Post by jontotman on Aug 2, 2010 12:51:29 GMT -5
2010 Sufferfest in DH 40!!!
Whew! I must say, " I SURVIVED MY FIRST DARK HORSE 40."I like to thank Dark Horse promoter for putting up another awesome event. From picking up our race packet, the start of the race and the post race everything runs smoothly. Although, I did not get to eat after the race (that's another story) the post race food looks really good. Tons of BBQ Chicken, Pasta, Salad, Rice, Watermelon, Ice Pops, unlimited beer and many more. Oh yeah, I won't forget Rob aka jusluvtobike's Rice and Adobe, thanks Rob for the left over adobo that's what my family and I ate last night, I must say it was very yummy. Dark Horse Promoter rock, other race promoter should take a note from the Dark Horse on how to throw a challenging but fun and memorable race.
I think this race was the biggest attendance for the tribe. Before I congratulate Freearrow, ErwinH and Bigboy for finishing strong in our group, I would like to make a special shout out to our first time racers.
Kudos to Ramon aka Giantmastah and Greg aka GRNamin and Mike aka Mike_X for partaking on this event. You guys never race before but choose one of the hardest race in NY (IMO). Giantmastah you did great out there even though you only completed one lap, you still rode 20 miles Ramon!! As for GRnamin, you crashed and all wounded but picked up yourself and continued. The only thing that stops you from going on was your bike, when you cracked your Lynskey frame. I hope Lynskey replace your frame soon. To Mike_X, you did well out there finishing 40 miles on your first ever mountain bike race.
To our women category representative Lia, gurl you are such a strong mtb rider. I'm just amazed knowing you finished the 40 miles but finishing 7th out of 18 in your CAT and beat many SPORTS MEN including my baby Moe (You should have slap his behind for me when you passed him. Lol! ) Btw, don't worry Lia i did not sniff the kit ; )
To our Single Speed Open Cat representative. First of all, one of our fast cat RatchET couldn't make it the last minute because of a business reason. We missed you out there yesterday ErwinM. So we have Wet aka Prancing Horse and Erick aka CincoDos to represent the tribe in the "FAST Open SS CAT." This is what I know, both Prancing and CincoDos started fast and doing well on their first lap. Prancing was feeling good and was picking up some of the single speeders in his group one by one and CincoDos was just behind him. Prancing was the first mtbnycstyle racer who finished the first lap according to Rob who was cheering for the tribe. But bad luck started to come for our single speeders on the second lap. Prancing Horse started feeling sick and had to stop three times to go to porta john and had to throw up and after that his legs started to cramping big time and loose a lot of his time. And CincoDos was feeling great and riding fast but had to cut it short and DNF. He blew his tire sidewall on his 27-mile marker. Next year, I'm sure both of you will do well again minus the bad luck.
To the rest of the tribe, Levi aka Merlin, Moe aka OldDawg, Bong aka Jeprox, Danny aka Freearrow, Erwin Hitgano aka Erwin, Jose aka Bigboy and myself congratulation for finishing this grueling 40 mile race. I was very exhausted during the race but the feeling after completing the 40 miles was all worth it.
Here is my race re-cap; At the start of the race, I planned to stay behind Bigboy and try to keep up with him for as long as I can. As the horn sounded for our category to go, Bigboy just flew and my plan change since I couldn't get touch to Bigboy, at least 15 riders separated between us on the first minute of the race. As soon as the first single track (bottle neck) I lost Bigboy completely. So I was on my own for the first 5 miles until Freearrow passed me. I tried to keep up to his pace but he look strong and he was riding his line very clean and I just couldn't kept up with Danny (I'll catch you next time Inchol lol!) So, all I know is Bigboy and Freearrow is a head of me now. On the 8.5mile marker halfway to the big gravel climb, I saw ErwinH past me slowly on my left on the uphill and said, "let's go Jon!" and my reply was "I'm tired!" So I decided to breathe and stayed with Erwin for as long as I can. I let Erwin set the pace and we were doing well, we managed to passed few racers. But when we hit one steep short climb Erwin's chain popped out and got stuck between his spoke and big cogs. We tried to yanked it different ways and still can't get the chain out. So as we were doing this, racers passed us. Some asked us if we have everything we need to fix Erwin's bike and some says that we need to stay away from the trail. We moved a little more on the side and decided to removed his back tire and yanked his chain. While we were still fixing his chain Merlin passed and since he saw both of us working on one bike, there was no point for him to stop so he went on. Finally after at least 5 to 8 minutes fixing Erwin's chain mechanical and at least 10 riders (men and women) passed us, Erwin and I backed on our saddle and caught up to most of the racers that passed us when we were fixing his bike and that's including Merlin who was standing on the side taking his gel or something. We asked Merlin if he's o.k, he said yes so we kept moving. On the feeding station where they give you beer, I decided to sipped half a can of iced cold beer and refilled my bottle with water. I could not resist on checking out the three female serving the beer who only had a two-piece bathing suite covered by a white see thru satin fabric, like the Greek Goddess. So I was definitely will stop there again on my second lap = )
So Erwin didn't drink the beer and mentioned to me that we should get going as he was feeling good. I told him go ahead and pushed the pace a little, so we did and flew. We were riding pretty well together for about 15-20 minutes into our 16th mile marker but we were separated when he made a move to overtake one of the Elite female racer on the single track and I couldn't follow Erwin's move. So I rode behind this female racer for about 6-8 minutes and I can still see Erwin in my sight but as soon as we get to the loose dirt uphill the female racers stop and had to stop behind her that's when I lost sight with Erwin and couldn't catch up to him anymore. So when I finished my first lap I was by myself all the way on my second lap. I couldn't match the pace Erwin and I were doing on the first lap so I did slow down quite a bit. All the climb I did on the first lap I had to walk it up on my second lap . I had to stop twice on the feeding stations one of course is the goddesses feeding station. Lol .
On my way 30 mile marker my legs starting to throb and finally when I get to the two bowl part where few mtbnj cheerers honking their vuvuzela and ringing cow bells, on the last uphill both my legs locked up and had to stop for few minutes. Thanks for the icy/hot spray that I brought with me that thing works, I sprayed to both my legs and after a minute I was able to moved my legs. I know I only have to endure 3 more miles to the finish line so I pushed my pace a little faster but I forgot the rooty section on the last half a mile. =)
All in all, I was happy on my performance yesterday despite not riding as much as last year. I placed 69 out of 123 racers in my category. Well done to Freearrow Erwin and Bigboy, I tried my best to catch up with the three of you but I got nothing left in my tank. We all did great! I will definitely be back next year and hope we can top this tribe's attendance next year DH40. Rob thanks for the support and the rice and adobo, I hope next year we will be riding together and sharing the pain.
Whew! I must say, " I SURVIVED MY FIRST DARK HORSE 40."I like to thank Dark Horse promoter for putting up another awesome event. From picking up our race packet, the start of the race and the post race everything runs smoothly. Although, I did not get to eat after the race (that's another story) the post race food looks really good. Tons of BBQ Chicken, Pasta, Salad, Rice, Watermelon, Ice Pops, unlimited beer and many more. Oh yeah, I won't forget Rob aka jusluvtobike's Rice and Adobe, thanks Rob for the left over adobo that's what my family and I ate last night, I must say it was very yummy. Dark Horse Promoter rock, other race promoter should take a note from the Dark Horse on how to throw a challenging but fun and memorable race.
I think this race was the biggest attendance for the tribe. Before I congratulate Freearrow, ErwinH and Bigboy for finishing strong in our group, I would like to make a special shout out to our first time racers.
Kudos to Ramon aka Giantmastah and Greg aka GRNamin and Mike aka Mike_X for partaking on this event. You guys never race before but choose one of the hardest race in NY (IMO). Giantmastah you did great out there even though you only completed one lap, you still rode 20 miles Ramon!! As for GRnamin, you crashed and all wounded but picked up yourself and continued. The only thing that stops you from going on was your bike, when you cracked your Lynskey frame. I hope Lynskey replace your frame soon. To Mike_X, you did well out there finishing 40 miles on your first ever mountain bike race.
To our women category representative Lia, gurl you are such a strong mtb rider. I'm just amazed knowing you finished the 40 miles but finishing 7th out of 18 in your CAT and beat many SPORTS MEN including my baby Moe (You should have slap his behind for me when you passed him. Lol! ) Btw, don't worry Lia i did not sniff the kit ; )
To our Single Speed Open Cat representative. First of all, one of our fast cat RatchET couldn't make it the last minute because of a business reason. We missed you out there yesterday ErwinM. So we have Wet aka Prancing Horse and Erick aka CincoDos to represent the tribe in the "FAST Open SS CAT." This is what I know, both Prancing and CincoDos started fast and doing well on their first lap. Prancing was feeling good and was picking up some of the single speeders in his group one by one and CincoDos was just behind him. Prancing was the first mtbnycstyle racer who finished the first lap according to Rob who was cheering for the tribe. But bad luck started to come for our single speeders on the second lap. Prancing Horse started feeling sick and had to stop three times to go to porta john and had to throw up and after that his legs started to cramping big time and loose a lot of his time. And CincoDos was feeling great and riding fast but had to cut it short and DNF. He blew his tire sidewall on his 27-mile marker. Next year, I'm sure both of you will do well again minus the bad luck.
To the rest of the tribe, Levi aka Merlin, Moe aka OldDawg, Bong aka Jeprox, Danny aka Freearrow, Erwin Hitgano aka Erwin, Jose aka Bigboy and myself congratulation for finishing this grueling 40 mile race. I was very exhausted during the race but the feeling after completing the 40 miles was all worth it.
Here is my race re-cap; At the start of the race, I planned to stay behind Bigboy and try to keep up with him for as long as I can. As the horn sounded for our category to go, Bigboy just flew and my plan change since I couldn't get touch to Bigboy, at least 15 riders separated between us on the first minute of the race. As soon as the first single track (bottle neck) I lost Bigboy completely. So I was on my own for the first 5 miles until Freearrow passed me. I tried to keep up to his pace but he look strong and he was riding his line very clean and I just couldn't kept up with Danny (I'll catch you next time Inchol lol!) So, all I know is Bigboy and Freearrow is a head of me now. On the 8.5mile marker halfway to the big gravel climb, I saw ErwinH past me slowly on my left on the uphill and said, "let's go Jon!" and my reply was "I'm tired!" So I decided to breathe and stayed with Erwin for as long as I can. I let Erwin set the pace and we were doing well, we managed to passed few racers. But when we hit one steep short climb Erwin's chain popped out and got stuck between his spoke and big cogs. We tried to yanked it different ways and still can't get the chain out. So as we were doing this, racers passed us. Some asked us if we have everything we need to fix Erwin's bike and some says that we need to stay away from the trail. We moved a little more on the side and decided to removed his back tire and yanked his chain. While we were still fixing his chain Merlin passed and since he saw both of us working on one bike, there was no point for him to stop so he went on. Finally after at least 5 to 8 minutes fixing Erwin's chain mechanical and at least 10 riders (men and women) passed us, Erwin and I backed on our saddle and caught up to most of the racers that passed us when we were fixing his bike and that's including Merlin who was standing on the side taking his gel or something. We asked Merlin if he's o.k, he said yes so we kept moving. On the feeding station where they give you beer, I decided to sipped half a can of iced cold beer and refilled my bottle with water. I could not resist on checking out the three female serving the beer who only had a two-piece bathing suite covered by a white see thru satin fabric, like the Greek Goddess. So I was definitely will stop there again on my second lap = )
So Erwin didn't drink the beer and mentioned to me that we should get going as he was feeling good. I told him go ahead and pushed the pace a little, so we did and flew. We were riding pretty well together for about 15-20 minutes into our 16th mile marker but we were separated when he made a move to overtake one of the Elite female racer on the single track and I couldn't follow Erwin's move. So I rode behind this female racer for about 6-8 minutes and I can still see Erwin in my sight but as soon as we get to the loose dirt uphill the female racers stop and had to stop behind her that's when I lost sight with Erwin and couldn't catch up to him anymore. So when I finished my first lap I was by myself all the way on my second lap. I couldn't match the pace Erwin and I were doing on the first lap so I did slow down quite a bit. All the climb I did on the first lap I had to walk it up on my second lap . I had to stop twice on the feeding stations one of course is the goddesses feeding station. Lol .
On my way 30 mile marker my legs starting to throb and finally when I get to the two bowl part where few mtbnj cheerers honking their vuvuzela and ringing cow bells, on the last uphill both my legs locked up and had to stop for few minutes. Thanks for the icy/hot spray that I brought with me that thing works, I sprayed to both my legs and after a minute I was able to moved my legs. I know I only have to endure 3 more miles to the finish line so I pushed my pace a little faster but I forgot the rooty section on the last half a mile. =)
All in all, I was happy on my performance yesterday despite not riding as much as last year. I placed 69 out of 123 racers in my category. Well done to Freearrow Erwin and Bigboy, I tried my best to catch up with the three of you but I got nothing left in my tank. We all did great! I will definitely be back next year and hope we can top this tribe's attendance next year DH40. Rob thanks for the support and the rice and adobo, I hope next year we will be riding together and sharing the pain.
. , but I will ride again, lol.