Poor Farm Enduro

It was a really nice day for a race. I thought it would get too hot, but I never got hot at all.

The course was nice. I liked how many flat sections there were. It was nice to be able to recover from the hills.

Only one section of the course was wet and that got really muddy towards the end of the day. The first 3 times I went through the puddle – about 10ft long to start – I hit it full speed. After that I tried to change how I hit it so my disc brakes wouldn’t get so gopped up. On my 5th time through, I got mud in my eye. That sucked. I think it grew to 20ft long at the end. Every other bit of the trail was sweet. I only put a foot down to let faster riders pass.

Rick and I started out together and were on our 3rd lap when we separated. He started cramping, so I gave him a water bottle and kept going. He was able to recover enough to feel good and start riding again. Apparently, he was trying to catch back up to me when he crashed and had to stop racing. When I last talked to him, he was in good spirits, no broken bones, but a lot of pain.

I ended up with 6 laps in 5:05 ride time; I think it was 5:30 clock time. Each lap was 7 miles, so I ended at 42 miles. This was my second Enduro MTB race. My first was two weeks ago. Then I did 6 laps of 6 miles. So I increased my mileage 6 miles. My food and hydration were much better this time. Cold cookies are better than warm ones! I drank a lot more frequently and only had a whiff of a cramp on the last climb on my last lap.

The two problems I had were a numb left big toe and an achy left arm. My left grip is slightly higher than my right grip and that difference made my left hand hurt over the last two laps. My big toe went numb after getting dunked in water in that big mud puddle I mentioned above. I didn’t get feeling until 30 minutes after the race.

One section I really liked was on the fireroad-ish section near the end of the lap. I loved bunny hopping the two log crossings at speed. Very cool.

One last thing. My Nephew came in 3rd in the kids race. I didn't get to see it, but I heard he had a blast.