Twelve O'Muchy...

On Friday Members of The Mighty, Mighty Spot Brand Team and The Secret Henry's Team along with Tom McDaniel, our den mother, met at Tom's house for the start of this weekends adventure. I was really looking forward to this race despite the dismal weather. The teams were, fatmarc, with Spot Paul. Myself and Matt Run Forrest doing the men's duo class. Diane, chunky monkey and FFA Amy in the women's duo class, and Fitzy flying solo.


Here is how the race went for me. You can also check out fatmarc for his take on things. Our plan was to try and work together, and see if we couldn't separate ourselves from the rest of the field.



Lap 1 and 2 belonged to Marc and Matt. Marc came in first and told me Matt was a couple minutes back. Right away my focus was catch Paul so we could try and work together. When I went out it was absolutely pouring, but that was OK because the trails were just wet not muddy. I was going pretty good when I thought I saw Paul on the last climb. I attacked hard only to find out it wasn't him. I hit the fire road and saw the ambulance that was carting a guy of the course. When I got closer I saw Spot Paul tucked in behind the ambulance. I bridged up and realized we couldn't get around it, which sucked because it was going pretty slow and soon a lot of the folks I had just passed were catching back up. Once we did get by we quickly dropped the rest of the guys. About half way through our second lap it stopped raining and the course started getting muddy fast.

Laps 5 and 6 again belonged to Matt and Marc.
Laps 7 and 8, the course was getting worse but Paul and I just kept working together and putting more time into the other teams.

Laps 9 ans 10, Matt and Marc are working well together.
Laps 11 ans 12, It is raining again but it doesn't seem to be helping at all. Paul and I continue to ride consistently. On the last climb of the lap I got a little gap on Paul. When I got to the fire road I sat up and waited for him to get back on. He never did. I rolled through the transition and started my next lap still holding back a little waiting for Paul but he never caught up. Turns out he flatted and I didn't hear him yell. I let Marc know what was going on and he said "Don't worry Matt and I will be together when we come in.

Laps 13 ans 14, sure enough Matt and Marc roll in together, and Paul and I are off for what will be the last 2 laps of the day.

Laps 15 and 16. By now the course is brutal, Paul and I did a lot of walking. The good part was all we had to do was come in before 7:00. We did it with half an hour to spare.

In the end we tied for 1st, which was the plan anyway. It kind of through the promoters for a loop but Oh Well. Not only did we win win the Men's Duo class but we won the whole damn thing. The only teams to do 16 laps in 12 hours, actually it was 11 and half.

As for the Women they were awesome. My hats off to Diane who hasn't raced in years but decided 5 short weeks ago to do this race. And Amy was great, the 2 of them worked very hard and ended up 2nd. Nice job Ladies.

My man Fitz came to this race with a plan and a goal. He executed his plan and reached his goal. Fitzy banged out 10 laps, 2 on his Spot 3 speed and the rest on his single speed. If he had entered the single speed class he would have gotten 2nd.

I can't say enough about Tom. He had us programmed, get clean eat and rest. My bike and I were always clean for each lap. If it wasn't for Tom I don't think any of us would have done as well as we did.

I will have more later and hopefully some pics, right now I am having issues.

Ready for a beer,
Buddy