First Off - a huge THANKS to all of the LMC crew for yet another class act in doing this enduro! It was great to see it done so well oriented towards the kids and begineers, yet be a great tool for someone to learn timekeeping. :thumb:
I thought I would share my experience riding it along with my 11 year old son Mark, and will attempt to get some pics posted as well.
This was my son's first enduro, and would be his first time ever riding that much ORV trail in one setting. While he has done some 45 mile days, those have always been with lots of long breaks, over a period of 5 hours or more and typically on wide ORV route or two tracks up in the UP. So 25 miles of "skinny trail" (cant quite call it "single track" as it was all ample quad width type stuff) would be a real challenge for him.
Riding along with us would be Creeper9, who drove all the way up from near Toldeo to ride with Mark and I. His original plan was to ride as an "X" rider along with me, but at the last minute he decided to be scored - a great opportunity to learn about time keeping. We weren't able to all get on the same minute, so Mark and I were on 10, with Creeper on 11 so if need be he might be able to help out with Mark.
Mark and I started out doing great. I was quite suprised and happy to see that Mark did not seem the least bit nerved up with the whole thing. We found ourselves running a couple of minutes ahead pretty early on, so stopped around the 3 mile point to kill a minute or two. We then swept in to zero the first check. :yeehaw: I sure wish I could say I zeroed my first check in my first race! Between the first and second checks, I screwed up and read my route sheet wrong, reading one line for the miles, then my eyes skipped down a line for time. I concluded we were a couple minutes hot so started poking along killing time. About when I thought we were on time, suddenly we were at a check - 2 minutes late! My fault on that one!
Between check 2 and 3 Mark dropped his bike on a log or something. Creeper happend along and helped him up before I managed to get turned around. He was a bit shook up, but still OK. He must of done a major face plant, as the front edge of visor on his helmet had clumps of moist black dirt hanging on it! So we took a couple of minutes for him to regroup and res a bit. That delay combined with coming out of the prior check a couple minutes down added up to check 3 several minutes down.
Before check 4 Mark lost the front end in some sand. This time I could see he was really getting tired. I asked him how he was doing - his OK was less than enthusiastic. I told him this was the "endurance" part of enduro racing - so it was OK to be tired, and if he wanted to rest a while that was OK with me. To my suprise he remembered there would be a re-set coming up. He asked how long to the reset - about 3 miles. When I asked again if he wanted a break - his response was "lets get to the reset first"! So on we went! He was keeping a decent pace almost all the time - not riding sloppy like I do when I get tired.
Before to long we got into that short "virgin trail" section with all the logs in it. I thought for sure I would be having to help him through, or at a minimum we would get hung up behind other riders I could see. But - we happend to get on a perfect line, Mark cruised on over all the logs just fine with no problems at all! We got to the reset well after our departure time per the route sheet however. A quick stop to reset and yet another suprising, brief conversation "How you doing Mark?" his response a thumbs up :thumb: . "You want to rest or keep moving"? "How far behind are we?" he asked. "Oh - a few minutes - do you want to go or rest? "Lets GO!".
At a short pause about 2 miles from the finish - I could really see he was pushing it and tired. I asked him if he wanted to rest. So he pulled off his goggles, and nodded yes. We paused for a very short time, I told him we were close to being done. He relaxed for a brief minute then said he was ready to go.
Now Creepers experience - he learned some key points of time keeping! I know he zeroed the first check and somewhere in there found out the hard way that you really need to stop at a reset when you are on time or ahead! Result was a big burn at that last check point! We just may convince him to try on a "full size" race later this summer!
The awards ceremony was super. The smiles on the faces of all those kids was outstanding! And then to see your kid taking home the hardware with a first place trophy priceless!
Several other DRN regulars took home some hardware to. Zach Smith, the Thompson Legacy continues with both Erin and Nate doing well. 70marlin and his son both had a great time and proudly displayed their trophies. I am sure I am missing several other DRN members.
I will try to post some of those pics. Hopefully I can figure it out! If anyone wants a higher resolution version email to them just let me know. The first one is a group shot of some of the DRN regulars with their trophys. Not sure the name of the red headed kid though. the second one is a shot of Zach, Smit Dog and Young Ted bench racing.
I thought I would share my experience riding it along with my 11 year old son Mark, and will attempt to get some pics posted as well.
This was my son's first enduro, and would be his first time ever riding that much ORV trail in one setting. While he has done some 45 mile days, those have always been with lots of long breaks, over a period of 5 hours or more and typically on wide ORV route or two tracks up in the UP. So 25 miles of "skinny trail" (cant quite call it "single track" as it was all ample quad width type stuff) would be a real challenge for him.
Riding along with us would be Creeper9, who drove all the way up from near Toldeo to ride with Mark and I. His original plan was to ride as an "X" rider along with me, but at the last minute he decided to be scored - a great opportunity to learn about time keeping. We weren't able to all get on the same minute, so Mark and I were on 10, with Creeper on 11 so if need be he might be able to help out with Mark.
Mark and I started out doing great. I was quite suprised and happy to see that Mark did not seem the least bit nerved up with the whole thing. We found ourselves running a couple of minutes ahead pretty early on, so stopped around the 3 mile point to kill a minute or two. We then swept in to zero the first check. :yeehaw: I sure wish I could say I zeroed my first check in my first race! Between the first and second checks, I screwed up and read my route sheet wrong, reading one line for the miles, then my eyes skipped down a line for time. I concluded we were a couple minutes hot so started poking along killing time. About when I thought we were on time, suddenly we were at a check - 2 minutes late! My fault on that one!
Between check 2 and 3 Mark dropped his bike on a log or something. Creeper happend along and helped him up before I managed to get turned around. He was a bit shook up, but still OK. He must of done a major face plant, as the front edge of visor on his helmet had clumps of moist black dirt hanging on it! So we took a couple of minutes for him to regroup and res a bit. That delay combined with coming out of the prior check a couple minutes down added up to check 3 several minutes down.
Before check 4 Mark lost the front end in some sand. This time I could see he was really getting tired. I asked him how he was doing - his OK was less than enthusiastic. I told him this was the "endurance" part of enduro racing - so it was OK to be tired, and if he wanted to rest a while that was OK with me. To my suprise he remembered there would be a re-set coming up. He asked how long to the reset - about 3 miles. When I asked again if he wanted a break - his response was "lets get to the reset first"! So on we went! He was keeping a decent pace almost all the time - not riding sloppy like I do when I get tired.
Before to long we got into that short "virgin trail" section with all the logs in it. I thought for sure I would be having to help him through, or at a minimum we would get hung up behind other riders I could see. But - we happend to get on a perfect line, Mark cruised on over all the logs just fine with no problems at all! We got to the reset well after our departure time per the route sheet however. A quick stop to reset and yet another suprising, brief conversation "How you doing Mark?" his response a thumbs up :thumb: . "You want to rest or keep moving"? "How far behind are we?" he asked. "Oh - a few minutes - do you want to go or rest? "Lets GO!".
At a short pause about 2 miles from the finish - I could really see he was pushing it and tired. I asked him if he wanted to rest. So he pulled off his goggles, and nodded yes. We paused for a very short time, I told him we were close to being done. He relaxed for a brief minute then said he was ready to go.
Now Creepers experience - he learned some key points of time keeping! I know he zeroed the first check and somewhere in there found out the hard way that you really need to stop at a reset when you are on time or ahead! Result was a big burn at that last check point! We just may convince him to try on a "full size" race later this summer!
The awards ceremony was super. The smiles on the faces of all those kids was outstanding! And then to see your kid taking home the hardware with a first place trophy priceless!
Several other DRN regulars took home some hardware to. Zach Smith, the Thompson Legacy continues with both Erin and Nate doing well. 70marlin and his son both had a great time and proudly displayed their trophies. I am sure I am missing several other DRN members.
I will try to post some of those pics. Hopefully I can figure it out! If anyone wants a higher resolution version email to them just let me know. The first one is a group shot of some of the DRN regulars with their trophys. Not sure the name of the red headed kid though. the second one is a shot of Zach, Smit Dog and Young Ted bench racing.
