Eight Hours of Cranky Monkey....

....if that was Saturday the day would have rocked....but it was 12 hours, not eight.

After the combination of the five hour drive (an hour plus in traffic) to VA, race pit set up and a crappy night sleep I was ready to get on the bike and just zone out.

The race started like most endurance races do, with a 400 meter Le Mans style start....aka, a run. Even thou I run like a female humpbacked whale I entered the singletrack in about tenth overall, but not knowing may placing among the solo riders.

The first lap flew by as I was following a local thru the trail that knew the lines like the back of his hand. After a quick stop for a bottle I was off for lap two....again with nothing really to speak of. Coming out of the singletrack ending my second lap (a 800-900 meters loop around a school in the open sun) the heat starting getting to me. With this in mind I sat in the pit's for 3-4 minutes and took in a little extra water.

About two miles into my third lap I was past by the solo rider in the pit next to me, having no idea where I was sitting place wise I just let him go....not to mention it was only hour three. I keep him in site for about the next 20 minutes, but then I started to fade. Nutrition was good, it was just the heat....and with that, lap three was 10 minutes slower then laps one and two (about an hour each.) After a 5-10 minute stop in the pits lap four was a little more of the same....heat, heat and more heat.

Lap five was tough, not only because the fading was continuing but I don't think I saw another rider the the whole ten miles. I heat was still killer but other problems were coming in to. I was starting to make mental mistakes, the hands were getting a few blisters and the saddle was.....causing problems lets say.

After the suffering that was lap five and a second 5-10 minute pitstop on to lap six we were. But after five minutes in the trail I knew it was over...the body was starting to get a little worse and I told myself this was the last lap. So I made the call to pull the plug before things went to far downhill. Do I really want to ruin the next couple weeks of the season just to push myself to far over the edge today? No......I've got a couple big races coming in the next few weeks and I was already on the verge of no return.

So six laps it was.

Now fast forward an hour in the pits with the wife. "Did you know you were leading the first two laps" she throws out....ahh, no. "Did you know you're in second place right now?" Again, ahh no. I could have went out for a seventh but I would have buried me for the week, if not worse.

In the end I fell to sixth place, not to bad for only riding for eight hours and no real endurance training in six months. Congrats to Jason for hanging in with the heat too.....I over heard someone in the pits say it was 96.

Now time for a little recovery before Marysville.