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Tuesday, September 16

Fallout from the Pisgah Monster Cross

When I woke up in my car at whatever dark o'clock on Sunday morning, I felt as if someone had stuffed my mouth with desiccant packets.  I fished around for a water bottle that I knew was somewhere up front and made a mental checklist of my belongings that I felt could be anywhere.  My bike and cooler were on the other side of the bridge at the campsite, but my camera, helmet, glasses, raincoat and commuter light?  I guess I need to go back to sleep until the sun comes out and reassess the situation.

7:00AM.  Up.  Find my helmet on the ground with my glasses (minus one lens), find my lens, remember that I left my raincoat at the start finish, dig through my messenger bag and find my light and camera.  Good enough.  Hobble back to the car and head home to deal with this... again.

Cracked the callous on the bottom of my left foot.  First time it went this deep in 2014.  Ouch.

Bob Moss, not a fan of having his picture taken with non-podium single speeders.

I knew that the race was going to be fast, as in pegged for 4.5-5 hours for me.  It wasn't until I was on my way to work yesterday that I started thinking about average speeds.  Had to pull out my iPhone and calculate.

14.8 MPH average or so.  Interesting.  Painful considering this:

Thanks, Eric "PMBAR Honcho" Wever... you and your chicken.

For those that say there is no "party atmosphere" at the Pisgah Monster Cross, I say you must not have brought your own.

There until the final racers crossed the line and then some.  Plenty to drink and all you can eat.

The Simrils stayed around long enough for Brenda to be the last podium occupier to leave the premises.

Eventually, things got torn down, and it was time to head around the corner to the White Pines group campground...

Where one must answer me these questions three ere the other side he/she see, as queried by the naked bridge troll.

Shanna, always a supporter of single speeders big and small, helped Nick wash the shame of his defeat away.

I spent most of the rest of the night on the ground.

I use the phrase "rest of the night" a little too loosely, as I was in my car sleeping around 10:00PM.  After being up at 4:30AM, drinking 32oz of coffee on the way to the race, 12oz of beer right before the start, 44oz of Carborocket Half Evil and 10oz of Gatorade during the race, and then starting in on the beer at 12:45PM... I felt like this by the time I went to bed.

I had a great time, and now I have a month to get over my sore knees.  Oh yeah, it was chilly on the Parkway, what with the 40MPH+ descents and elevation.  I didn't cover my knees.  Not smart for an old dog like me.  I know better... I just don't "do" better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So what are Eric's races like? They seem to be expensive without all the bling associated with other events