12 Hour National Recap.....and Mary-J?

Well I just returned from the suffer-fest that was the 12 Hours of Green National Championships in Duluth, MN. The race didn't end up how I had been thinking about it for the past few weeks, but I have nothing to complain about.

The race started at 7 AM with a short hill climb to spread out the field. The course was about 5.5 miles per lap. It had a mixture of everything: roots, rocks, pavement, singletrack, boulder fields, short steep climbs, pot smokers, etc. There was a small field of Solo riders (23 if your counting at home), but everyone of them had a very good shot at winning this race.

There was about 5 of us that got away from the rest of the race, and opened up a huge lead. About a mile later, one of the solo riders jumped off the front, one of the other solo riders who knew him said to let him go, so we did. This would be the last I would see of this rider till the end of the race. Anyway, The 4 of us rode together lap after lap, keeping the pace high enough so that no other solo rider would bridge up to us. On the 3 lap, we lost one of our pack riders. He fell off the back, and was never seen again. The 3 of us continued on, and the 3rd guy said to work together to catch the solo leader. No more than a 1/2 mile after he said that he flated with his tubless tires flying down this fireroad. It was his front tire, so he lost control and Superman'd into the grass. He was OK, and finished the race.

There was just 2 of us left to try to catch the solo leader(the 2 of us being myself, and the rider that beat me at 12 Hour of Green Bay earlier in the season). We road together till about the 7th lap, when I had to stop for chain lube, and some nutrition. He saw this an attacked. I tried to track him down, but it never came. During this time I had a 4 lap stretch where I felt like crap. I was fighting the bike,was un-smooth, and had no power to the pedals. At the end of the 7th lap I got back to my pit and slammed down a Red Bull, and it gave me wings! I was rage'n for like 5 laps, and manages to lap the guy that was riding with us earlier that had flatted. Now there were 3 of us on the lead lap

The solo leader dangling up front was caught and passed. He ended up second overall, and the rider that attacked me eventually went on to win.

As for me, I ended up 3rd overall. I have nothing to hang my head about. All my equipment worked flawlessly, and my nutrition work. I just had a few bad laps. That's just how it goes.


Are you wondering about Mary-J? Well, this race was run during the Green Man Sport and Music Festival. What this is, is a modern day Woodstock. The course actually went through the campground of this event. So during about 65% of the race there were always these wanna-be hippies standing by the course hooting and hollaring, drinking beer, peeing in the grass; all while trying to hide their chronic. It was funny cause you wouldn't know if you were coming up on the dust trail of the rider in front of you, or if it was pot smoke.

Oh, the joys of 12 hour racing.

Stay posted, cause I will post some photos and write up some more when I am not so beat.

Rage On!!!

NOTE TO READER: I am not responsible for spelling or grammer.....you try to write a race recap after racing for 12 hours!

Just Kidding!!! :-)

Jeff Kerkove said at 5:46 PM :: ::