So I did it.  I got my sorry ass up at 5am and drove for 2 to ride my bike around in a circle for 4 hours.  And even though I was tired as hell for the entire time, it was a good time with some great racing…

Saturday night, I packed up all of my stuff and set it next to the door.  That way, when I was late for leaving, I would just grab everything, throw it in the car and head out.  I was up before the alarm clock went off and got ready.  Kelly decided 10 minutes before I wanted to leave that she was going.  So I loaded up the car with clothing, tools, bike, Kelly and Campy and off we went.  I have to say even though the weather was supposed to be nice, it was raining pretty hard when we left and got worse as we got into the notches.  Luckily it was nice and dry when we got there.

2.5 hour later, we showed up at the site, registered and begun a little pre-race nonsense, which meant getting dressed and warming up a little.  At 10 am, the single speeders were set to go and off the 9 or so of us went.  Lap 1 was pretty insignificant.  I rode with the top 3 of the SS’ers and all was well, kinda.  I stopped at the feed zone and said to Kelly “look at that seat post, its bent isn’t it?” and sure enough, it was.  So I had to baby it a little, not letting my fat ass flop down on it too much.

On lap 2, the other SS’ers put some time on me, but I was ok with that.  After all, this was my first solo race and I was doing it on an SS with no idea of what the course was like.  I was fine with my positioning.

Lap 3, more of the same.  Just pedaling the bike around in a big circle.  I took a nice little digger on a bridge that ripped my leg open a little.  Nothing serious, but blood ALWAYS needs to be involved for it to be a good ride.  I also started noticing the seatpost was REALLY started to be bent, pretty badly.  I contemplated pulling out because of “equipment failure” but I was almost done.  No way I was getting a DNF unless that sucker broke and stabbed me in the thigh.

Lap 4 certainly was the most difficult, mostly because I stood 99% of the time because I wanted to complete the race.  Sure, I was on a single speed and we stand most of the times anyway, but there were those little fire roads that sitting down would have been most enjoyable.  But crappy seat posts wouldn’t let me.  Finally, I came to the last section of the fire road, right before the finish and was able to sit down.  Thank goodness the post didn’t break on me.

Overall, pretty sweet race, and it was only the first time they raced there.  Good venue, good organization, and some sweet trails.  I ended up 5th out of 9ish (maybe more, maybe less, I really don’t remember) with a time of roughly 4 hours 35 minutes.  Did I want to win, yes.  Did I want a spot on the podium?  Yes.  Could I have done anything differently during the race to do that?  No.  I did everything in my power to race as hard as I could.  I definitely left it all on the course.  The other riders were simply stronger.  I feel that it was a solid effort and great finish for my first single speed race, especially for it being a 35 miler.  If nothing else, it was a great learning experience, and that really, was one of the main goals of being there.

Hopefully some pictures will follow tomorrow after I get them downloaded off the camera.   Now it is time for a little recovery, calling Easton to get a warranty the seat post and taking it easy for a day or so.