Change of plans...

Had a change of plans yesterday morning and decided that instead of doing 3 laps for the Iron Hill Sport Race, why not do the Enduro! It’s only four hours. Besides the Sport race wasn’t until 2:00 in the afternoon and the Enduro started at 9:00am. Not to mention that there was four of us in the short bus going down and the other three were already definites for the Enduro.

It was a great day of riding. Weather was perfect and the trails were in great shape for this fun, fast, twisty short course. I managed to put in 5 laps and finish 9th out of 10. Oh, I had no expectations of “placing” well but only to have fun and get some good riding in. Achieved and my body is fatigued today to show it.

My first lap was basically a jumble with all the beginner racers starting just behind us. Not to mention one stop to fix some trail markings that had been torn down, one stop to help a Jr. that crashed pretty hard and my third stop to fix my re-occuring chain suck issue requiring me to pull my chain out from between the cogs, it gets stuck in there pretty darn good! But, that’s the nice thing about an “enduro”, for me anyway it just becomes about riding and having fun, not pushing race pace. My second lap was a cool social lap just riding with Lisa while she finished the second and final lap of her race. Thankfully we were just social enough so that she didn’t lose second place in her race, but I think we caused it to be a little too close for comfort for her afterwards! My third lap was solo for the first half and I was just enjoying the trails. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the freight train of elite/expert racers would be on my tail. Once they caught my goal was just to make sure I’d be out of the way which I’m pretty sure I managed. There were many spots I’d be pulled over and just watching the finesse by which many of these racers ride. So much different than the beginner racers in the laps before, for the most part anyway. My fourth lap still had some elite/experts passing but I found myself zoning out a lot during this lap. Just going through the motion. But my fifth lap was solo with elite/expert complete and only a few other Enduro’s out there. I got my groove going again and even though I was tired, I was loving the trail and having a blast. Then I was done, and yea, my body was too!

Overall yesterday was just another great event where I got to enjoy seeing everyone again, a great day of riding, socializing and having fun.

And with that, I’m off for a little recovery ride. It looks like another beautiful day out there!