A Win!

What a beautiful day it was yesterday. It was probably in the upper 50s when I started my race at 8:45am and as it warmed up the cloud coverage hung in the air. I lined up next to Christina, and Spring rolled up next to us right before the start. The gun went off and, man, Christina just flew out of the gates. I settled in behind her in second with one or two people trailing. We rode in that order for a good while, and I passed after finding a good spot. Halfway through the first lap it was Jen, myself and one other person. By the end of the first lap I was out in front by myself.

At the start of the second lap though I took the wrong line down into the start of the tech loop. I chickened out at the top and got off for a few steps. After that I could hear Jen on my tail for the rest of the race. I'd get away for a little and it seemed she would catch me on the climbs. Then I'd get away from her on the rocky sections. Not sure what the exact finish times were...I finished at 1 hour 49min+ and Jen finished at 1 hour 50min+. It was one of those days that I felt great. No fatigue in my legs at all.

Jen, me, Spring

No major errors other than that drop into the tech loop, and I finally made that stairstep climb at the end of one of the switchbacks. That was fun. I am really starting to like that course. There's nothing super scary and the sport loop has so many fun bermmed turns. It was a great loop to end the race on.

BGT posing for the camera

Back in the saddle

Zach and I packed up on Friday. He was signed up to ride the 10 hour Dusk to Dawn race that was being held on the Pemberton Trail in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park near Phoenix. It was the first race either one of us had competed in since mid-season 2006.

We woke up Saturday morning at 3am to howling winds and blowing rain. It was nasty out. I had flashbacks of the Sunburst mudfest from 2005. We hemmed and hawed for a half an hour about whether we should make the 2 hour drive down. The weather channel showed a huge green cloud over the entire state of Arizona. We decided not to go, until Zach found a Doppler radar forecast that showed a clear section over Fountain Hills. Once we saw that we jumped in the car and started the journey.

We were late pulling in, which turned out to be to our benefit. Had we been on time, we would not have seen Brady, who helped us get some prime parking right by the transition zone. The proper place for us to park would have been down the rode in the competitive track parking lot.

It was sprinkling as Zach picked up his race packet. It was starting to get light out as the racers were called up to the line.....light enough to see how scary the sky looked.


The riders were off at 7:14am. I went and checked out the setup that Brady and his 4 person team had. The race directors set up up the course so the it wrapped around the entire Pemberton parking lot. Brady's team had a tent set up right along the course, so we could see the riders as the were heading back in from the 15 mile loop and then they passed right by us. I ended up hanging out with them most of the day.


I kept track of his lap times and would watch him roll in. From there he'd have to ride around the whole lot, which gave me time to pick up his supplies and meet him in the transition zone.

For the most part, I brought him water bottles and hammer gels, although on one stop he needed to be re-lubed. He was eating the PB&J I brought while I shot chamois cream down the back of his shorts.

It rained on and off all day. We did have a few short burts of nice weather and a few long stretches when it downpoured. Other than it it was misting most of the day.


Zach finished 6 laps. Not as good as he's done in the past but not so bad considering he hasn't really been training. I was impressed that he raced at all. Moving here, we certainly never thought we'd have rain to contend with. If it was me racing, I'm not sure I would have gone through with it.

I'm glad I went with to support Zach. It was also fun to hang out with a few other riders from Prescott. Christina came and hung out for a while too, so that was cool. We skipped the ride we planned. Decided we will have many opportunities to hook up. Plus we really enjoyed spectating for once!!!