Castlewood race 09

Going into the Castlewood race I didn't know what to expect. With doing the 24hr race the weekend before I thought at the very least this race was going to hurt a lot! And it did just not in the usual way. I didn't do much all week, I did ride the day after the 24 to spin the legs out, not much spinning with pulling Lucas on the back of the trail a bike and Bettina attacking us on the climb up to the house. Tuesday was the hurt day.. The rest of the week I was on the trainer and the power output was were it would normally be going into a race which was good considering I was going in to another race. Bettina and Lucas wanted to come along and cheer me on so that was awesome. Usually I will get to the race early enough to do a lap of the course but I decided to skip any decent warm up and the plan was to go easy on the first lap anyway to see how the body felt. Jim my training buddy was taking a break from the road to give the mountain bike a try. The last time I raced against Jim on the mountain bike he beat up on me pretty good, BT epic. So I did have that rolling around in my head. So here is the deal I pretty much hate the part were you line up for the race, once they say go all is always good and its somewhere in that part right before you start that all the plans I have for the first lap go out the window. So they say go and we go. I think it was Mike Barro that led us off of the start and I couldn't help but to go around him going into the Single track that led to a really long climb. Plans change pretty quick and before I knew it I was doing what I always do and that is going as hard as I can. Should of warmed up, the legs were pretty jelly at the top of the first climb and that hasn't happened in a race all year. I came through the first lap pretty fast and was already thinking it would be a 7 lap race. Settled into a good pace and everything was going great. A couple of laps flew by pretty quick and before I knew it I was on the 4th lap. Going up the first climb on this lap I had a slow leak so I stopped and hit it with some Co 2 all seemed good so I kept it rolling. Going up the second long climb (love trail) the slow leak was back so I hit it again with some C0 2. The leak got worst so I decided to put a tube in it. After the Rhett's run race a couple of months ago I have practiced a ton on changing flats. Got it down to under 4 minutes which is great for me. Well as bad luck would have it my stupid tubeless stem wouldn't come unscrewed. I did get after about a minute and all was not lost until my Co 2 jammed and I had to pump it by hand. Still pretty stoked that I got it changed but the damage was done Jeremy Bradshaw had came by some time in the middle of my flat. Finishing up that lap Jim had said that Jeremy had about 4 minutes on me. Pushed a little and as much as the body felt great the knee didn't, still kept a good pace just not enough to match Jeremy's. Very stoked on getting second especially after doing the 24 the week before. Stoked on Jeremy winning especially after he missed the start!! Big thanks to Bob and DRJ for putting this one on, always one of my favorite races.

Results. will get the garmin link up as soon as I can get the freakin thing to upload to Garmin connect.