About ten years ago I started racing enduros down in So Cal's District 37. I bought a computer, raced every event in the series, did fairly well, but then moved to Oregon where there aren't any timekeeping events. A few months ago I decided to take it up again and travel to Washington or No Cal(there aren't any in Oregon) for a few of the good old hard-core enduros. I bought a Watchdog computer, signed up with a few buddies(Bonehead and Bob) and headed north to the Sparkplug Enduro in Washington's Tehuya State Forest. After a weekend of testing the weekend before, I had learned the ins and outs of the Watchdog and felt pretty good on the morning of the race. Well, as good as you can feel after 4 hours of sleep and a few shots of Jim Beam the night before(thanks ALOT Bonehead), they don't call us Team WHO for nothing(Well-Hung-Over). We started on minute ten, roll charts ready, bikes prepped, butterflies flying, etc. Conditions were great, rain the night before but only drizzle and clouds during the race. We knew the course was going to be very tight, the highest speed average was 18mph! We started out at a 14mph clip that ran on common trail for a mile or two but then turned into full on bushwacking. Since I was the only guy on our minute with timekeeping equipment I led the way and tried to keep my head straight, there is alot of calculating during an enduro. The Watchdog makes it pretty easy on paper or when you're programming the schedule but once you get on the course there is alot going on(like WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE). Keeping our pace on the Expert schedule we crossed into a deeply wooded section of single track that kept us on our toes, even at 14mph. I knew a check would be at the end of this so I turned up the steam to keep the pace. There are two kinds of wood in the forest, standing and on the ground. The root wads were plenty and the trees were abundant. I pegged and pinballed trees at every opportunity, I could hear Bonehead behind me, laughing. Sure as shootin', around a hidden corner was the first check, and an emergancy check to boot! I punched it and crossed the flags 40 seconds into our minute, yeah! Only ten emergency seconds! By now we had recieved our "wake-up" call and knew that this was going to be a hard race, only five more hours! Bob was crashing profusely, well, actually all of us were doing that. The next check came about forty minutes later after a nasty clear cut section that was really rough. The club fools you by getting you out in the open but in reality the ground, with all the roots and slash, was so rough that it took minutes away from us, we got a two on that check. By now I was focused and began figuring ways to deal with this enduro. Check three was after super slow speed section that opened up into an 18 mph section for a few tenths of a mile, tricky. I pulled in as the card flipped, taking a zero but Bonehead and Bob took a minute. Too bad! This course was so tight, I don't think I've turned my hangers so many times in one day. Check four was another emergency but I crossed the flags after one minute and ten seconds, that's 40 e-points. Not more than two minutes before the check I overshot a turn and wadded up into some slippery downfall, taking, oh say, forty seconds to get back up! Oh well, it was the best that I could do. After the fourth check I lost contact with Bonehead and Bob, it turns out that BH got a flat rear and Bob was not having ANY fun and decided to pack it in, can't blame him, only really sick people have fun doing this stuff. Check five was a point taker, even for the AA riders but it ended up being thrown out because the clock was off. I thought I had done very well going into it, too bad. At mile 48 or so we had a ten minute remote gas stop. It wasn't long enough. My hands were hammered and my knees were putty. The club workers were really nice, helped with gas and goggles and such. I waited for my buddies but they never showed before my due time, I was wondering if someone had gotten hurt. Knowing that most of the second half was 18 mph wasn't very comforting but I felt pretty strong still. Check six was a ringer for me, the Watchdog computes possible checks and displays the keytime as you come into emergency checks. Luckily I had done my homework and used it to it's fullest. As I turned the corner of a log jam I saw the familiar green and white flags of an e-check. I looked down at my comp and saw :20. I fanned the clutch, rode the brakes and did my best balancing act while holding out for nine seconds before crossing the flag. One emergency point! Cool! After that I began to think that I was having one of my best races ever. Only another hour and half to go! Now the course got pretty fast but I still couldn't keep the pace, I started to fall behind. Pretty soon I was 5 minutes down and thinking, wow, I hope there isn't a check soon. Luck played my way as a 12mph section came up that caught me back up to the schedule, phew! Leaving the 12, however, we went to 16mph into some of the nastiest, tightest, butt-ugliest foliage there ever was! No way to keep that speed in this stuff, I took a 3 at the seventh check. From here on out was all 18mph, balls to the walls. The last twenty miles of course was brutal, this clubs knows how to have fun! This was a very long section that wound through a bunch of different types of misery. I still felt good but I was getting a little loopy and I couldn't feel my hands anymore(that was a good thing). I rounded a sharp turn around a root wad and some trees(imagine that!) and broadsided a stump that sent my 520 off the bank. It took me, oh say, 2:30 to get the bike back up and at least 8000 calories, it sucked. From that point on I was in a grey area between wanting to win and wanting to lose, it was tough. Hitting the last check, which was the end of the race, I carded an 11. After pulling into the pits and finally drinking some water,(oh yeah, my drink system hose cocked sideways in the bladder and didn't work for the whole last loop) I was just glad to have finished but also thought that I had done fairly well, I had carded a 14 total minutes in five and a half hours. The next part of that long day was to drive home for five hours, whoopee! My knees were not happy. Turns out that the fifth, sixth and seventh checks were thrown out and I finished fourth in the Vet Expert class, losing a third place trophy by ten seconds. Can you say, bummer? All that work, especially with the 1-point emergency check, gone because of clock malfunction or something else. Nine guys finished in my class and quite a few DNFed so I'm not thouroughly dissappointed with my return to enduro but, cheeze whiz!, three good checks! The Bremerton Cruisers did a great job on the course, the markings were great and I'm sure they had good reasons for the changes. Overall went to Jim Conner, who carded a ONE! I learned alot from this race and can't wait for the Shelton Valley Enduro in two weeks. The blisters are coming along quite nicely! Cheers.
Last edited:
