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!