Prescott Punisher, Race 6, April 19

Our first ever hometown race. Although there were many events that were essentially in our backyard (DORC, Yorkville Century, Joliet Sudden Century and 4th of July Ride) back in Illinois, we never had a race right in good ole Plainfield.

We were psyched and wanted to help the race support crew out where we could. We started with trail maintenance that was held a week before the race. The plan was to move some downed trees that were left from recent logging in one of the first sections and then ride the course and trim as we rode. I was happy with that plan as I had preridden the course on Thursday the 17th and left that night hating it. For the last few years, the race has been held at the Alto Off Road Vehicle Pit up off of Iron Springs Road. It's miles and miles of rolling, well-banked double track through the pines. Nothing technical at all. The difficulty of the course is the short steep ups and downs as you climb a thousand feet. The short climbs are just long enough that your momentum does not take you up and over. The downhill sections could be fun but it's so dry right now that the layer of decomposed granite makes it feel like you are on a sheet of ice.

I needed to build confidence, so Zach and I went back Friday night for 1 lap and then we each rode a few after trail maintenance on Saturday.

We were excited for this weekend to roll around because Tim and Elizabeth were headed up. They arrived Friday afternoon and started off with a ride up 305. It was Elizabeth's first official mountain bike ride!!! I was impressed. It sounded like they had a great time. After that we all met up at Alto - Zach and I to help set up and Tim wanted to preride. It was a gorgeous afternoon. Later it was back to the house for a quick pasta dinner (Tim, the ex-chef, helped me finish making dinner - wow, did he make it look so easy. Oh, and I should mention that Elizabeth also helped - she washed and cut the broccoli). After that it was off to bed.

We were back at Alto before 7; Christina and Eric pulled in just shortly after us. Zach helped with some last minute set up and I started getting ready. 8:35 quickly rolled around and we were off. Jennifer and Christina were fast off the start. Linden passed me shortly after the start as did Heidi, which was not good. She's the roadie; this is her first year mountain biking. I needed to be in front of her for the decents, but I was hurting already and just needed to be patient. I fumbled on the last climb before we were dumped out into the big pit area and had to push my bike up a second and then hop back on.

I hit the fun downhill section and saw Christina and Heidi ahead. Christina easily zoomed past Heidi. I made my move at the sharp right at the bottom. Once we started moving up the climbs though, she flew past me again. I hunkered down and prayed for that next downhill section to come quick.

Somewhere in that next section of climbing I caught Christina and tried to get in a few encouraging words as I rode by in between my gasps for air. It seemed like we were both hurting.

It took some time before I caught Heidi. Sure enough she was in front of me for the decents. I remember following her through the fun whoopties that lead into the nice left hand banked turn. It was on a short downhill just beyond that, she let up for a second and let me by. Once I got by I knew I needed to put some time in between us.

After that I just tried to stay focused on the trail, and on the third and final climb up "the wall," I caught Linden, who rides a Soulcraft ss. She had to push it up that one.

I was done in an hour and forty-three minutes. A short race, but it hurt pretty bad.

Zach and Tim were up next, both starting at noon. They both looked good as they went by. Elizabeth had her first successful feed zone handoff and Zach did not yet have buttmouth.

Zach had a great day, he finished third in his age group and if I remember right, Tim finished seventh. I took first on the Sycip.

Here's a few pictures.

The start area.
Standing near the finish line.....looking through the trees you can see a short level section before the last sketchy decent that leads into the last climb up to the finish..
Tim finishing up.
Zach after the race.

This is the first fun downhill section and where we moved the downed trees. The CATs that the loggers used really churned up the ground. I'm told that section used to be hard packed and sweet.