Wow, what a day it was! As a 46 year old chick who has been a casual trail rider for about 10 years and who’s only competition has been a couple Family Enduros, I was just slightly unprepared for what was in store Saturday. I think my first clue that I was in trouble was the fact that I was the only orange bike with bark busters and a kickstand in the classes running at 10:50 am…and the only one wearing a Camelbak.
On the site lap I stalled half way up one of the steepest hills and wasted about 80% of my energy just getting started and going again. Was so winded and going so slow that by the time I made it around to the start, my class was just taking off for the first race lap and the flagman was waiving me to keep going. I was seeing black dots swimming before my eyes, my motor skills and coordination was shaky, and I thought about quitting, but knew I would obsess about it for years if I let myself do that. I went into survival mode and limped through the three lapse and completed them. Passed three of the girls in my class who had crashed, but they all passed me back at some point due to my awesome MX skills.
I hate sand with a passion and am lucky enough to live and ride on the Tomahawk trails which probably have the least amount of sand in the LP, so my sand riding skills stink and those tight lefthand corners that go straight up the sandy ski hills were a killer for me but I decided I’d rather be run over dead by a herd of quadtards than stall on those GD hills again and managed to get up all of them without stalling/crashing. It’s amazing what a healthy dose of fear can do for your motivation!!!
Started getting lapped by the faster kids and after letting them by me I would tuck in behind them and follow their lines. This actually helped me a lot. Got roosted several times and ate several sand sandwiches with a few sides of sand and a sand milkshake…even found sand in my ears later on.
Saw the flagman waiving the checkered flag and asked if we were done and when he nodded yes I was excited…I had survived! Rode the golf cart path back to the parking lot, got off my bike, got down on my hands and knees and kissed the pavement!
I’ve been riding my husband’s KTM200 for about a month and a half and aside from it being just a little too tall, the bike performed awesome and all the mistakes made were rider related, not due to the bike. I liked the 200 before, but I really, really like it now. Rode the piss out of it and blew all the spooge out that has been accumulating from me putting around on it while I’ve slowly gotten used to it this past month or so. I’m sold on these orange bikes and when this 200 is too old to fix will get another and another…
Grabbed the camera and went down to the River Cabin to get pictures of my husband and his friend, David V, and TJ Cousinaw. Saw KTM Mike go by several times, but didn’t know it was him until after the fact so didn’t take any pictures of you Mike, sorry about that. David V was kicking butt in all his classes and I hope to get some pictures posted of the guys later this week (pictures are on a friend’s camera as ours sucks). My husband got 7th in the Open D and our friend was kind of like me; glad to have survived and complete all the lapse. He also got down on his hands and knees and kissed the pavement!!!
So what did I learn? I don’t think much of MX, but have a newfound respect for the endurance these riders have, the woods are much more comfortable to me and I think enduros are much more my style. I still hate sand with a passion, but had to face my demons in the worst possible way so it was kind of like shock therapy and got me over my paranoia lol! When it was all said and done, I had a blast and the whole environment was so cool and so picturesque. Riding up and down a ski hill on your dirt bike is not something you get to do very often. I would do this event again in a heartbeat!!!