Syllamo got its Revenge, again.

What is it with this weekend and the weather? Greg, Jeremy and I headed down Friday morning exactly as we had last year only this year we didn't drive through the tornado, it waited until we got down there and set up camp to show its face. We had to take shelter in the bathrooms at the campground after the sheriff came through with sirens blazing scaring the crap out of everyone. We of course took to the women's bathroom. I'm not as dumb as I look. Crowd into the stinky men's bathroom or bring a chair and make yourself comfortable in the less stinky women's. After about an hour with only some light rain we headed back to our campsite and hung out for the evening. By the time we went to bed, there was only some rogue lightening and the rain had stopped.

I was feeling much better the week prior this year unlike last year's head and chest cold filled week. We had at least ridden the course once this time so had a basic idea of what to expect. I gave in to the idea that whatever you race on at Syllamo will take a beating and brought my Niner MCR with heavier and less expensive stuff on it. I would say the conditions were much better this year although I still had a healthy dose of chainsuck and was forced to ride 90% of the race in my bigger ring. Because more sunlight reaches the forest floor after all the trees fell last year, it seemed much more overgrown. If that was all I had to deal with I would have been as happy as a lark. I made it a whole 8.35 miles before I had my first flat, a 5/8" slice in the sidewall of my front tire. I took my place in the woods with a half dozen other riders fixing the exact same type of flat. After making a custom tire boot, adding a tube and inflating-all while fighting off hundreds of mosquitoes, I watched Matt Grothoff come sailing to a stop as the last bit of air left his now lifeless tire. I rolled my eyes and started down the trail wondering how the rest of this day would treat me. By now I had been dealing with chainsuck for a while, lost my glasses and was down a tube, but still having fun.

This time I got to mile 13.14 before I had flat #2. I pulled over because the leaking air that was clearly exiting from my rear tire this time, only it was a slower leak. I hoped I could get the sealant to take care of it. Once I stopped and looked at it I noticed the sealant in three different spots, WHAT THE HELL? Seems I pinched my tire, on what I couldn't tell you as I felt no rim strikes. A hole at the rim on both sides of the tire at the bead and one more in the tread. I didn't mess around and went into fix-a-flat mode. At least I didn't have to boot the tire this time. I was leap frogging Mason Storm and a few others so they were now hazing me and wondering what tires not to buy that I was riding. Seriously thought about pulling the plug, wasn't even at the first checkpoint yet and could make an easy return to the campground-after all, I had no more tubes, only a patch kit. It wasn't long and I was at the checkpoint and without thinking, headed back out to ride the green loop. I would return to this same point, hopefully, about a half hour later so I could reevaluate my status then.

I started up the small gravel climb to start the single track and saw Stuart Munson. Haven't talked to him in years. It was awesome to see him back on a mtb and of all the races to come back to! I went by him but would see him again, several times. Green loop went okay and so I filled my bottles and took off on one of the more "out there" sections of the trail, the blue loop. Managing to get just past the 20 mile mark, I succumbed to my 3rd flat. It was almost funny now......not really. Having only patches I found the hole, oops, holes in my limp tube-pinch flat! Patched to two holes and let the glue dry as long as I could stand it, it wasn't long enough. Aired it up and by the time I could get my head straight I could tell it was leaking. Lucky for me Keith Weinkein had stopped to make sure I was okay. When he could see my fix wasn't fixing he offered me a tube and a co2. I felt bad about taking his stuff but the prospect of a long walk wasn't very appealing, so I did. What a life saver, THANKS! For some reason I don't know why, I didn't use the co2 and gave it about 280 pumps with my tiny hand pump. Before that 30 minute dual flat fix I had been yo-yoing back and forth with Ryan from the BTEpic and he really got me thinking about bailing but after someone giving me another chance, I couldn't. Off I went, trying to ride carefully I was still picking off riders one by one.

I got into a nice groove and was having fun, starting to catch people that had been ahead of me the entire race like Greg Ott. Passed right through the check point on the blue loop and fought my way over the climb and back down to Hwy 5 for the second time. A few minutes after crossing the small river, which was much lower than last year, marks the start of the longest climb in the race. Still only able to use my big ring I marched up it, dismounting more than I wanted to. Finally caught Keith and felt bad about passing him, but he was having his own race. Saw Stuart for the last time just before we came out on the double track that leads you to the top. That last push sucked. I tried one more time to use my small ring and didn't make it two pedal strokes before it locked up-big ring it was. I knew that once you peaked and came to a gravel road, it was a much "easier" road ahead. At least now the miles were clicking off relatively fast. After a few grunts I made my way to the check point at the start of the red loop. Filled up my bottles again, lubed my chain and took off.

I had a hard time on the red loop last year because I was cramping so badly. This year I was feeling pretty fresh and it was flowing nicely. It's easy to think of the red loop as the "fast, or easy" section of the race but it's still 1/4 of the total miles so it seems to last forever. Everything was going fine until I rounded a corner and my back tire rolled due to low pressure. I stopped and aired it up once but it wasn't long and I knew it was done. No tubes and no one around I started running, or trotting, or walking. I had passed Pete Goode a few minutes earlier and soon he came rolling around the corner. Not to my surprise he was immediately offering up one of his spare tubes to me and I graciously accepted. He asked if I needed anything else and I said no. I found no thorns or anything in the tire and proceeded to finish the fix with a few pumps from the mini pump. No dice! Pete had given me a super light tube and the valve stem was very short and had no threads. Boy was I glad that I hadn't used that co2 that Keith had given me earlier. Emptied that thing into my tire and figured I would make due with whatever pressure I had.

Not long before finishing the red loop there was a tree across the trail that you could ride under if you saw it and ducked down, I didn't see it. I ran into that thing full speed and have no idea how it didn't knock me out or at least throw me off my bike. I paused for a few seconds, looked at that tree and carried on. Got my last mark at the final check point and took off down the remaining yellow trail. That red loop took me 1:30 last year, this year with some running and a flat I did it in 1:22. Only a few short ups to lead me back to the last mile down to the campground. Went by our campsite and saw Jeremy already clean in street clothes. Still feeling strong I was flying. I passed three more riders attempting to sprint, I felt bad but I was just riding. 6:37, 28 minutes slower than last year in better conditions. My ride time was 1:05 less than my race time and I'm sure I was walking for 10ish minutes, so I feel good about that. 5 flats for me, Dwayne ended up having 4 and finishing 20 minutes ahead of me. 60 people beat me, 127 finished after me. Wohoo! Top third! Jeremy ended up 6th overall and being in the most competitive class, 4th in 30-39, so no prize, no anything. I really think the top ten should be recognized as they do in every other epic style event.

We ate some awesome spaghetti, cleaned up and were home by 10pm. Thanks to Keith and Pete, I would still be out there if not for you guys! One of these years I will get my revenge on Syllamo!