I won’t be going through a play by play of the race. I think that would be redundant. I will say that with out a doubt it was harder than I ever could have imagined. I trained HARD for a year and was amazed at how tough the CTR was. Could I have made it if my knee’s didn’t give out? Who knows really. The statistics say probably not. Look how many others dropped out.  Still I tried though.

I’ve gone over and over in my head things I could have done differently. I do think I’m going to change up my gear for “race mode” as compared to touring mode or just out for fun mode. Next time I do a multi day race I’m going to use a bivy bag and if I can afford it, a lighter weight sleeping bag. If I’m out for fun or touring I’m sticking with the hammock. The reason for the bivy you ask? I figure, I’m so damn tired I could pretty much fall asleep anyway/anywhere, might as well make it easier on my self to set up and crawl in. I’m also looking for that all important balance between lightweight gear so I can go faster as well as having some sort of comfort. I won’t be carrying as much on my back. I can load it up if it’s just for a couple days, but after that the shoulder fatigue on me just gets unbearable. I’m going with a smaller pack and I’m going to put most all of the weight on the bicycle. Right now I’m testing out a Wingnut pack. So far so good. I’ll update more on that later.

The biggest change of all for me will be that IF I go back, I’ll be on a geared bike. I don’t know what bike I’ll be on, I know what bike I want to be on. (ahem, hint hint, cough cough) One thing is for sure though, I don’t want to go through what I went through up there again. Hey, if I can’t handle using one gear fully loaded for day’s on end that’s fine with me. I’m there to ride a bike and have some fun, not ruin my knees just because I’m trying to prove that I’m a cool singlespeed rider. I know I’m a dork. Have you seen some of my pictures on Picassa? I have no shame. Really, I don’t.

So what to do from here? Well, for the next month my goal is to ride as much as possible with other people and not by myself. I’m tired of being out there for hours on end by myself. Even if that means riding with people who don’t necessarily go the same speed, I’m there to have a good time. My agenda is to not have an agenda. I’ll loose a little fitness, but who cares. I just want to have some fun. In October I want to go on a bikepacking trip in Arkansas and do a couple hundred miles on a long weekend. I also want to put together the Enchilda Buffet that Cody and I have talked about doing for so long. I’ll talk more about that later.

I’m sorry I didn’t post up a ride review or anything like that soon after the race. It was a REALLY tough time I was going through. I cried several times, once like a baby who didn’t get it’s way. I was very ashamed. Calling Cody and telling him I was out was one of the toughest parts. He and I talked for so long about it and had such high expectations and to be slammed down like that and to tell him I was out was super tough. Knowing my name had a line through it on the leaderboard, and having to call mtbcast.com and leave a message was another toughy.

Ok, enough rambling. So many thoughts and way to many words. I’ll update you all on my adventures this fall. I’ve got one or 2 I’m keeping close to my chest for now. I’m not sure if they’ll happen. If they do awesome. If they don’t, you’ll never know! I will also keep you updated on some of my gear choices as well as things that I’m testing. It’s in my opinion the funnest thing, testing different gear. I love to play with stuff.

Thanks for reading,

Sherpaxc

My mother had this to say about me, when discussing my riding with my wife …

When Ted was about 4 we had to get him his own bike, he kept taking his older sister’s and that just would not do. A short time after we got back from the store he came in asking to have the training wheels taken off. Since the bike was so new, neither myself nor his father would take them off. He was not to be deterred apparently, as not an hour later as I was washing dishes, I look out the window to see little Ted pedaling his new bicycle that no longer had training wheels on it off the work platform where we used to work on farm equipment when I was young! Rolling straight off the 3′ drop, landing, and continuing to pedal his way to the neighbor’s house.

… so you can see, me and bikes and playing in dirt starts a long time ago. Couple that with a boyhood hero of Evil Knievil and you have a predictable chain of events coming. I was rolling up and dropping off every dirt mound and plank-set-on-bricks that could put air under my tires. Getting lost in the woods. Making maps of where I was (from memory). Generally being a PITA to my parents.

This also started the litany of broken bike parts. The Schwinn Sting-Ray that I broke so many times in the 60’s and 70’s the dealer started keeping a spare frame on hand for me. The road bikes and euro-trail-bikes that I slaughtered in the 80’s while in the Army stationed in Germany. The Cannondale hardtail’s that predicatably cracked about every two years for me in the ’90s. Culminating with the ‘02 Specialized Enduro that I repeatedly destroyed while happily bouncing along the rocks of Central Texas, New Mexico, and Utah.I stopped counting the number of spokes, rims, and miscellaneous stuff I have trashed.

Fast forward to 1999 and my move to Austin Texas, where I “rediscovered” off road cycling in a new fashion, focusing on the “chunky bump and grind” of the limestone infested terrain. Ledge climbs and drops. Embedded limestone “cheesegrater” style. Many an OTB. This was soon followed up with the Navajo sandstone of Utah, and related terrain in New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona. All this collectively has really “upped” my game as it were, and I could hardly be a happier cyclist.

Through all this my primary love of off road cycling has been long-ish rides (although they do seem to be getting longer and longer in both time and space…) over varied terrain, I have also found entertainment value in the occaissional race. Races are definitely for a giggle, because who would ever “race” a 35 pound full-suspension bike without either lockout or a big-ring?

*cough* – ok – well I would. As Cody pointed out, I’m “different.”

But racing will never be my primary driver.

Seeing new and cool places, discovering strange and wondrous people, sharing good times far away from pixel projection devices.

Challenging myself in what and where I can do on a bicycle.

Cleaning that seemingly impassible obstacle.

Playing with the cool, functional, and beautiful toys that bicycles are.

Encouraging others to enjoy, and grow in their abilities.

Charging my solar batteries.

Those are the things that drive me.

I’m in the worst shape I’ve been in 15 years.  Give or take.  I mean, who remembers how fit they were at 19?  But, I’m pretty sure that even in first year of university I was more fit than I am now.  Which is crazy, since two summers ago I was as fit as I’d ever been in my life.  But some things have happened since then.  Her name is Kate and she’s 11 months old.

I stayed in shape through the pregnancy, but since then it’s been really hard.  Now that the one year mark is approaching, my adventure racing teammates are expecting me back.  And I really want to start racing again.  So, I’ve given myself a firm date of late January and a local 24 hour adventure race.  It was the last race I did (at 8 weeks pregnant) and it will be exactly two years away from racing.

Since I’ve never been so out of shape, I don’t know how it’s going to be getting back to race shape.  I can tell you it’s hard to get started.  I said August 1st, but here it is the 3rd, and I’m just now making the declaration. And I went to the gym today.  Have you noticed that it’s hot out there?  Bleh.  Not terribly motivating.

I’m going to be posting the adventure that is my return to fitness and racing. I can’t promise it will be totally gripping, but I’ll try to make it a bit more interesting that simply reporting on my workout for the day and the current aches and pains.

I hope you’ll read along. It will keep me motivated.