Thanks everyone. I should have taken a few pics with the gear on after the race, we were a sight covered with mud. Here is a pic of my bike before the start.
Ride report
It was pouring down rain on the ride over to Altair on Saturday, we tried not to think about the conditions that lay ahead the next day. Uwe had a CHL renewal class that day so Robby and him left early, we timed it just right and I caught up with them on I45 around 1PM. We get to the motel in dark, Uwe and Robby head out to Skull Creek to register and leave their bikes there. Me being the procastinator of the group stay behind at the motel to get the KX ready for the torture test, install a kick stand, change plug, set chain slack for a mud bath, check filter etc. Wake up the next morning and head out in darkness to Skull Creek ahead of Uwe (an enduro champion and very skilled rider both off and on road) and Robby (this is his third enduro and he is a great rider both off and on road also) as I had to register. When I turn off the paved road to enter the park it hits me, the conditions are bad and it's a swamp
Unload the bike, register, say hi to Chris Hardy, join TSCEC thanks Jerald and suit up as the sun rises. All 3 of us are at row 20. 8AM and the first row roars off, every minute the following row leaves, 8:20 and we are off. I keep on reminding myself, this is not a sprint, conserve energy for the whole run and stay focussed. I started off with setting a goal to just complete the course no matter if I houred out. Thats the common advice you hear from experienced enduro riders to first timers but we had the luxury of being coached by the best in the gnarly Muenster terrain so it was definitely an advantage for my first enduro. The A riders zoom by finding traction where my mind tell me there is no traction, hats off to those guys
Needless to say, I could not get on their pace. There was a lot of mist and fog, had to take the goggles off, it was not fun getting roosted with no eye protection. Put the goggles on and I could not see anything, tough situation.
After 2-3 checkpoints I realize that I am no way near to houring out and am pretty much close on time despite taking it easy and can not only complete the course but can stay well within the hour, that was a good feeling I pick up the pace 1 notch and keep reminding myself to conserve energy to last the whole 59 miles of slick terrain. And it was super slick, resistance was futile, the bike pretty much did what it wanted and I tried to go with the flow, got very close to going for a swim a couple of times. The deep sand was very challenging, you had to stay on the gas but with all the rain there were deep ruts and sometimes the handle bars would go from lock to lock, I dont know how I stayed upright through that stuff. A lot of riders crashed there. The sand depleted a lot of energy. The tight wodded sections were as they say "tight" and slick on top of that.
Soon it is getting to the 30 mile zone and I knew the gas stop was at 36 miles or so (during dinner I asked about gas stop milage and Matt+Dan mentioned that there was an emergency gas stop arrangement made for people running shorter range bikes like my KX). I got a 1 gallon can all readied up for the morning but then calculated consumption and decided the KX will make the regular gas stop on fumes so I risk it, when I passed the emergency gas stop at 20 miles I was thinking, you better be right with the math.
It is getting close to 35 miles and I am exhausted despite pacing myself and the KX coughs and catches again. I am thinking "you better be right with the math" again and again till I hit the "camp" sign and know gas + food + gatoraide is within a mile, whew. It was close, I added almost 2 gals to the KX (full capacity is 2.2 gals) whew again. That sandwich and gatoraide were life savers and I could literally feel the life creep back in me. Off we go again.
I am really enjoying myself now as I get out of the "just finish the race" mode and start paying attention to some time keeping, great tips by Uwe, I was early by a minute at one check only (zeroed a couple and dropped minutes at most). At 56 or so miles I know it is just a few more miles to finish, we hit the deep sand again. I am doing good by holding her open and letting the bike take its course, then something catches my attn, there is a lil kid waving and hollering at me from the top of the sand dune, my attn wavers and I chop the throttle, big mistake as the front wheels turns full lock and tucks, I put my leg out and sand gobbles it forcing me off the bike, the boot gets caught somewhere on the bike and as I come down my torso twists but my leg does not, I feel stinging pain in my knee and know it's game over 2 miles from finish, almost shed tears of anger/dissapointment.
The kid runs down the sand dune and asks me "have you seen my daddy, he left me here, is that your toolbox?" he was sitting on a cooler and there was a tool box next to it. I am thinking there is no check here, no people here, what the heck is this kid doing here? I tell him to stay put dad will come get him soon and kick the bike off my leg. The pain is very intense, I stay doubled over for a few minutes, a KTM rider stops and yells "are you ok", I wave him by, think it might be Matt or his buddy, then see Uwe and Robby go by. I move the knee and realize nothing is broken and it is just a sprain and I can still finish in good time, I slowly stand up and put weight on it, it holds. Ignore the pain. pick the bike up, she starts on the second kick despite being flooded, gotta luv 2 strokes, get the **** out of the sand and hit a few trails, pass a couple of people and come to the last check. I ask the lady "is this the end" she smiles and sez yep you're home I am happy at finishing the course and feeling bonus happiness at not houring out with extra bonus happiness with the KX hanging in there for me. How good can it get? it gets better.
Get to camp, tell my kid/knee story and start changing and loading the bike knowing that it's a 5 hour drive back home and say when we gonna head back? Robby sez to go turn my time in, Uwe sez lets wait to see if we get any trophies! I am like thinking, this dude is messing with me but Uwe is serious and we go over to check the results. Holy schmoly, I am in 3rd Robby is in 2nd and Uwe is in 4th (all different classes) and we wait. The results keep coming in and we are holding up our spots and I am thinking, I came just to run an enduro and now we are getting podiums? Life is full of surprises. I had a blast and agree with Robby that the course was not as technical as Muenster but there was extra difficulty with the slick terrain, super deep sand dunes and whoops and tight woods sections. Definitely a huge advantage by training at Muenster, the few places that could have been bottlenecks were a piece o cake to hop over.
As my name is called out for 3rd place trophy, Robby yells "It's his first enduro" and I get extra applause. Thanks yall