Hell at Addison Oaks

By far the hardest race I have even done in the 4-years I’ve been racing. Amanda was GREAT!! What a trooper! She got second place to Danielle Musto the endurance Queen of the Midwest! Only 2 laps behind! I couldn’t be prouder to have Amanda as a teammate and a good friend! I started of getting out of bed at 6am wondering what I was about to do. I get out of the truck and who’s else is standing next to me but “The Pro” Mark Hendershot. Well there goes my chances for first place over all. In the rain which it had been doing for the past 5 days and nights the solo class start was fast, but I guess I made it that way since I was in front. With Mark hot on my ass the Dave and Mike Siemans I couldn’t do anything. Eventually Mark on lap 2 stood up on some Dbl track and pulled away, but I fought with everything I had. That guy is strong! So the rain stopped with wasn’t a good thing and out 30 minutes laps turned into 40 then 45, but the rain started again. Oh did I mention its 50-degrees outside!? Yeah! It was a good day for a 12-hour race especially my first! At about hour 7 I remember Danielle Musto agreeing that it would have been a good day to sit on the couch and watch movies. The mud turned into peanut butter and the peanut butter was destroying everyone’s bikes. The Single speeders had broken chains the geared people had broken chain derailleur and hangers. It was bad, but good business for the bike shops. Thankfully I brought my Kona Unit SS and my geared bike and thanks to Crispy and Bryan’s great wash jobs I was able to have a fresh bike every lap but the clean bike didn’t last to long only about 2-3 miles. I can’t tell you how hard that race was. Every pedals stroke was being sucked up by the mud, ever turn needed the 100% concentration to not slip out and hit a tree, the pedal strokes on every climb had to be perfectly round to not spin the tire! The rain stopped, started, stopped, started. It was horrible! But mental strength pervaded! You had to have it or you were out! So many people quit. Finally about 7pm Amanda and I finished our lap a few minutes apart and switched our clothes. Awh nice fresh dry clothes! Time to leave with the light and the rain started but this time it was raining so hard that the mud was being washed away! SWEET!! that lap was over and it stopped raining again! This time the mud was like soup the light was reflecting off it and it was cold and it was dark and it was 8 or 9pm. Ok I can get in two more just gotta make the cut off time. Here I come thought the pits and the guy said 5 second until the cut off! I was felt like I was hammering doing 35mph across the grass but I looked down at the speedo and I was only doing about 14mph the line was about 100yards away and said 5-4-3-2-1!! I didn’t make it! DAMN! Mark would have only beat me by one lap!

So I got first in my class and second over all. I’m happy!

Thanks a lot my teammate Bryan and Crispy for taking care of us ans keeping us on the bikes! Grat job
Guys! Couldn’t have don’t it with out you.