Monday, September 1, 2008

6 hours of Pfun

We group of us made the trip to Jeff City for the 6 hour race. There were plans of having relay teams, but then we all decided to go solo. I just wanted to see what it would be like to try a longer race and some of my teammates are signed up for a most excellent race in September in Wisconsin so they wanted to use this as a training session.

Well I was not sure what to expect, but I was pleased with the result. I made 7 laps on a 7 mile course. I could of gone for 8 because I was done with 7 before 6 hours was up, but I figured cold beer was better than another lap. I think I finished mid pack. Don't know for sure and didn't bother to check. I deemed the race a success because I road for nearly 6 hours and didn't crash. I also managed to recover my multitool which fell out on my 3rd lap.

Matt and I road pretty much every lap together. We were both in solo, but he and I are similar ability. I have a little better strength and climbing but he has far superior technical ability. We road 2 laps back to back to start. Then stopped, ate some refueled and went out for 2 more back to back laps. After that we stopped every lap. It was warm and we weren't really in the running for anything. The next 2 laps were good. After six we stopped and were both aiming to do 2 more. Early into lap 7 Matt had some problems told me to go on. I did. I also managed to catch some riders and it felt good to at least pass some people even though I wasn't battling them for positions really. Then I came to the end of lap 7 and looked at my watch. 5:49pm....should I or shouldn't I? I decided nope. I was done. Took my time and finished just before 6 with lap 7. I was sore. Legs weren't too bad, but my body was sore. I haven't been on road ride over 3 hours in almost 3 years and I think my longest mtn bike ride was 2 hours. So 6 was enough.

Glad I went and plan on going back next year with goals of squeaking out 9 laps.

1 comment:

Boz said...

Great job! You're right, 6 hours on a mtb is a long time. Looks like a lot of pfolks ran that solo effort. Perhaps I should toss one of those on the calendar for next year. I didn't hear any negative comments about this race.