12 Hours of Razorback

Did the Razorback this past Saturday. The race was fun as hell. The course was awesome. Having said that I need to admit that it was also waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy harder than I imagined it would be going in. Anybody(me) who was thinking that it was going to be a flat Florida course was going to be sadly mistaken. I had ridden it when I lived In Orlando but I think that over the 6 or 7 years since I'd been there I started believing it was easier than it is. It's a course that is perfect for power riders. There isn't any substained climbs to get a rhythym on. It's mostly big steep drop offs that are quickly followed by a steep short climb. By steep I mean straight the hell up. I perfected my spiderman ablities to climb vertical walls with my bike over my shoulder this weekend.

Anyway,I got there Friday afternoon. Got my camp set up and went out on a pre-ride. Quckly figured out that the race was going to be harder than I thought. Which was cool because like I said the course was also really fun. After I got back in I made a few pb&j's,lubed up my bike and walked around the area for a bit. That's when I noticed "Camp Solo" set up right off the course. Damn. I was set up a little bit off the course. Not a huge amount but I was going to have to come off the course to get new bottles and stuff. I made a mental note to check for that kind of stuff at future races. While I'm talking about mistakes, another one was not having any support crew for the race. I tried to set one up but everybody had other commitments. My friends in Orlando all had to work and the gf was back in Asheville. It wasnt huge deal because lets face it, I'm slow and not going to be winning any of these but it does make life much easier. Oh yeah. Sunny Florida my ass!!!! Yes it was warmer than Asheville. No, it was nowhere near as cold as the Northern states. That said..cold is cold!!! It got down into the 30's that night. I was wrapped up in 3 sleeping bags in my tent. I woke up to frost on my car. It did warm up a good bit though and I ended up doing the whole race with nothing more weather gear wise than arm and knee warmers and a vest.

Race day started bright and early. I woke up set up my bottles and stuff. Got my gel flasks ready. Went over to the start/finish area where they had coffee,instant oatmeal,bagels,fruit and donuts. I think it's telling that the fruit lasted longer than the donuts. Went back to my tent area and did some warm up excercises and sretched. There was a ton of people signing up for the race still so it got started a few minutes late. Went and racked my bike and attended the riders meeting. fter that it was time to head to the field for the torture..oops I meant run. The start of the run was about 10 miles from the gbikes. OK..maybe a 1/4 of a mile but it felt like 10. Whoever decided the racers should run before racing for 6/12/24 hours is an evil individual. The race gt started and away we went. I was back towards the back of the pack because well....I don't run...I hate it..it kills my knees. What I do cn barely be called jogging. Got on the course and started riding. Had a blast. I got passed. A lot. But overall the race was fun as hell. I was shooting for 5 laps and got 4. I know that isn't a lot but like i said..I'm slow. Plus, I'm still figuring out the pacing and nutrition of these things. I could've pushed myself harder than i did. I went out without a hrm and was always worried about burning myself out. I think I worried to much and didn't go hard enough. I think in the future i'll go ahead and wear the hrm so I know.
I will go back next year. It was to mch fun to miss. Goneriding puts on good events and the course is way fun. All the steep drop offs and walls plus a good bit of tight,twisty singletrack. Anyway, I really reccomend the race to people looking for a fun early season event. It definitely helped me in my quest to get the hang of these things. Next up: Burn. I sent them my money yesterday. Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later yall.