I had planned to ride with Gary and the LBS, but when I arrived I took note of the fact that the A-Team had showed up and I had no visions of grandeur. These guys ride hard and I knew that keeping up with MOST of them was not in my toolbox. Also, Dave caught me before the start and asked who I was riding with. BOOM, decision made.We started of through the mile loop that shakes out the wheat and the chaff. We were squarely in the middle when we started into Boldly Go, which is about 9 miles of singletrack. It was slick, muddy, and quite messy at times. We got stuck behind a slower rider for a bit, but passed him after a while. I noticed he was with the A-Team and I had figured he would not be able to keep up with them. I was not wrong. We continued through the single track, finally getting to the pond portion, which is 100 yards of 4+ inches of water. Oddly enough, this area provides some of the best traction through the single track.Finally we were out of the singletrack and headed up to the SAG stop. We stayed for a short time, got some video, kissed the shot girl (TW) and headed out. No sense getting too comfortable.We stopped at the corner of Ven/Arc Grade, talked to Jimmy and a couple other guys, and took off again. This part always sucks, as the combo of wind and velcro grass is soul sucking. Add in the water crossing that nearly killed fat Tire Jimmy and it was interminable. We arrived at the next singletrack section and there was Tom, who was the tailend of the A-Train. He took off into the woods. We gu'd up and headed out. We passed tom less then 5 minutes into it. POLR was pretty nice and we finished it, ran into the A-train waiting on Tom. Another quick stop for us and we were off to Live Long. I consider this trail to be one of our crown jewels, especially when you run it in this direction. It starts out flowy and becomes more difficult as you go, with roots and ruts and such. We finished it, made the executive decision not to do Prosper (Live Long and Prosper, get it?) and headed back to the finish. Another 8 miles of doubletrack, a quick stop at the bridge and we were done. The A-team finished about 30 minutes after us, so I definitely made the right choice.

Nothing, especially given the fact I will probably not do this event again. I could probably volunteer, they'd appreciate that. I do suggest this event to anyone looking to have a good time.

Eat brats and drink beer.


If you want to have a good time at a race, this is the one for you. If you are looking for a race that is more race focused, you may want to skip it.