6/12 of Stony Creek

First race of the season for me is in the books. 6/12 hours of Stony Creek. The endurance cup series is a great race series in Michigan that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to race. Solo, 2 and 4 man teams, husband and wife teams, some people with their kids. Its just a good laid back atmosphere.

Its also a way to see how much physical pain one can endure. 12 hours on a bike is a LONG time, and feels even longer on dirt. The course was 11.3 miles long, with around 1000 feet of climbing per lap, and bumpy. Lots of rocks and roots on the singletrack. It was tougher than I anticipated. As I was signing my life away on the waiver form, I see some local pros in my class. Mike Simonson and Tim Finkel were racing 12 solo also. They KILLED everyone. Next I run into Chris Maltby, another really fast guy I used to race with, also in my class. I knew it was going to be a tough day!

At the start I got ahead of the main group for the first section of singletrack. The pro guys were way ahead of me, the main group way behind me. It would be like this for the first 4-5 laps. I rode with nobody around... Gets kind of lonely. After my sixth lap I started getting really tired, joints were sore, legs were dead. Took about a 10-15 minute break to eat something, popped a couple endurolytes and headed out. Lap 7 was painful, although the IPOD was a lifesaver. I seen Steve and wife, used them as an excuse to rest a bit. Popped some motrin for my aching joints and did lap number 8. After lap 8 I noticed I broke a couple spokes, and that my rear wheel was all jacked up. Switched over to my singlespeed for lap 9, felt great at this point, rode lap 10 with Bratney who was fighting through the pain on lap 11, finished about 7:35, 5 minutes after the cutoff. I had enough in me for the 11th I think. If it wasnt for the 20 minute breaks after laps 6-8 I might have done better but I was hurting at that point. Ended up in 5 place out of 11 in my class. Not bad considering who I was racing against. 113 miles, maybe 10 hours of ride time.

Everything hurts right now, from my knees, elbows, neck, back. I think even my hair hurts.

Until Boyne.