Sunday, July 20, 2008

SMP ENDURO

I had been looking forward to the Shawnee Mission Park 3/6 since I saw the schedule come out. Since Amber and I's apartment is a 15 minute pedal from the singletrack I end up there a good bit. I just decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to do the 6 hour, I have put in a solid handful of 4+ hour rides, and figured it would be a cool event to try and win. The race started with the traditional Le Mans run, where I promptly felt like my calf was about to cramp up, wonderful. My first 2 laps I rode quite conservatively, I knew the rocks and heat were going to take a major toll. I also figured flat tires could play a role and since I was unable to get my rear tire to set up tubeless the day before I was racing with a tube and quite worried about it lasting. At the end of my 2nd lap I believe I was down 4-5 minutes on Jeff Winkler. On the 3rd lap I took back a couple of minutes, and caught him half way around the 4th lap. At that point I tried to settle in and keep my eye on the long haul. I never stopped during the race, Amber did a great job of keeping everything ready so I could roll through grab my 2 bottles, sport beans, and pretzels, and keep on. It was tough race, my hands and arms were tired, luckily my legs stayed fairly strong throughout the race. I rolled out of the woods on my 11th lap and heard two minutes to go until 6:00. I did not need to sprint in and go out again so I cruised and finished right a 6:00. Nice day of riding. Thank You to th Heartland Race Crew, Amber, and everyone who came out to make this inaugural event a success


7 comments:

LeLan Dains said...

Congrats man! It was indeed a great day of racing.

Endurosnob said...

Good seeing you, Cam. Nice ride.

Mark Studnicki said...

Good race. 6 laps was more than enough for me on that course. I don't think I could manage a 6hr race these days. I haven't did a 5hour "ride" in 5 years, and my body and girlfriend are perfectly OK with that!

Josh said...

Good job Cam, you're lookin' lean and mean for 'cross season!

Cameron C. said...

Good ride yourself Mark, You are always fast. Thanks you guys for the encouragement, it was good racing with you all.

Toby Porter said...

Good Job Cam

Mark K said...

Great Job Cam! See you at Cruise the Blues!