Dirty Dawg Report

Hmmm. Tails from the Dirty Dawg.

A good day, not a lot of folks :-( Enough to keep it fun, though!

Pro / Expert add on loop was tough. way tough. at times, i thought about easier trail on rough sections of the Appalachian Trail. God bless Ben Brown for trying to keep it fun and challenging, but let's keep it ridable for folks other than the top pro / experts. Rumor has it, Ben is already planning on a different route for next year.

Well at least the main loop of the race was much more reasonable and ridable. This is the section most used by intermediate and beginners. So, still a reasonable mountain bike course for most.

Being unfamiliar with the course was my disadvantage. somewhere in there, i never picked up on the multi loop idea once the pro / experts completed their add on loop. I never quite knew where I was other than looking at my odometer and time. oh well. as Thomas Jenkins said when I commented about what I was doing at the start line with all these fast people, "It's just another Sunday ride in the woods." Well, Thomas rides quite a bit faster on his Sunday rides than I can, but hey, I was there and did not finish last. Yup. Some poor soul dnf'ed, and I finished 6 of 7.

Outside of the first two pro / expert finishers (Thomas Jenkins and Chris Pohowski, the other four of us finished fairly within reason of each other. In fact, in my efforts to not start too fast and finish within reason, I apparently put the fear of challenge in Ashwin's mind. Apparently, having left me behind in the technical walking section, Ashwin slowed down... until I came up behind him at the most in-opportune time... when a stick jammed in his rear disc rotor. I didn't even look at his face as I rode by and said "Sorry about the stick, good catch on not breaking the bike." Later, when I dismounting to ease my weary legs, Ashwin slow motion attacked from behind and took the lead. Good job Ashwin! (read Ashwin's report here.) I never got back on the lead, but I at least put the fear of mountain biking in someone's mind!

I finished 20+ miles at Mountain Lake's Dirty Dawy mountain bike race at 2:29:27 just 2 minutes and 12 seconds behind 5th place and less than 1/2 an hour behind first and second. oddly enough, those are about the speed and time I expected. Hmmmm. maybe my days as an pro / export are not over yet.

Good to see everyone from the Blacksburg shop, especially with so many of them participating!

Props to Wake Fulp of Roanoke kicking some XXC results!

btw. this race was much better for me in the realm of pace and lack of cramping wise :-) I started more reasonable for 20+ miles and made sure to drink while including e-cap powder in my drink mix and hydration pack. only started to cramp while trying to give it extra umphf out of the saddle on the last section of pavement and gravel road. I was happy with my results.