Chesapeake Time Trial

   A couple weeks ago, I travelled to Chesapeake to participate in my second time trial. This one was shorter, only 12 miles, and was straight and flat. Friday evening, Jess and I drove to Yorktown to stay with Angee and Wayne, family from Tyler's side. We got to their house and went out for a great dinner at Quaker Steak "The Lube", a really cool restuarant. We had a lot of fun with them and will hopefully go visit again soon.
    The next morning we left around 6:00 am. After about an hours drive, we were close to the race, or so I thought. I drove around and around looking for the race. I was getting very frustrated and worried that I would miss my start time. After looking at a .pdf map of the area, I realized that my direction were way off and we were about 15 miles away. Now it was a race just to get there. Finally we found the race. We pulled in, I sent Jess to get my registration and race number, while I got the bike ready. Once I got up to the start area, I had a whole 4 minutes before my scheduled start time, so no warm up for me.

    As I got closer to the start line I saw that there was one water puddle anywhere in sight and they put the start line right in it! WTF!!!  When it came to be my turn and I took off, my back wheel spun. Luckily I didn't lose control or fall. As I got out on course, my legs were screaming from having no warm-up. After a mile or two, I got into a groove. I rode 6 miles, made a U-turn, and headed back. I had passed a few racers and was never passed by anyone else. I crossed the finish feeling pretty good just for making the race. When they posted the Cat5 results, I was shocked to find myself in 6th place out 32! Not bad for almost missing the race completely.

6 Hours of Warrior Creek

   This trip could not have started much worse. Jess, Tyler, and I were leaving on Friday afternoon, bound for Wilkesboro, North Carolina. We were actually ahead of schedule, but before we got out of Lynchburg, the front right brake caliper on the Jeep started sticking. So we had to head home and cram a Jeeps worth of stuff into a tiny 2 door Saturn. Needless to say, it was a long cramped ride. The rest of the evening was nice, I hung out in the hotel lobby with a bunch of fellow racers from Lynchburg and Roanoke.
    We got to the pit area at the race and set up a tent city, with all our friends. I went to get my race number and started to get worried. My number was 13! Soon it was time for the racers meeting and to line up for the start. Luckily Quinn suggested that we ease over to the start line. We ended up being just off the front for the start. When we turned around, racers were lined up down the road almost as far as we could see. The start was crazy, 250+ riders taking off at once. There was a very long uphill on the pavement. I was giving everything I had to keep up with the singlespeed. After about 2 miles, we finally entered the singletrack.
   The first lap wasn't too bad, except for all the traffic. The second lap was much better. Most of the racers had spread out. The course was fun and fast. It was fairly smooth and had high banks berm turns. Very enjoyable to ride, but it gives you no time to rest or recover. By the third lap, I was feeling the pain. The second half of each lap had a lot of short steep climbs. I was starting to walk a few of them. Lap four hurt even more. When I got to the pits, I had half an hour before I had to start my last lap, which meant that I had 2 hours to finish it. The fifth lap was extremely painful. I did have a little energy at the end to race a fellow singlespeeder to the finish line. I crossed the line about 10 feet in front of him.

    When it was over, I finished 5 laps in 6 hours and 16 minutes, putting me in 13th place in the singlespeed division. Warrior Creek is an awesome race. I will be back next year!