Monday 28 May 2012

Giver8er 2012

Sunday had great weather for the Giver8er.  Probably cool for those volunteering or those switching off riding, but on course it was pleasant all day.  Course was not too dry, but also not wet – just perfect.  There’s something to be said for 8h of mountain biking when no mud sprays up on your bike or jersey.

Course layout was fantastic.  Either flowing downhill or cross-hills, or steep punchy climbs.  I knew those would eventually hurt.

Vibe was fantastic.  All the deadgoats on course and organizing did an awesome job.  Racing went off without a hitch, so organization is good.  Icing on the cake is just how nice everyone is when you’re out there.  From the start, the team fast guys and a handful of fast solo’s took off like a shot. Gary Chambers and I settled into a more reasonable rhythm for us, then half way through the first lap I realized my front tire was losing pressure. Had to ride most of the first lap pretty conservative as a result, and do a mildly longer lap one stop to pump up, after which it was fine – but we were out of sight of the other solo’s. Food felt good – worked mainly on potatoes, bananas, a few bites of a burrito, then I think only 2 gels.

It doesn’t take huge efforts of consideration to melt someone’s beaten down heart at the 7h mark.  Jeff Neilson held my bike up for 10 seconds and said I was doing great.  It almost felt like that was what kept me going.  The prior lap I had Gordon Lightfoot in mind from The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: Does any one know where the love of God goes/when the waves turn the minutes to hours?  - except instead of waves it was hills.  You know, brains get full of funny things out there.  I tried to replace it with Crazy Larry's eternal wisdom:  when it hurts just think of me (Larry) singing Matthew Wilder's: Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride/Nobody's gonna slow me down/Oh-no, oh-no, I got to keep on moving.  Aside from musical interludes; the Ger was always great at pointing out the main trick is to keep moving.

Tracie and Michelle were so cheerful every lap.  The pit row had people speaking each time that sometimes were a blur, and sometimes made sense when I was more coherent.  Craig Marshall, bless you for that 10 second push on the start of the last lap.  It means absolutely nothing in the "assistance to a racer" type of negative connotation, but absolutely everything in terms of lifting a spirit.  I saw you breathing hard from doing it to everyone.  So awesome.  I got a little grouchy to a guy with a cropped silver beard who called a pretty aggressive pass when I was going mach speed, so I hereby offer an apology.  I wasn't trying to hold up trail, and later he did pass.  But passing to me is "can I pass" unless you're definitely, demonstrably, faster at that point, and on that downhill, it wasn't the case.  So when you're 5m behind, you don't just boss someone off the trail.  Police can say "stop and put your hands in the air" with authority, and you do it.  Cops are different.  When guys who it probably actually mattered to passed (Luke, Stappy, Erfle/Bunnin) etc. they give notice and aren't stressed at all.  I'll be nice too, but maybe we should all be nice about passing - and it'd all be easier if an attempt to walk over/through me wasn't made when the two Spin Sisters simultaneously dismounted right in front of me on the hill.  Sorry, but there's the little side tangent.

Gary and I plugged away at the laps, going more for fun than dead serious.  Very fun, nice to just put the laps behind in civil fashion at good pace.  Last lap I saw Brian Robinson heading out, and thought perhaps if I had a legendary lap I could come close to him.  My seatpost broke so no go on that one, had to tighten it up 5x and then gave up and had to stand the remainder.  Ouch.  Passed Rick Metzger, then he passed me back and finished strong.  Rick you're a machine, that was good riding out there!

Somewhere on the last while either my kidneys stopped or my gut stopped, so I had a bunch of fluid in me which wasn’t absorbing.  I’ve had that before.  I’m guessing perhaps light on electrolytes but not positive, all my stuff was mild electrolyte mixture, it was cooler and not super sweaty temps.  Didn’t make for a very fun half hour after the race, just had to lie down.

Course was just a smidge short of 10km, with 283m of climbing, so 12 laps is ~120k and 3,400m of climbing – that makes a tough day on a mountain bike. Results are here

Also Solstice results from yesterday are here

Cindy did excellent on her 4 laps and was chipper post race.  She rode almost all of the course and is now an official mountain biker.  It makes me so happy to see her accomplishments, all while beaming smiles.

Also here's a subsequent edit - it didn't dawn on me until Craig pointed out (let's put it this way, not a lot is dawning on me in the 8h out there or the post race stupor!) that he and I were the only two who did both races with the Sunday solo.  We like riding, and we like riding lots!  That's cool.  Craig you always motivate me to ride morebetter ; )

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