Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ore to Shore recap

Year number 5 is in the books and goes down as the best year to date. All in all the race went really well. I did have to stop twice to try and fix my non compliant derailleur with no such luck. It gets a little frustrating when you feel really good and want to push a really big gear but cant due to your jazzed derailleur, oh well. I managed to ride almost the entire race with cupcake and the tool shed. We all did our fair share of work at some point and kept our group going strong the whole time. You know your group is going well when your catching other groups and spitting them out within a couple miles. I managed to get myself spit out for awhile but caught back on with 1 to go to beat Russel and prevent the heckling for another year. 48 miles is a good day on a mtb, racing 48 miles in under 3 hours is an even better day. My goal was to finally finish under 3 hours.... mission accomplished at 2:56:20 beating last years time by 12 minutes! I finally got the chance to stick around a little longer on Sunday to ride some of the amazing trails I keep hearing about in the area. Matt from Sisu and a few of my new teammates showed me around and left me wanting more; I can't wait to go back. At the risk of sounding like an add I think Marquette is one of the coolest cities I have ever had the pleasure of frequenting. A cool little college town with good food and plenty of things to do. Amazing and what seems to be never ending trails not to mention the locals are beyond polite. If you ever get a chance check it out! Next on the race calender is the Border Battle this coming weekend.

Friday, August 7, 2009

pre ore to shore

Routine is the name of the game! This is my 5th year doing this race and I like to think I have it figured out finally. Roll out early, pre ride the last 10 or so miles as soon as we get here. This is really important, grab dinner at the pasta shop... So good! Head over to registration to get the number plates and ankle chips. Try not to stay too long talking to everyone we see which is easier said than done. Grab some ice cream and call it a night. If you can follow these few simple tasks you'll be in pretty good shape.

So far I have followed the rountine to the t and am feeling pretty good. The weather is awsome to top things off. Hopefully tomorrow goes as well as today did.