Matt cleaned up my Misfit Psycles SS this weekend complete with new tires . . . he's so sweet b/c it really needed a little TLC!!!
The weekend after Dauset, we headed up to Mulberry Gap for the GA SS Championship Replacement Ride. Matt has done the GSSC race for the past few years but it's usually earlier in the year and/or hotter than heck. Not sure why, but this event wasn't going to happen this year until Shane & Brian decided to put something together out of Mulberry Gap . . . GSSC Replacement Ride! There were about 25 signed up including 8 or 9 really fast ladies which was awesome. We rode, well hiked, a part of Bear Creek that we'd never done before up to the overlook, down to P1, up P1 over to P2 and bombed P2 back to the gravel road leading back to MG . . . I think! :) Matt & I were riding together for a while when he stopped to made a bike adjustment and I pedaled on. I don't remember all of the details but I ended up 11th out of 20 and had a blast.
If you haven't spent a weekend at Mulberry Gap you owe it to yourself to check them out. It truly is a mountain biking retreat but you don't have to ride to enjoy what they have to offer.
Then there was The Ocho Reverse.
A last minute decision had us registered for this event on the other side of Knoxville in Morristown, TN . . . 8 hours solo! We showed up Friday night with just enough day light to put up our tent in an almost vacant field. We met our camping neighbors, Andy & Cara, in their sweet new camper. Andy was racing the Ocho and Cara was going to a cross event nearby later in the day. It was pretty chilly overnight so I got up the next morning and made some coffee and tried to stay warm while getting ready to race. Ruthie was there to race with Steven running support which was cool b/c I don't think I've done an event with Ruthie before. I love it when we run into our friends from TN!!! John Carr was there too . . . for some reason Matt got me into the habit of calling him John Carr rather than just John so I hope he doesn't mind!
This course beat the snot out of me but I felt pretty good all day. It had a lot more climbing that I had anticipated but once again I survived on the trusty Misfit SS! I love this bike! I got ahead of Matt at some point, I think b/c my "angry" hubs make me sound like I'm faster & closer than I actually am. My initial plan was to only stop every two laps so I quickly refilled my bottles after the 2nd lap. While refueling from lap #4 I see Ruthie walking up and we chatted for a minute while I was trying to figure out what I needed to eat to keep me going. She wasn't feeling well and Steven had just gotten back from China so they called it a day. I lost a decent chunk of time on this lap b/c of my lack of preparation but I continued on for 3 more laps. Matt quit after 5 and apparently took a nap and had some pizza and beer. I didn't realize it until my 6th or 7th lap but I was in 2nd behind a local girl and she ended up beating me by 12.5 minutes which should have been much less had I not spent so much time in the pits between laps. I can look at my lap times and see that it's my transition time that needs tweaking but I'm working on it!
This 8-hour effort wrecked me physically just in time for the Chainbuster 12-hour series finale the following weekend . . .
Going into this event, we were tied with the Rome Velo team, Matt & Rhonda. We have had a lot of fun racing with them this year! Matt & I had been running SS all season since that's what we own but Matt bought a Niner EMD just in time to break it out for the Jackrabbit race! Matt's write-up is here.
This is a great series and next year is looking to be even better with a 9/6 hour series. We had already talked about moving to 6-hour solo next year but maybe we'll come back for 9-hour duo . . . who knows! Kenny & the rest of the CB crew put together a raffle (including a Niner EMD donated by Addictive Cycles) and silent auction to raise money for the Pattillo family and ended up raising $3,400 which is absolutely awesome!
Jessica Pattillo is actually putting together "Red Team Go" t-shirt orders soon so I'll post up if anyone is interested in continuing to support this beautiful family.
Matt teamed up with his brother Dave this past weekend for the Tumbling Creek 6-hour. My sister-in-law, Samantha, and the kids came out for support and the kids did the kids race. It was another beautiful day for racing! I'll let Matt post up about his race but it was fun watching him race with his brother and I think the kids had fun too!
In other non-biking news, we went to an early Halloween party on the 23rd. I don't think we've ever dressed up for Halloween in our 13 years together so this was fun. I'm still looking for a picture of us together but I enjoyed going back to the 80's . . . crimped hair, blue eyeshadow and all! :)
Up next is the Niner demo at Mulberry Gap this Saturday from 10-4. I'm on the hunt for a geared bike . . . every time I compete in a race or ride on the SS though I question my need for gears.
The Snake Creek Gap Time Trials pre-ride is this month too. Matt tells me I have to step up the the 34-miler this year so we'll see how the pre-ride goes and make a decision in time for the first of 3 (Jan/Feb/Mar).
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