Sunday, June 11, 2006
Ponca Marathon MTB Review
Headed out to Ponca, Nebraska on friday afternoon with Mr. 24 to hit a 4 hour marathon MTB race on Saturday. Rolled in around 4:30 and hooked up with Noonan, set up camp and went for a pre-ride. 103 degress made for a swamp-ass type ride. Trails were really dry and loose in sections. After pre-ride we headed back to camp for clean up and food. Called it a night around 10:00, storm #1 hit at about 1:00am and storm #2 rolled in at 6:00am. We packed up camp and went to the registration around 7:30. Cooked up some eggs and cakes. By 10:00 Jeff, Noonan, and myself started to warm up and pre road a small part of the course. Shortly after 11:00 the race started and the fun began.
I stayed at the back of the back, my goal for the race was survival, have fun, and take it all in. That's what I did and I HAD A BLAST!!! Just riding and smiling the whole time.
The rain made the course great, traction was good and after 2 laps the down hills had the lines broke in and you could rage down them. The course had lots of climbing and it was very difficult with my 33x18 gearing on Solo-One. If I do this course again I would run 32x20, yes there is that much climbing.
After 3 hours and fifty minutes and 6 laps on this roller coaster I called it good and did not go out for lap #7. I felt really good during the event and would do it again....Maybe even for another 2 hours, wink, wink. I had to see if I could do this type of event and I can. I feel really good about what is coming up for future races and I hope to do well at them. This race was a good testing ground and I'm glad I did it. Thanks to Jeff and Shawn for letting me roll with them.
Pre-ride on friday afternoon, grinding up a hill
After the race, a wink, food, and power-aid.
I stayed at the back of the back, my goal for the race was survival, have fun, and take it all in. That's what I did and I HAD A BLAST!!! Just riding and smiling the whole time.
The rain made the course great, traction was good and after 2 laps the down hills had the lines broke in and you could rage down them. The course had lots of climbing and it was very difficult with my 33x18 gearing on Solo-One. If I do this course again I would run 32x20, yes there is that much climbing.
After 3 hours and fifty minutes and 6 laps on this roller coaster I called it good and did not go out for lap #7. I felt really good during the event and would do it again....Maybe even for another 2 hours, wink, wink. I had to see if I could do this type of event and I can. I feel really good about what is coming up for future races and I hope to do well at them. This race was a good testing ground and I'm glad I did it. Thanks to Jeff and Shawn for letting me roll with them.
Pre-ride on friday afternoon, grinding up a hill
After the race, a wink, food, and power-aid.
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Great to see you out racing, Jeff! I hear that you were a bit surprised by the atmousphere surronding the event. Pretty cool, huh?
Ted - I really enjoyed the set up this type of race. Come on, I could make a pit stop at the end of every lap! I'm learning more and more each time I do a long distance event. Many lessons were learned at TI V1 and more learned at Ponca. I like trying out new types of racing.
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