20 odd minutes.

where do I find them,
where did they go?

the day went well enough, I guess. got stoopid at the start and stretched my legs trying to make the lead group, dangled in front of the other stroogling chasers and had clear trail ahead into the singletrack. only passed by a couple folks, some good groove with Jimmy Mac and amazing morning scenery.

then as usual, at aout the 45 minute-hour mark the main groupd of ss contenders came together. got into a good groove with the crew and was sitting top tenish into cp1. splash n go, then off again. quick inventory check at the two hour mark and settle in with Dicky and Elk over the next hour. scenic creekside racer chitchat, rolling the gear up and along. then it steepens and it hurts me to watch Rich will those pedals over top of that 17 and head off looking for my own quiet place.

make it to cp3 at 4:20 elapsed. and there's Topher. so he's either slummin', or I found a good groove over the last hour plus. either way, I might just be rolling back into ss contention of sorts. road goes up then goes down. and down. and down. and down. and down into fixed gear slumming hell. spun out at 20 and immediately bogged down and standing at 6. waves of cramps roling thru the legs dependning on the demands of the cadance.

if you want to become intimately familiar with every single muscle group in your body, battle cramps on a fixed mtn bike for 6 or 7 hours. yeah, the beer to water ratio was titlted to the fun side the night before, and yeah, did go out a bit hard maybe, but ya gotta get it while the
gettin's good. the fireroad is gonna suck anyway, so make the most of it.

3 to 4 was pure fireroad descending hell of the first circle sort. every damn rider I thought I had finally put away on those climbs came by at 30 to my 15. fuckers. finally to cp4. fill the again empty bottles and grab the fresh gel flask out of my bag and get rollin'. hook into a fun game of leapfrog with Danielle. Which caused me to miss the stealth beer stop. Was worth it though to keep moving forward. She finally dropped me on the only flat portion of the course somewhere before cp5.

most of this time I was zombie pedal steady gunnin'. still soome good scenery, but it was one damn roller after another and another and another and another and another and another and aonther and up and down and up and down and up an down and down.

EZ Up tent at a left hand turn, is this cp6? no? damn. they did have ice cold coke in their
cooler though. finally to cp 6 fow a swig of warm Cola, and into the woods. Still don't know why I didn't take that 30 seconds for a qucik pss-pss out of the tires. I guess sometimes that switch is flipped, your nine hour goal is passed and you move the goalposts.

"How deep can I go?" Leave the tires be & I let that damn bike hammer me thru all of the last ten miles. Hands tingley numbish, triceps cramping, shoulders jacked and an occasional back spasm/cramp tossed in on the good jolts. It was kinda miserable.

then finally onto the bike path, head down into an 'aero' tuck cuz my hands were toast and really can't hold the bars too much, rolling it home in 9:21 elapsed, 21st ss.

what a day.

more later, I have some opinions to share about some related topics....