Race Report: 3 Legged Dawg Mtb Race

The next day was the 3 Legged Dawg mountain bike race on the same course. I was going to race CAT 2 since I hadn't done any mountain bike racing and didn't have an annual license. The course was rough, but since I did well yesterday and I was already there, I decided to go for it. Some of the kids sprinted right out of the gate on the road to the trail. I wasn't all about using that much energy right out of the gun, so I settled into about fifth position as we hit the trail. One guy stumbled over the rock garden and I rode past him. Picked another one off pretty quickly too. Keeping on, I came up behind a guy and asked to get around. He said I was in his age group so he wasn't going to let me. So about 20 feet ahead I surged and passed his slow ass on a rocky section. Stubborn kid. There was one more guy in front of me and I closed in on him pretty quick and just followed him for a while. I yoyo'ed a bit but mostly set on his wheel for a while. I didn't want to use too much energy this early in the race to get in front of him and just give him a reason to go faster. We were starting to pass the single speed guys that started in front of us and some unusually slow CAT 1 guys. As we approached the back section of the course, my section of the course, I passed the CAT 2 kid and two more CAT 1's in a wide corner. We were on gravel path for a bit and I was keeping my lead. I gave the three of them the look back. I guess I really like doing this and giving people the challenge to follow me. While it wasn't intended to be a hard-ass move, it was. I wanted to check the guys number plate and make sure he was a CAT 2. He was. We hit the dirt single track and I was gone. I began pulling away and really establishing a lead. I came through the first lap well ahead of the entire CAT 2 field, dropped my bottle, grabbed two more, and headed back out for lap 2.

Lap two was more of the same. I knew I was leading so I didn't push as hard or take as many risk as I did on lap 1. I still had my lead and knew that I was the fastest on the back section of the course and could win it there even if someone did catch up to me. They didn't though. I was still catching and passing CAT 1's. That felt pretty sweet. I caught and passed Boomer who won yesterday's race. He was on a single speed, but he is seen as a great rider and one of the great Memphis Xterra athletes when I first started and I looked up to him. I was feeling pretty sweet and untouchable on the bike. I was closing in on the finish and getting ready and visualizing zipping up my jersey and riding across the line, hands in the air, dominating the field. I was also really looking forward to finishing so I could get some more water and cool off.

About half a mile before where the finish was supposed to be, I somehow got off course. I dismounted and trekked through the woods to where I thought the trail went. It wasn't there. So I trekked up to the road that I could see ahead. I saw a marshal and an entrance back to the trail. It was the wrong section though. As I started riding it, it looked really familiar. Too familiar. I came up on some more CAT 1's and asked if this was almost back to the finish. I knew it wasn't but I didn't want to face the truth yet. I was doing my third lap on the second half of the course. CRAP. I rode up to another section that I could see a gravel road from. I left the course and started trying to find my way back to the finish. Completely out of water by this time and really getting hot, this was hurting, both physically and mentally, searching for the trail that I had already ridden. I found my way back to the last section of trail before the finish and began to embark on the journey again. Little deja vu. I was approaching the finish this time and made the right turn. I don't know where it was or how I missed it the time before. It's just how it goes I guess. Really hurting by this time, but I found it in me to sprint past two guys in the finish line chute. After which, I collapsed and laid down under the sprinklers for a while. Very frustrating race, but for a while there I felt on top of the world. I felt fast, two days in a row!

Anyway, Live on to race another day and improve next year. Next race is in Gallatin on July 17th. I like that course so it should be a fun time. Look forward to that.
Finished 3rd in the CAT 2 19-29 age group.

Race Report: XTERRA Dawg Dayz

Venturing over to Little Rock for my fourth race of the season was a little rough. I had gone out the night before and was still feeling it on the car ride over. Thankfully my mom was driving and I could "rest" in the passenger seat. The effects were obvious when I was pre-riding the course. It was a sloppy ride, but I also wasn't the biggest fan of the trail. It was really dry and dusty and had many off camber sections with loose rocks. Combine this with the dust and mountain sides and it gets a little hairy. I slide out a few times and dropped my chain twice. The ride could have gone better.

Pre-ride done and packet picked up, I was headed to Luke Porter's house in Conway. He so graciously offered to let my mom and me stay with him for the weekend while we were racing. What a house! His family was very welcoming and made the trip a really good time. Everything I needed was taken care of and it was great. Dinner was awesome and the concoction of powdered peanut butter, almond milk, agave, banana, and oatmeal was a delicious post dinner/ pre race snack.

Up at 5:15 and we were ready to race. I managed to still get a good spot in transition even though I only got there an hour before the start. Having set up, kitted up, and hydrated, it was onto the warm up. I started by pre-riding a section of the run course. There was a pretty good hill at the beginning that would later come back to haunt me. Anyway, it was race time. Treading water for about 7 minutes while the race director talked wasn't the best way to start out, but I still managed to get off a good swim despite my lack of swim training since Southeastern's over a month ago. I came out of the water right behind my friend Steve Coal. I gave him a pat on the back and helped push him up the boat ramp so we could get out and onto the second part of the race. Running into transition, I saw Boomer Leopold putting on his shoes and getting ready to ride out. As I ran passed him, I gave him a slap on the butt and told him "Let's get after it." He made it out of T1 before I did, but as he went to mount his bike, his shoe stayed on the ground. He had to stop and re-lace the strap. I was off. When I covered the mile on the road and was hitting the trail I could see two people behind me and I asked the marshals how many were in front. Only One. Sweet deal. I started the ride out pretty hard and settled into a good pace. I had sections of fast pumping and sections of recovery. I could see the dust fill the air on the corners and knew I was closing in on the guy in front. I passed him before half-way through and was then just building on my lead. I knew the guys behind me were gunning for me though. There were several sets of switchbacks and I could hear and see people closing in at different times. It didn't matter. I kept them at bay and managed to have the fastest bike split of the day. More importantly, I accomplished my objective. Mission: keep the bike tire side down was a success. Amazing how fast you can go when you aren't stopping on the side of the trail to put yourself back together. I came into T2 by myself and headed out on the run in first place.

Starting out on the run was rough. It was hot and I was getting dehydrated. When I approached the first aid station at the top of that long climb, the person working the station was sitting in his chair across the road telling me which way to go as I was yelling at him where was the water. I had to grab my own cups and fill up my own water. The same thing happened at the next aid station too. Wasn't very happy about that. I kept trudging along though. I was suffering though and stopped at all the aid stations and dunked my head under the coolers and drank a good amount of water. I was over-heating and crashing. My lead was dwindling quickly. About 2 miles in, Boomer passed me. He was running well and I couldn't. I was starting to have to take walk breaks. I hadn't had a run this bad since Southeastern's. As I continued to get passed by more and more runners, my hopes kept dwindling. After I got passed by three people and I knew I wasn't going to podium, I really started slacking. It was hot and this was just not my race. I killed it on the bike and it killed me on the run.

I ended up finishing 5th overall. Not my best, but not terrible. I had a 36 minute run. That was pretty awful, but I felt like crap. I really have to focus on that if I want to be a contender in the future. This year just wasn't a good year running wise for me. I need more winter base miles and to not have surgery that takes me off my feet for two months in January.

After treading water for about 7 mins...

Not too shabby on my form

Riding side saddle

Host and competitor, Luke Porter

Race Report: XTERRA Gator Terra

It hurts me to write this. Literally. My hand is still very swollen and painful from my crash on Wednesday afternoon. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work last week, so I decided to go to Pelham, AL, and do some pre-riding and training on the XTERRA Southeastern Championship course. I wanted to train just as much time as it took me to drive there and back. I didn't quite make it, but 6.5 hours for two days is still not bad. I rode the bike course three times and aced Blood Rock the last. That was pretty exciting. I swam in the lake twice and did more than the course there. The run course I struggled on a bit. I still couldn't find the new course that was supposed to remove some of the terrible hills this course is known for. I also walked most of it. I lost a lot of my steam on the last half mile of the bike course where I came into really sharp corner too hot and the front of my bike flew out from under me. My right hand braced my fall as I watched my fingers bend backwards as I flipped over. My knee got a pretty decent cut too. I can't believe I do all that riding over two days and make it through Blood Rock 3 times and past all the gnarly, rocky downhills and then I crash on the last two minutes of the bike in such an easy section of the trail. Although, I guess that is typical for me. The camping/training trip to Alabama was still a great one. I had a blast and those trails are so much fun to ride. I hope that remains my opinion after I race there next weekend, haha.

So, going into my first race of the season I have a badly damaged hand. I went to the doctor where he thankfully said it was not broken. I knew the only way I was not going to be racing was if he put a cast on it. So, when he said I had sprained my thumb and the rest was a hematoma that made it impossible to clinch my fist and turned my palm blue, I was ready to race as hard as my hand would let me. And I was hoping I could hang onto the handlebars well enough for the 10 mile ride.

I drove down to Ruston, Louisiana on Saturday afternoon with plans of getting there, riding the course, and then camping out. The park looked nothing like I remembered from the race I did there in 2005. Gator Terra 2005 was my first multi sport race I had ever done. It was pretty awesome to go back after 6 years and see how much progress I have made. The trail seemed completely different, but it was an awesome trail. The bike is really fast and fun with tons of different sections including switch backs, 33 mph downhills, fire roads, multiple creek crossing, tight single track, and several water bars to launch over. The pre-ride went well and my hand did as good as I could ask for. So, I packed up my stuff and headed over to the camp sites.

After setting up camp, I headed over to the bathhouse for a shower. The temperature was starting to drop quickly and I could see many people were scouring the forest for fire wood. Instead of trying to find my own wood, build my own fire, be anti-social, and clean it all up, I decided to walk to the neighboring camp site and offer to help break up some wood in exchange for letting me hang out with them by their fire. The guys ended up being some students from LA-Tech and were very nice. They had camped the night before and were getting ready for another long night of roughing it and keeping warm by their huge fire. Most of the guys were aviation students and one was an ME. They even treated me to some homemade, campfire jambalaya. After several hours by the campfire hydrating and fueling up, I headed in for the night. The weather was perfect to snuggle down in my sleeping bag and be perfectly comfortable. I fell asleep pretty quickly watching the moon slowly move over the sky through the trees above my tent. It was a pretty amazing scene.

Right on cue, I started waking up around 6:30, about 25 mins before my alarm was set for. Race prep was going according to plan and I was the first one to set up in transition. Score! Love getting the first spot, but it usually doesn't happen. Sleeping right by the race site and transition helps though. I was set and ready to race my race. I had done everything I could to prepare and all things seemed in order. Then, just like in 2005, the gun went off and we sprinted from the flags on the beach to the lake and began our .5 mile swim. Race morning goes by too quickly to really get nervous. I remember that from 2005. It happens so fast.

I came out of the water shoulder to shoulder with Kyle, he had won the Epic race the day before in a blazing 4:08. I knew he was going to be good. I got out of T1 first though because he had some trouble getting his bike shoes on. I was storming off on my Air 9 Carbon. I quickly passed some people that were on the course for the du and then got stuck behind some slower riders. This gave Kyle the chance to catch up to me. We passed this group and the race was on. I was riding his tail, too close. I didn't see the line as we went over some drops and roots and came unclipped and dropped my chain. He took off. I had to hammer to catch back up, but I was determined. As soon as I made his back wheel again, I made another mistake. I was focused on him instead of the trail and underestimated a descending curve in the trail. I went over the bars as I heard air hiss out of my front tire. I thought I was done. Thankfully, either the stan's sealed the hole or I just burped air out. Either way, after assessing things on the side of the trail, I decided the tire had enough air in it to finish the ride, maybe 15 pounds? I wasn't going to be able to push it any more. Now I was far behind. I figured he was going to be gone by now, but come mile 7 I could start catching glimpses of him through the trees. I was closing in. I finally caught him again at mile 9, at which point I nicked a tree with my bars and off again he went. My opinion of me being a good rider is starting to get questioned at this point. A few downhills and a huge water bar later and we were standing in T2 together. He headed out before I did and was gone! I looked back at transition as I was heading out and realized only our two bikes were in transition. We were leading the race neck and neck. Unfortunately, I just didn't have it on the run. The first mile was hard and it took me a bit to settle in. He established his lead in about that first mile and held it the rest of the race. I knew I was locked into position when I was running on the paved trail around the lake towards the finish line. I could see two guys a good way back that were going to be battling for 3rd, but my 2nd place was secure. All in all, it was a good race and a lot of fun. Props to Kyle Grieser for a great race, two days in a row. My hand is definitely hurting more today, but hopefully it will be better by this Sunday at Southeastern's. That course requires a serious grip on the bars to maintain control of the bike.