Huck-A-Buck 2012

Another Huck-A-Buck at Lake Crabtree is in the books and for once it was not 100 degrees.  The race is put on by Happy Fun Racing and they do one hell of a job.  This race always draws a pretty big number of riders and the Single Speed Category isn't lacking either along with the competition in it.  The trail got some rain last night which helped tighten it up since it has been dusty and slick, but the trade off was slick roots and bridges along with 80 degree temp with about 85% humidity.  We had three 7 mile laps to sort it out on the trail.

Rockin' the 29nsngl kit
Photo by On the Mark Sports

They let the Single Speed Category loose on the course at 12:20 and it was on from the start when the siren went off.  The start line was maybe 40 yards from the entrance to the trail, so I had to mash on the pedals hard to hopefully get the hole shot or at least be close to the front.  I hit the trail running 3rd, but there was a nice line behind me that was pressing hard.  It seemed 1st and 2nd were trying to keep the pace down and with really no passing areas on the trails were going to be tricky.  So, I thought I would be nice and ask to pass, so that is what I did.  I can't blame the guy when I asked I got the response of, "what?" So, I asked again and he said sure at the next time that it was possible.  I went around in the first 2 miles and sat on 1st places rear wheel until about 5.5 miles when it widened out and was smooth, so I took a drink from the bottle and let 3rd go around me.  We crossed the start/finish line nose to tail and stayed like that until about 10 miles when 2nd made his move and he was gone.  We tried to stay with his pace, but backed off since 4th on back looked to be maybe a minute behind us.  I spent the rest of the race seeing 2nd through the woods and looking back and seeing 4th and 5th not that far behind me also.  There was no letting up for the entire 3rd lap for it looked like 4th was trying to close the gap and he was.  I crossed the line in 3rd at 1:32:19 for 21 miles (3 laps). 

I only ended up drinking one bottle of fluid and two Gu packets the entire race.  After uploading my Garmin 500 to Strava it really showed what kind of suffering was going on during the race for me by my heartrate.

http://app.strava.com/rides/14193435

For placing 3rd I got this nice poster of vintage Tour de France image of the racers drinking that I plan to frame and hang in my office at work.  Along with it was one of these handy dandy recycled bike parts bottle opener key chain that will get plenty of use.

Run from the Cops 4 HR MTB Race

photo by Preston Scott

It was a Hot Metal day out there today.  This was a great race put on by the Greensboro Police Club and many other sponsors.  Nothing to exciting actually happened during this race for me which was a good thing.  It was more about not blowing up and overheating in 4 hours.  The temperature was around 80 and humid when the race started and by the end was 97 with a heat index of 103.  There were a few people creeping and some standing on the side of the trail nursing cramps.  I was making sure I was drinking plenty of water and electrolytes to hold off the cramps.  I ended up getting cramps on the inside of my thighs on lap 6, and to fight this off I had a gel bottle filled with pickle juice (yes, it sounds gross but it works).  It took about half a bottle and roughly five minutes and no more cramps for the rest of lap 6 and lap 7.  Another trick to keep the core temperature down were ziploc bags of ice that I would put down the bag of my jersey for 2 laps at a time that I starte at lap 3 and it really helped.  One of the trails (Owls Roost aka Owls Roots) is a rough trail because of all the roots and because of this I switched out my rigid fork for some front squish for this race and glad I did.  Really didn't want to deal with the jarring since it was a hot day and wanted to conserve as much energy as possible.  It was a very dry and dusty course and by the end I was covered in dirt sweat.  At the end of the day I ended up putting in 48 miles in 4 hours and placing 6th in the Single Speed Category.

photo by Preston Scott