The weatherman was wrong, it freaking started raining in the middle of the night HARD, it did not let up by 10 am and we started the enduro in the lite rain. I figured that as dry as it has been the ground would soak it up. Wrong. It was one slippery 'effer! Mike and I were on Cody Masten's row 23. I was just trail riding so at the start I just let them go. A few turns through a corn field and we are in the woods, I'm tentative at first getting my bearings on the conditions and verifying that every freaking log will be slick and off camber. Starting to get a feel for it and WHAM I go down and my left hand grip is buried in the mud. I get my bike up and both hands are covered in greasy mud. I try to wipe it off but it won't come off much. Offf I go hanging on to a greased watermelon that don't want to steer. Now here I am as far out of shape as nearly possible, riding a slick enduro that requires your best upper body conditioning and trying to hold on extra tight....not long and the arm pump set in and then I was in survival mode already. I rode the first section like that and checked into the second section down a minute. Man this was one long section, I fell down a few more times and got mad. I finally pulled off the trail took off the slippery gloves and rode bare handed after taking for ever to get the gloves stuffed inside my jacket pocket. That was better by far but i wore my self out already fighting the bike. I had nothing left for that section and by the time I got out and into the next section I started down 7 minutes. My day was not progressing well you might say. But i kept going, riding the entire first half to gas with zero rest breaks, unless you count picking my bike off the ground a break. Near the end of a section I see Ted still going like the energizer bunny and I give him a friendly wave. He was my inspiration for the day! Some where in the long section I managed to pop my sore shoulder on a tree and between that and riding pretty slow I decided if I could get to gas and leave on time I'd keep going but if not I'd hang it up but as I came to gas Mike was leaving so I just decided to call it a day, not push my self too far just coming back and play it safe. Lets just say I picked a real tough enduro to be my first one back. The trails were pretty sweet and given a bit less rain it would have been a lot easier but it was still fun even though I sucked really bad. It was good to be on the bike again, riding some nice trail and no sand whoops. Congrats to the guys that rode it all and did well. I know the Duesendanglers, Ghetto Booty boy, Magoo, Mike Maurer all got trophies.
I'll see some of you at the D14 banquet and for sure on the D 14 SS class tour next year. I'll be on the bike all winter getting my self back into riding shape. It's good to be back, even if it takes more to come back than I realized, I'm riding! :cool:
I'll see some of you at the D14 banquet and for sure on the D 14 SS class tour next year. I'll be on the bike all winter getting my self back into riding shape. It's good to be back, even if it takes more to come back than I realized, I'm riding! :cool: