Darkhorse 40 Reports

Unfortunately I couldn't be on my bike yesterday however it was an interesting experience helping with scoring and spending the day with my son.

My son was thrilled to blow this horn thing he made out of bamboo along with the air horn at the start. He really took his job of writing down the placement of elite finishers really seriously and it worked out well. He got a little freaked out when a guy pulled in that literally looked like he had a broken neck. And there was another who was blowing chunks for a while that I could tell was getting to him. In fact that was getting to all of us in the scoring area after a while.

I think the most moving thing I saw though that got me thinking was after the bulk of the racers were long done and back up by the food I realized I had forgotten one of my chairs down by the scoring tent. I drove down there with my son to get it and we were going to use the john before we hit the road to head home. While my son was in there, I got to watch a few more people pull in to the ghost town kinda feeling that was left down there as it was probably around 2:30 or later at that point. I saw a guy probably around my age roll in while his wife was waiting for him. The relief and joy on her face that he was ok and then the hug they shared with his victory of completing and not giving up was really moving. Then I saw 3 or 4 guys pull in who looked like they were 55 or 60+ for sure and a son who had raced and had been done for hours just waiting for them to come in and they all celebrated.

The last rider that I saw come in was a woman who clearly did not look like she did this on a serious regular basis whose husband was waiting for her. She barely rolled in and put the bike down and literally fell into his arms. He helped her just walk around with their arms around each other and somehow knew that she needed to keep moving a bit and not just stop. It was one of the most memorable things I have seen in a long time and will stick in my heart for a while. Definitely not something I would have ever seen or experienced had I raced myself.

Congratulations to everyone who came out yesterday and on all your victories.... whatever that may mean to you.
 
Good recap Rob.

RNG1 said:
...the ghost town kinda feeling...
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If you do upgrade to cat 1 someday, this will greet you at the end of every race. It goes from a concert on lap 1 to a ghost town by the end.

Nice stories about the people anxiously waiting.
 
Great write up Rob. You can enjoy a race from many different perspectives.

It sounds like it was a great day for many. I am sorry to not have been able to make it. I hope to go next year.🙂
 
What an awesome day, as stated above the Darkhorse crew knows how to throw an event. I only do 2 races a year, both of them being the DH events. If any of you havent raced or even been to a race, these are for sure the ones to come to. Top notch event, support and after party.

Thanks to my partner Shaggz, who literally texted me within minutes of me posting that I was looking for a team mate. We both went into this just for the hell of it and to each finish our laps and thats what we did. I had a great time doing it.

Congrats to all you guys and gals who put in the effort to finish, job well done.

Thanks to Bill, Lisa, Mandi and James for the awesome job cheering! What I think people fail to see is that you guys sat in the woods for 4 hours cheering, screaming and blowing that horn as we all went by. Thank you!

Thanks to Norm, Jake, Steve and the rest of the actual MTBNJ team members for letting me wear the jersey, it was a good feeling!

This year 20, next year 40:getsome:
 
Chris and I also really enjoyed the race yesterday. We drove up on Saturday and stayed over locally. Stewart is 3 hours for us, so it made sense. Well we stayed at THE worst hotel that we have ever encountered, and we have been in some dumps. I was afraid to walk on the carpet in bare feet. Yuk!

So needless to say we did not have a good night sleep. Once we got to the race venue, and I started to see folks from the team and other racers that I knew...I let go of the lack of sleep and started to get excited. I was pumped about racing with Chris, but also to be there and support the rest of the team.

It was fun hanging out with the other second wave starters, chatting with Patty and Steve and Tara W. Chris did a great first lap and I was out on my way. I knew from watching the other co-ed teams come through that we were near the top. I tried to push as hard as I dared. I was afraid of blowing up near the end. We had not done a pre-ride because we live so far away, so I had a few ut-oh moments, but just kept my little hammer down as much as possible. I had no idea how far behind the next team was, and I did not want to give up the time that Chris had worked to get.

I counted down the miles and then in that last rooty mile...I heard the horns...and knew I had to be getting close. It was awesome to hear the cheering squad in that last little bit. I would imagine that the 40 mile riders were thrilled at that point knowing they were alomost done.

We managed to grab third! I was pretty pumped.

As always a great job by Dark Horse. Without question, the best after race party.

And thanks to all of you that brought tubes! I have two huge boxes.
 
Massive props to the Dark Horse crew for putting on yet another stellar event. Thanks for all of your hard work!

As I said to several people, that may have been the best course I've ridden, and the most fun I've had, in 17 years of racing the mtb. Just a blast.

In retrospect, perhaps I was having a little too much fun. There were probably too many instances, particularly between miles 10-20, where I was content to follow wheels instead of promptly attacking, and then I spent most of the second lap by myself, so I was likely not on the gas as much as I could have been. I think my level of "race aggro" ain't what it used to be.

When all is said and done, it was great to see many good friends and ride such groovy singletrack. I don't think I could really ask for more out of the day.😀
 
Once again the boys at DH put on a winner. I wasn't planning on doing it at first, then my buddy who got me into racing was looking for a team mate, felt I was obligated to give it a go. He saw me go from a newly quit ex-smoker who had to stop at every climb to catch my breath, watched me "turtle" as I was getting used to clipless to a racer that won the home course race by 5 minutes only to move up and fall back to mid of pack in sport with more DNFs than finishes.

Pre-rode the course with Steve336, Mtnrider and another guy and knew it would be fast. Went out on a 65 mile VTC Guymard ride on Thursday, kitchen reno Friday until 10, picnic Sat followed by more kitchen reno until 11pm. Woke up Sun tired with still hurting legs. Conned my partner into taking first lap, telling him I need about a good half hour to warm up. Tossed Shagzz a couple of Cliffs, since he was out of sync by packing the night before, but he was right on time by showing up a few minutes before the gig went off.

Started my warm-up by hanging out waiting for my partner to come in. At the switch-off he chased me yelling to get moving until we hit the turn. picked a good cadence, hoping my legs wouldn't instantly rebel against the miles I made them do earlier in the week, plus my choice of a 34/19. I think the legs wanted to just fly, I'd hammer until I hit a group, recover, pass and hammer again.

Everything was going great until I hit the fire road climb, half way up my chain just dropped. Dude next to me tells me my chain is off, already knew it but I always let people know they have a flat. Was tossing around the idea to start yelling "Respect the Yellow" and calling him Contador as he rode away. Leg started twitching right around the PBR tent, knew it was a screaming downhill with a nice fire road at the end. Bombed the hill and brought the cadence up to about 150 to spin out my legs. after that it was all fat city. Started hearing the horn, so I knew I was close. Threw a bit more coal on the fire, partner was waiting once again chasing and throwing water on me.

We took 11th, missing 10th by 4 seconds. 2 chain drops, plus a water stop kept us out of top 10. But I took him by 5 minutes, not bad from when we first rode together.

Next up- Cathedral Pines, the absolute best single track in the world!
 
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I love to exchange words with other racers. It helps us both relax for a minute and share a laugh (its mostly me laughing cause as most of you know I'm my biggest fan). I told one guy I was racing with that I went pee pees in the water jug he was filling from (we all laughed) and he said "it doesn't even matter at this point" I replied "you're right" and wacked back another cup of M&Ms. Just a suggestion for next year...let me park right at the finish line.
 
This was my second race. My goals: "Do not Fred", 5:30 hour finish, get to the chicken before it was gone and finish before the rain came down.

1. I did not, Do Not Fred.
2. I think I finished under 5.5 hours (where can I check?).
3. Thanks for saving me some chicken.
4. I beat the rain.

That beer in the woods was ice cold and right on time. I got a lay (lei). I flatted. Lost a seat post clamp bolt, try riding 25 miles on a moving saddle. To the numb nuts who tried to pass on a bridge, my you flat on your next four races...

Thank you DH.
 
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Not So Fast said:
This was my second race. My goals: "Do not Fred", 5:30 hour finish, get to the chicken before it was gone and finish before the rain came down.

1. I did not, Do Not Fred.
2. I think I finished under 5.5 hours (where can I check?).
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Great job! A far cry from your antics at MDR last year 😀, but I guess you missed the chcken and got rained on?
 
GratefulRider said:
Chris B (Iggy), thanks for the pace. Keeping the heart rate low and riding steady paid off pretty well. My goal was 345. I finished in 3hrs 32 mins. for 9th place some cash and another pint glass!
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Good race Jeff...next year you'll be even faster.
see you at the training grounds of hartshorne.
 
mr.chainsaw said:
I love to exchange words with other racers. It helps us both relax for a minute and share a laugh (its mostly me laughing cause as most of you know I'm my biggest fan). I told one guy I was racing with that I went pee pees in the water jug he was filling from (we all laughed) and he said "it doesn't even matter at this point" I replied "you're right" and wacked back another cup of M&Ms. Just a suggestion for next year...let me park right at the finish line.
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I still cant believe Lisa was waving a bag of pancakes in your face
 
Shaggz said:
Great job! A far cry from your antics at MDR last year 😀, but I guess you missed the chcken and got rained on?
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Thank you. I got the chicken and missed the rain. MDR was so loooong ago. I no longer cry from cramping. I got it down to a whimper:cry:

:drooling: Missed my goal of 5:30. 5:47 (TY peteg), with a flat, trying to juggle a seat between my checks, two angry sets of quads and an arrow that kept sticking me in my lower back.....Yes, I did ride on the pain train.....
 
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I saw him after the race and he looked pretty beat up, but in his usual fashion, he still had a smile on his face.
 
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