Mike summed up the weekend pretty well.  But I thought I would add my two cents:

 

Thursday:  I showed up around 3, greeted Matt Cerkel and got all set up at camp.  We went out for a pre-ride and realized really quick that if the weather didn't stay dry, the course was going to get really muddy.  Luckily, it only rained a little Friday night.  I left Matt back at camp and headed over to a friends house in Monterey where I slept on a nice warm couch.

 

Friday:  Arrived back at the SOC around noon and hung out with Allan, Bob, Matt and Mark at the DS course for awhile.  After that got old, I cruised the expo for free stuff and met up with Mike to help him with the jerseys. 

 

Saturday:  Woke up way too early and headed down to the paddock area to sign up for volunteer work.  Sat there for an hour or so wishing I was still asleep, then off to the DS course for 10 hours of walking up and down a hill, thinking, "Damn, my legs are tired.  This is going to suck tomorrow."  After a free pasta dinner from the Cristian cycling club, we sat around the campfire for a few hours killing time.

 

Sunday:  My phone starts going off and I wake up, all ready to start warming up.  What the hell, its still dark out.  After I wipe my eyes, I realize its 1:00 am and its my wife calling me to say hi during her night out with the girls.  Crap, back to sleep.  Up at 6:15, eat breakfast and ride around on my bike for not nearly long enough.  But I felt pretty good, much better than in past weeks.

 

I went down to the start finish and lined up with the rest of the sport 25-29 group of 49 riders.  Once the whistle blew, the guy in front of me had some drive train problems and I had to work to get around him with people on either side of me.  I made up a few spots, but the lead pack of about 30 had a pretty good start on me.  I began to pick people off in the single track, maybe 10 riders or so in the first half of the race.  I could see a long train of people ahead every once in a while, but I was never able to catch them.

 

I felt really good, and kept passing people, but I think I was passing the 19-24 group.  Once we hit the goat trail (I think that's what people were calling it), my calf was starting to twinge.  I was able to fight it off for the rest of the race though, which was good.

 

Once we hit the fire road climb, I passed one or two more guys in my class.  But all of the good feelings from passing people went right down the toilet.  I realized someone had started sucking my wheel so I turned around and it was Loren.  DAMNIT!  I had 2 goals today:  1) Finish under 1:45 and 2) don't let Loren pass me.  So goal 2 is down the drain.  Oh well.  As he went by I gave him a big push and told him he was in the top 10. 

 

I ended up finishing 19th out of 49 with a time of 1:40:20.  I felt much better than I had at the last two CCCX races.  But it looks like taking it easy and resting didn't make me any faster, just made the race more enjoyable.  All in all, I had a blast.  I wish I could have stayed around to greet the experts with a beer when they came in, but I was just too tired to stand around in the rain by myself for 4 hours, only to get home at 8 or so.

 

Franck, awesome pics.  It was nice having someone near the end of the race for encouragement.  Hey Gin, maybe you can change my pictures on the profile page to actuall pictures of me.

 

See everyone at the NVDC!

 

Matt