West Virginia Marathon

Well, Arrived in the mountains of West Virginia around 10pm last night. Did some rally car driving thru the mountains to get here safe and sound, although my grams had to stop to unload her lunch:) whoops!

Marathon went off at 9am this morning. 48 miles of WV singletrack, absolutely brutal stuff let me tell you. If you have ridden ellicottville and know the rockgarden? Imagine that half the course is like that, then add tons of roots everywhere and oh ya, it poured on us the whole time!

Marathon was brutal as usual.  Bishop won and Eataugh in second, both under 4 hours.  3rd was 4:45, I came in 9th at 5:13.  

Got slammed to the back in the start as I was squeezed against the fence, putting me to the rear of the group.  Not too much off a big deal as the race is long and start position isn't a big factor.

Boy did I not have it in the singletrack today, center of balance was just off.  I felt like a roadie, but I sure as hell hit the open sections and climbs like a roadie :). 

I wound up in 9th place out of 14 in the open class (18 starters).  I was in 6th or 5th for the majority off first lap, but couldnt hold it in the singletrack.  I was passed by a rider then fell into a little lull cause I was frustrated about my lack of technical skills.  I was soon passed by 2 others, but got pissed and realized  was not going to my potential and reeled em in on the flats only to lose them in the singletrack, but caught them on the climbs.

I followed 8th the whole second lap, caught him on the super long climb and took off, but he held into the singletrack and got passed me.  I worked hard on the flats and the final section thru the riverbed there and was oh so close and probably would've caught him on the final feed zone climb, but right before I hit the 1 mile to go then, "it happened" my freaking crank arm fell off!? Put it back on rode the descent and started the climb, came off again even after I made sure it was super tight!  Had to run the final half mile!  lost some time there.

Physically I felt awesome in the race, have a bit of a a right thigh bruise from hitting my leg on the seat in a dismount :) freakin hurts but will stretch it and put some medicine on it

Yah and tomorrow is the xc, I'm willing to bet that I am the only semi-pro that does the double. At least its at 2:30 in the afternoon and I can rest up a bit.

Hopefully shimano techs can work their magic and get my rig up and running for me as I wore right thru my brake pads and need some new cables also.

I will give a nice update on that. Right now I've gotta go figure out how to use the miniature washer in our little efficiency. Will probably clog the thing up with mud as I did with the shower.

Stay tuned for tomorrows update!