Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Magellan, post: 1042641, member: 22253"] [b]Sparkplug Enduro 2006...part 2[/b] I enter the section and it is. I'm tired and it's tough. Fresh cut trail with really tight turns. I stand and apply those trail riding skills to weave through the turns. Other guys are sitting. Some sit, then stand, then sit...That looks tiring. I try sitting, but feel I don't have enough control and have to muscle the bike around too much. I return to my feet and trudge forward. I'm passed by three guys who are probably on the same minute. One is on a KTM, on a WR, and I think the third was a CRF-X. As the ride away I notice how smooth they ride, how effortless they make it work. The lactic acid is building in my thighs and a check of my computer shows I'm about 15 minutes late. Ouch. I lost more time. Finally I roll into the emergency check. It too is close to where I thought, but I really don't care at this point. I know there is a 60MPH section coming up and that means rode. And that means rest. I come onto the rode and try to make up time. I sit down to rest my legs and try to suck down as much fluid as I can. I ride by the group of 3 (KTM, WR, CRF-X) on the road. They are obviously early and are enjoying a break. That's one of the problems with getting later early in an enduro. You forfeit any rest in order to mke up time. The road doesn't last for long and I am back on trail. I feel a little better. the combination of the mental and physical break the rode provided is paying off. I enter the next section feeling good. I start riding better. I feel the bike moving from side to side. I feel my self rotating with the handee bars and am looking farther down the trail and through the corners. This is how I'm supposed to ride. If I can do this for another 40 miles I'll be fine. I'm starting to make up some time here. It feels good. The group of 3 hasn't passed me yet. Come to think of it, I haven't seen Bil since just after I got back on track. He is a faster rider than I am. He should have caught my. There's an observation check right after Gas. I 'll check with them to see if he came through. Maybe he passe me and I didn't recognize him. I'm trying really hard to make up time here. I know I'm riding well and it won't last. The trail will get harder. I'll get more tired. Something will slow me down. I go through some deep puddles and come up to a section with a staricase of roots. I see a white XR. This could be the guy from my minute, but I don't know for sure. He is stopped in the roots. I take a line to his left, dip my knees, pull back on the bars, and give the throttls a twist. The front tire gets high enough to clear the first set of roots. I back off the throttl and dip my knees again as the back tire rolls over the root. Another tug and blip and I'm over the second set without a hitch. Feeling like a pro and pick up speed. I come around a bend and into a rocky section of trail. The front tire tags a sharp rock head on. I brace for the impact, but the forks just suck it up. Mental note, send a thank-you to Les. I lose speed and tag another rock. This one is at an angle and sends the front tire careening off to the side. The tire slides out, then finds traction and I maintain forward motion. Mental note, get a steering dampner. I see a rider on a CRF-X (not in the group of 3) stopped on a hill. I think he is stuck. he is off to the left and I can just get by on the right. I don't want to fly by him, so I slow down and pick my line up the right side. Right when I am next to him, my handle bar barely tags a 2 inch limb. I come to halt and start falling into the CRF-X rider. My left foot is on the downhill side and I can't stop my fall. "Sorry<" I call out as I knock the rider and bike down. He tumbles down the left side of the trail. I fall into him and my leg is pinned between our bikes. I smell nylon burning then feel my leg burning. "Ahhhh, my leg!" I call out. I can just barely unweight my bike enough to get my leg out of contact with his header. My victim goes around and pulls my bike off me. I think him and help him get his bike up. For some reason, I am completely exhausted at this point. we are about mile 23. Gas is at 27.8 and the trail should be easier the few miles before it as we'll be close to the staging area. The CRF-X rider takes off. I pull off my helmet and take a rest. The group of 3 go by. No sign of Bil. I'm a little worried. He must have crashed. I get started again. Shortly after the hill the trail opens up and I make up some time as I ride into Gas. When I get to the Gas stop I am runing 20 minutes late. I gas and go and make up 10 minutes by giving up my rest. I ask the person at the observation check if they have seen rider 48B. "No," they tell me. I tell myself not to worry about him. I can't help him if he is hurt and there are people here to do that. Just ride. I'm beat at this point. I can understand how you could easily not leave gas. The gas stop was at the start. I had dry clothes there (mine are soaked with sweat), a few beers, I can sleep in the truck. But I came to race and I pan to finish. I decide to try to mainting my current time. It's a new race and I'm riding minute 58. I starting watching my early/late time again. OK, it's really just Late Time for me. But I am determined to not drop any more points. I'm riding on a road and see 2 arrows pointing left. I look left and see nothing. I continue ahead and come up to a barricade (one of those tractor dug holes). There is a trail around it, but it doesn't look well riden. It surely doesn't look like 100 riders went through it today. I go through anyway. Then I see that there are rides riding across the rode I'm on. **** I missed a turn. I had only gone about 100 yards from the arrows, so I turn around and head back. As I go around the barricade, I see a rider truning off the road near the arrows. When I get there I find a trail that was definitlye created by a goat, or a masochistic club member. I head down it. It is narrow. There are ruts, roots, and rocks. I'm tired. I try to drink as I ride, but the gatorade just runs down my chin. I have to stop, but tell myself to maintain forward motion. I try to ride sitting down, but can't do it. I tell myself I have to practice this. Too much trials riding, maybe. Used to standing up all the time. I see guys passing me. They're sitting down. they don't look as tired as I feel. They are definitely faster. Maybe there are ome A riders that started after me. Yeah, that's it. I go through some more fresh cut. It smells like Pine. I think to myself that this would be anice place to stop. I've dropped another 5 minutes since Gas, and I really need to cool down. I want to puke. I tell myself I may get hurt. I tell myself you can't win if you crash. That's the first rule: "Don't crash." I tell myself I am responsible for supporting my family. That seems to make it easier to stop. I do and pull off my helmet. I want to pour the contents of my hydro pack on my head, but it's Gatorade and sticky. Plus, I really should drink it. As I'm sitting there someone stops next to me to see if I am OK. I lose my balanace and start to fall towards him. "Oh no! Not again!" I through my weight the other way and stick out my left leg to catch my bike. I avoid falling on my fellow race, but my left leg cramps up. I'm not really having fun anymore. He rides off and I start stretching my leg. Bil finally shows up! "Have you been behind me?" he asks. I think that is a strange question since he came up on me. "I've been in front of you since I passed you after we got off course." "What are you talking about?" he asks. "I never got off course and don't remember you passing me." I guess that wasn't Bil who led me down that trail after I hit the unexpected road. But it was him on the side of the trail. He jus didn't notice me go by. "What took you so long?" I asked. "Tough trail," he says. I tell him it may be a trail ride for me the rest of the way, and he takes off. I leave about 30 seconds later. I feel better. Maybe even a second wind (or is it the third by now?). The trial is a little easier. We're up on a bit of a ridge and the trail is pretty straight over all. A few good logs and rocks to climb over and I think I'm having fun again. I remind myself that this is a race, not a trail ride. I am about 20 or 25 minutes late at this point. I tell myself that I need to finshi without getting disqualified. I only have about 20 miles to go. I can do this. I crawl through more fresh cut with tough swtichbacks and am exhausted by the time I get to some open trail. the trail was wide enough for a few quads here and pretty whooped out. I ride pretty fast over the whoops. I have a good rythm for the first few, then I start to feel the bakc end going from side to side. I slow down, but that makes my drop my front wheel into the face of a whoop. My forks and forearms collpase and my chest is against my crossbar as I get ready to go over the bars. The suspension takes it thought and I stay up. Mental Note, "Send Les Beer." The easy stuff ends and I start recognizing rocks and downed logs. Or at least I think I do. Can you really recognize a rock? The probelm is that if I am really goign through a rpevious section, it was the hard one. I see a familiar set of roots that I know I crossed. ****, this is where the emergency check was. I want to cry. I crawl throught this section, happy to maintin any forward motion. Just finish...just finish..I keep repeating it in my head. I suck on the tube from my hydro pack but it is empty. I glance at the odo: about 15 miles to go. I get to the emergency check 35 minutes late. As I pull in I just about fall over. The volunteers at the check give my a laugh and offer to help hold me up. I laugh, thank them for working the race, let them know it's tough and press on. At this point I know I'm nearing the end and that thought pushes me on. I ride well again for a while. It feels very efficient. I wish I could do this all the time and wonder why I don't. It's in your head, i tell myself. As the trail continues It gets easier. There are some huge puddles in these open areas. I went through these before pretty close to the gas stop, so I know I am getting close. I start to get happy about that. I pull some wheelies through the puddles. I think of that scene in "On Any Sunday" wher Steve McQueen, Bruce Brown and Malcolm Smith ride through a puddle. I realize how much I love doing this in that marathon runner sort of way (ever notice hoe they never look like they're having fun). I'm having fun again. I pull into the end of the short course. I think myself that I'm done (the long course had another 20 miles to go). The workers grab my card so I don't have to actually see my score and give me a finisher pin that I will later give to my son. I find Bil at the truck and ask him how long he's been there. He tells me 5 or 10 minutes and hands me a beer. We sit there and eat. When we are rested we load up the bikes and I check out the burn on my leg. I have a quarter sized blister, but no pain and it is intact. We have a 3 hour drive home, so we don't wait around for the scores. The guy next to us says that we should stick around to see if we got a trophy. I tell him I doubt I did that well. I'm sure I dropped over 100 points. I laugh. It was a great day. (continuation) ------------------------------------------- Thanks to the Bremerton Cruisers and Northwest Motorcycle Association for a great race. Thanks to Les Tinius at LT-Racing for working magic on my forks. Really, I think that without that work, I would have lost steam earlier than I did and would have probably gone over the bars when I hit that whoop. Thanks to my son for giving me another reason to ride enduros (and about a million other things). Thanks to you for taking the time to read this. I hope you enjoyed it. I know it was long. Magellan [/QUOTE]

Verification: Which ocean is California closest to?