Okay, let's start. I woke up on Sunday morning at 4:45 (3:45 without daylight savings time) for the race. I showered and finished packing up my stuff. My friend Tim came by at 5:30 to pick me up. By six we the bikes and gear were loaded. 2 hour drive down to Budd's Creek. We set up camp in the same place as Factory Kawasaki did at the National. We registered, watched the mini races...and then 11:30 came around. I was completely ready. My bike was running great, I had a new camelbak. I was feeling good. At noon we had a riders meeting on the starting line, then we did a parade lap of the MX only. Now imagine this: 500 woods riders on a track made for 40 mxers. To put it lightly, I got roosted. My class (200C) and Tim's class (VET C) were waiting in the back because of the starting schedule. After about 10 minutes, they called my class to the line. Once again we were overcrowded. There were 60 of us trying to cram into a 40 person motocross grid start. I got the WORST starting position on the grid (the farthest left, the first turn at Budd's Creek is a right), but I wasn't going for the holeshot. The gate dropped, and I took off. We did half of the motocross track, then headed into the woods. The woods were completely crazy. Most of it was wide enough for one and a half bikes. I spent the first 15 minutes in the woods riding as fast as I could. Now you should know that I bought hand guards for this race. I didn't buy the bark busters, but just the acerbis mx ones (I heard the trails were relatively wide). I smacked some trees hard. After about 20 minutes, I got stuck with my rear tire in a ditch. My linkage was sitting on a root, and there was nothing I could do. I stood there for 20 minutes, pulling, pushing, throttling...but nothing worked. This KTM guy got stuck on the hill, and I pushed his bike up with him giving full throttle. He was a nice guy, so he pulled his bike over to the side at the top and lifted my bike out with me. I rode some more, and before long I became really frustrated with the fast riders. Whenever I slowed down, I’d get rammed. Whenever I was going too slow they would yell at me to get out of their way (but there was nowhere I could go). The woods portion was 5 miles of whoops. I’m talking the up hills, the down hills, the straights, the turns. Nothing but whoops. I really wished that I had sent my suspension to Jeremy after I got kicked up the 1000th time. There was a short flat track stint that I didn’t much care for. It seemed a little fast for my riding style, but before I knew it we were back in the woods. A little more woods and then some mx, and I had my first pit stop (about an hour into the race). I pounded out another half a lap, when I had to pull over. My fingers had pumped up so much I couldn’t move them. I spent 5 minutes on the side prying my fingers out from the curled position. Back for some more whoops. I eventually saw Tim of to the side of the trail. He was having a…I’ll see if I can get him (tmmckean) in here to tell you about it. I ran across a mud pit with an xr4 stuck in it. Supposedly earlier there were two guys stuck, and for the most part people were riding to the right, but xr4 guy decided to gun the throttle and jump through it…didn’t work. I finished the lap (very worn out) and did another half. Then I had my biggest crash. I was taking one of the tighter trails, when my front wheel got stuck on a root, which in turn flipped my bike, which in turn threw my leg into a tree (I’ve got a nice bruise today). I finished that lap, and when I came by my pit again, Tim was sitting there. It seems that he didn’t even make it to the check point one time…but he’ll tell you more about it. About ¾ through the next lap, I got a charlie-horse. Not fun. I had to pull of the track, but it gave me another chance to stretch my fingers. I finished the race all alone, and I was the last one to come off the track. I finished about 40 of 60 in my class (the official results aren’t on the internet yet). Overall it was very fun, but today I’m having a hard time walking up stairs, lifting things, sitting, etc. Pictures to come soon
yzeater's Big Race!!
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