Eureka Springs Fat Tire Fest.

This weekend had me down at the grandparents for some BBQ, sand pit washers, beer, and country music. "Texas Party" is a two day event that my grandfather throws every year. I was up late Fri night defending my title in shuffle board. Sat morning I did an easy spin to stay loose, and ate some more BBQ.

I awoke at 4:30 am on Sunday to drive to Eureka Springs AR. The race was a 9am start, so I wanted to get their early. The last 30 miles into ES is in the mountains, and I mean that. There is some great terrain down there. I got a good warm up in, and also had the nutrition dialed. The race started in the old town square, going up hill. I was truly flying on adrenaline. My HR before the start was 140, standing at the line. I was second row, and I knew it would spread out fast. They said GO, and I launched off of the line with two others on SS. We left every one behind, as we climbed some super steep drive ways, and then descended with our hair on fire down open roads with hairpin turns. There was a hair pin turn into a gravel jeep road, with several turns on loose chert. Back out on the road there were 4 of us spinning toward the first true singletrack section. The single track is close to the middlefork conditions. Loose small gravel with flow, and grade reversals. We climbed, and sawed off one of the 4 that came into the woods. There was a dude on SS riding off of the front with some conviction, and he got away. We were spread out as we did another mile of road after the first lung buster climb. The road was great to spin out on and regroup. Coming down a road hill, I slammed into the next single track section with tons of momentum and floss.

The new bontrager tires were great on the loose dry gravel. They really grabbed on to the corners at speed, and hooked up on the technical stuff. No complaints. I might have been running the pressure too low in them, but that is not their fault. I think these tires are designed more for DRY hard pack, and gravel to loose gravel.

The rest of the course was single track, save for the finish area. The trail just kept coming with loooong switchbacked hills up to 2 miles in length, and then flowy down hill sections. There were two secitons where I truly let it all hang out. No exaggeration, I did not hit the brakes for 15 seconds on a steep, tight, smooth gravel, full on down hill. The adrenaline rush was huge. By this time I am passing the expert field that started ahead of me. I was really riding hard, and feeling really good. I brought along two rooster booster packs that came in really handy. I could feel the rear wheel loose some air on a switch back, so I said to hell with it and put a tube in. This only lost me 3 min, and 3 spots, which I gained back with very short work. Within 15 mins, I was rolling up on a train of expert riders. They said the SS rider I was chasing passed about 5 min ago. I came around and just started drilling it. What killed my race was the missed turn at the dam, the Dam turn just snuck by me. I probably lost 6 min with that stupid mistake. That happened with about 5 miles to go. At that point, it was about 95 with sun, and the long up and down gravel was replaced with shorter, very technical, rocky sections. I was working on large groups, but with about a mile to go, I could feel some cramping coming on, so I powered down a little. I am still waiting on the final results. I did not stick around for the ceremony, because I was trying to find a ride back to the start line, about 5 miles away. I rode around the parking lot a few times, but it didnt seem like many people were leaving, so I geared up and got ready to ride back. I asked what the route was to get back, and how long it was. The answer "well, you go up that trail, and climb over the mountain, the climb up to the road is about 4 miles, then it is 2 miles to the town." I ended up finding a ride, so I really lucked out.

Over all this is one of the better races I have done this year. It was epic in length, and the trail just kept on bring a smile to my face. I have not raced this hard before. I could feel the pain and tiredness creeping up, but worked through it to get the most wonderful feeling in the world; MTB racing at the edge of your ability. You wouldn't know it from the results, but in the end I really enjoyed myself. I am going to keep racing, and training. Hopefully with some more experience I will get the results I want, without the mistakes of a ROOKIE.