SCOLETRAIN

WORS Reforestation Ramble
Last race before 24-9 is now in the books. It was one of those interesting days as we left Point just after six in the morning and arrived at the Reforestation Camp around eight. With no pre-ride it was going to make the first lap seem longer as everything is a surprise and by the time you know the course the race is usually over. The race begun with a pack of about twenty-five off the front after a few miles with the group getting stretched out and split up in the few singletrack sections that the 11+ mile lap had to offer. For the first three laps I managed to set-in, have fun, take turns pulling the chase group back to the lead group, ride near Matter and LaLonde, etc. With the pace picking up going into the fourth lap, two groups formed and I was in the second group with Melcher, Swift, and Guerra. With just over five miles to the finish my day went from good to fair as I started to cramp after a short pull at the front and dropped off the group for the longest ride to the finish that I've had since last years IceMan Cometh race. Not even having a high end bike like my Specialized S-Works will help get you to the finish line when your legs are trying to seize up. The only part of my body that was unaffected were my hands and wrists with my Team Green Ergon GX2 Carbon grips. You know when you're riding in the damage control mode when you start to talk to yourself and answer back once in awhile. My main concern was to not lock up and blow so I went into cruise mode and decided to spin easier gears to the finish to nurse my tight hamstring home. After making it through all the last lap traffic that we were lapping, I finally saw the finish line with no idea where I ended up. During the last few miles I could see the group that I had dropped from on the longer ski trail straights, but didn't have any more reserves left to up my pace. With disappointment setting in from my last lap meltdown, I had my usual Coke after the finish and found some shade to recover in pondering why my race turned out the way it did. When I finally got to the results, I was surprised to see a 12th overall posted on the boards in Elite(best of 2007) and 3rd in the 40-44 Elite age group out of ten finishers where I was about a ski trail straight away from first at only 46 seconds back from age group winner Tim Swift with Jeff Melcher a close second. With seeing the results my disappointment with the race finally went away with new thoughts about how the pace for the 24 hour nationals should seem tame after a race like the Reforestation Ramble marathon. Great job to Ben Griggs and everyone else that put time into making this event so great. A big thanks to Pink Hauser for the cool race t-shirt that got tossed my way during awards. Pedal on...