mile in length. Lots of fun.
At the first gas stop, Ed and I talked about how well the Dunlop 756's were working. I took 2 clicks out of the rear compression. When Ed got there I told him we had 21 minutes before we had to leave. He told me I was crazy and that the reset was 50 minutes long. I was pretty sure that I was right, but listened to him anyway. He walked over and found a check-out point where guys that were 60 minutes ahead of us were checking out and told me about it. The logic didn't match up, but by then it was too late. We left gas 6 minutes late....depressing but it didn't really matter in the results.
Two more sections before the official gas stop. Sections 3 and 4 were a blast and just the right level of challenge. There was one big swamp section but I made it through in good time. 3 was really tight and I pushed hard and did lots of bar-banging. The rear suspension was now perfect. Section 4 started off tight and then opened up into longer straights of sand whoops....lots of them. Ed came past me and I pushed but could not keep with him. Started to get dejected and those enduro-type negative thoughts started to creep in, telling me that it was OK to take it easy. I was proud of myself that I took control of that mindset, pushed it out and and pushed my pace. I finished the section strong. The picture AT THIS LINK was taken just after I'd bounced off of the trees on either side of me.
Gas was after section 4 and Ed looked ready to quit when he got there. I talked him into going back out. Pretty early in the section I got stuck really deep in a whole that was the only line available. The seat was so deep it was lower than my knees. Luckily, it didn't get vacuumed in like it would here in New England so I was able to pull it out and get going without holding up Ed and a couple other guys too badly. He really kicked butt in that 5th section (last one for us B's) and beat me by 27 seconds there. This section was more really fun rhythm riding: awesome traction on the wet sand.
In the end, my results were pretty weak: 30th out of 37 in B-Vet but it was the best I had on that day. I definitely did not leave anything on the trail! I'm still very sore two days later and my left hand is a mess. I enjoyed the national format and can't wait to go back next year. Really fun riding and worth all the hassle of the drive down.
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