I arrived at Seven Springs Ski resort on Friday night around 10:00pm after toughing it out through some serious traffic. The camping area was essentially at the top of the ski mountain in a giant field. The timing tent and transition area were up the hill about a tenth of a mile from our camp. The nice thing was that there is a ski lodge up top with bathrooms and charging stations for lights. After a few beers with old friends it was time for bed. I set up my tent and left the rain fly off. It was a bit cloudy but I could still see a few stars and the full moon.
Jerry led off the following day, which is great because the start involved a 1/4 mile run to your bike (as we all know, I hate running). Shannon went out after that and then Matt K. I went fouth at about 4:30pm. I pulled off a 1:33 which is a bit better than I was expecting.
Our sponsorship by Central Ave Massage & Spa reduced our entry fee to 40 bucks each and Jerry also got us 12 race burritos as well. I grabbed a burrito after my first lap and hung out around the pit and the timing tent till around 10:00pm when it was time to go out again. Here's a picture of Shannon and Adrian prior to Shanon's sunset lap.
Roman their Weimaraner is actually below them in that picture. Here he is playing with another dog that he made friends with:
Here's the sun actually setting while Shannon was out on his night lap:
My first night lap was OK I actually felt better on the second one because I was passing a few more people. I got back around 12:00am and tried to get some sleep. I don't know if I actually got any, I pretty much froze my ass off inside my sleeping bag in my tent. I think the temperature dropped into the forty's.
My second night lap began around 4:30am which was kickstarted by Mary making coffee which was fantatsic boost to get out of my tent. Mary provided such great support for us through the night, we owe her a big thanks! The sun began coming up as I came around so it was getting lighter and lighter as I went which was a really awesome experience. When I got back to the timing tent Jerry was ready to head out. Here's a shot taken from the same area as the shot of the sun setting above, It's actually the moon setting. The sun was coming up behind me.
It's about 6am here and I crawled into my tent right after this and got about an hour and a half of sleep. The pit area was coming back to life at that point and someone had a generator running.
I set out at 11:00am on our last lap. We were two laps off the podium and in fifth place out of the five team expert field. So really no pressure to turn a fast lap. This was my slowest lap, and every bit of it hurt. We had a beer after I finished and some cake that Mary and Adrienne ordered from the bakery at the base camp lodge. They rode the chairlift down on Saturday and ordered it.
Since we were sponsored by Center Ave Massage & Spa (our team name), we had this joke that we'd call ourselves "The Happy Endings". Mary and Adrien bought us a choclate cake and asked the lady running the bakery to write "The Happy Ending" on the cake in white frosting. She also asked her to put "drops of sweat" (in white frosting) all over the cake. She even put some down the side. They weren't really sure if the baker picked up on the hidden meaning here. One thing is for sure though, this cake was damn good when paired with a Pumking Ale from Southern Teir Brewing Company.
We packed up camp after that and headed out. I made the half hour drive to the PA turnpike and headed east for about half an hour on that before stopping for coffee and pizza. First I had two slices of Pizza, then I got in line at Starbucks. I asked them to dump a shot of espresso in my venti iced coffee, and then set back out on the ride home. Not gonna lie, I was tired! But I made it home safely. I put my seat in the strait up position and played songs on the I-pod that I could sing along too. I got home, took a shower, ate a snack, and went to bed. I think I slept for 12 hours.
Looking forward to my recovery ride tomorrow night. Here's a couple more pictures from the race:
Matt K, rocking the Dirtrag T.
Shannon's (left) and one of Jerry's (right) bikes:
My Squeaky/Creaky Bike:
Our tean numer was 275. The race organizers did a great job of having race marshalls in four spots around the course to check on riders coming around. If you didn't make a check point in a reasonable amount of time it gave them some warning that something was wrong. They asked that we shout out our number when we approached them. Two-Seven-Five allowed me to make a few rhymes up, I at least found them entertaining.
"Two-Seven-Five, Glad to be alive!"
"Two-Seven-Five, Feels like I'm gonna die!" (I only used this once and thought it might send the wrong message.)
"Two-Seven-Five, Thank you Guys!"- always thank a marshall, they usually volunteer to drag themselves out in the woods and be bored.
"Two-Seven-Five, My last Ride!"- perfect for the last lap.
Here's a self portrait after lap three. I didn't have a mirror and wanted to see how haggard I looked:
Here's a shot of the pit:
This was a tough course but there were fun parts on it and brutal climbs and rocks too. Definitely a race I would do again next year.
BS
