All in all, I'd say I had a pretty good day @ Hilbert. Tough to admit it right now, with my calves aching, numbness in fingers and a stomach that still hasn't quite settled, but I can still recognize some good. To start with, I ran my first competitive 10K. Actually, it was probably the first time I had run 6 miles in many months, maybe even this year. After a short bit of trail, DK passed me by, but I was able to hang with him, recognizing I may be running a hair harder than I should be. After 4 miles, I felt him slow down a bit, and we had been gaining on a guy, so I jumped on the opportunity and passed him by and caught the next guy too. At 5 miles, I gave the 1 mile-to-go-shout-out. I felt DK pick up the pace, so naturally, I did too. I was able to hold and took him by 20 seconds or so. Overall, I pulled 5th in my age group out of quite a few folks. Unfortunately, I filled DK with rage and he was gonna make me pay. 45 minutes to prep for the MTB enduro...
The Enduro started off well enough. I was a few spots back, holding my own for two laps. DK caught me at the end of two. We both pitted, and as I stuffed a Clif bar in my mouth, I taunted him a bit and rolled out. Mistake. Shortly thereafter, he caught me, passed me, and disappeared. I didn't see him again until the end of the race, when he was rolling up the hill, completing his 9th lap. I did 8 and bailed out with 7 minutes remaining on the clock. At that point, I was totally beaten. My hands hurt, my stomach was in knots, and somewhere in the last 2 miles, I started feeling lightening bolts shooting through my toes on my right foot.
Not cool. I ended up in fourth in enduro. Pretty cool to see third and fourth place go to singlespeeders. Something tells me we were lucky there were other races going on that day.So DK walked off with the "Me Stud" prize money and the knowledge that he once again was able to beat up on a bunch of young bucks.
Stats: 656' of climbing on foot. 5248' by singlespeed. Total distance run/ride: 49.64 miles.
