I know better, I should have known better but I keep doing this to myself. A year later and I think the 50 was fun lets do it again. The minute I started dropping into Skull Valley I remembered every place I stopped and walked, every place I sat in some shade and how bad I cramped up. (I never cramped like that on any other ride) I was hauling ass down that thing, my speedometer read 40.7 and it’s a little slow. I was king for awhile, I passed DirtMonkey, JackHammer and The Last Boyscout, they weren’t happy when I passed them smacked them “tag, your it”. Then we rested in Skull Valley for about 15 minutes and got lazy, took a picture and headed back up, JackHammer Al cramped up first, Brad & I left his ass behind, I think that pissed him off because he finally caught up and passed us, I didn’t see him again for almost an hour, Poor Brad he bonked bad, he cramped up and faded away, I never see him again. (Last year he kicked my ass by 2 hours) Mike is on his single speed and leaving me behind fast. Something is wrong with my shifter, I can’t shift into other gears, I have to stop and manually force into whatever gear I need. I finally catch Al, he’s walking up the hill and I join him, we didn’t sit down once during the ride out of hell. We make it to the 2nd aid station and I collapsed, we rested for about 5 minutes and take off, Al starts riding away like he just started the damn race and I loose site of him within 15 minutes. I’m all alone, riding up I feel myself starting to fade, bonk is coming so I ease up more and everything I do is just hurting. This is the worst part of the ride, it goes forever, and I just keep going sometimes walking. I finally reach the top of hill, now it’s time to catch some people and enjoy an ALL DOWN HILL RIDE, right, wrong! Some idiot decided that we still needed to climb more so they changed the course and added a rocky loose hike a bike in the middle of the last part of the course. (Bastards) This truly sucked and I think ruined the course and spirit of most riders I talked with. The climb would have been ride able any other time but not for anyone I seen who did the 50 that day. I catch Al at the very start of the climb, there are several people walking and I’m cussing up a storm, finally I get pissed and force myself to ride. I am riding it, giving everything I have and I reach the top of it and I get a cramp from hell. It was sooooooo bad I literally dropped to the ground in pain, I had to sit up with my legs doing the splits to keep from cramping so bad, every time I try to get up the cramp drops me. So there I am, laying in the trail with my legs spread open like a porn star on DC’s website, along comes another rider seeing me in agony he ask if I’m ok, I say CRAMP! He said oh! And take’s off like a bat out of hell. What else can he do, I’m sure as hell he doesn’t want to rub my legs, and I don’t want him to. After about 10 minutes I get up and ride, I’m feeling much better and I start to get in the groove, I’m riding like I should and as long as there’s no more hills I’ll catch a few others. I get on the road stop, force my rear derailleur into the smallest cog and take off. I am cruising and feeling good, I finish and that old man Jackhammer was five minutes faster than me. I check my watch and YES! I beat my last year’s time by one hour, I was shooting for a six hour finish but I am happy. I say not the 50 anymore, next year it’s the 25 but somehow I I’ll forget and think I’m better than I am and do it again. Gotta go now, I have to start drinking for the next big ride, T4T, Soul Ride or am I going to Tour the White Mountains. I’ll destroy myself on all of them.
TacoBeer