Bike Kentucky

This weekend’s 12 hour race at the Canal Loop was an awesome event! It was great to see so many people who said it was their first endurance race and it was evident that they were really putting forth some effort! Everyone seemed to cheer one another on no matter who was competing against whom. At one point in the race, there was a rider who had a bad spill on his bike and another couple of racers carried him out of the woods not giving a thought to their own race. The injured guy happened to be the same fellow who had helped me out earlier in the day by fixing my spoke! The camaraderie and sportsmanship at this event was definitely impressive.

This race was definitely one of the hardest races I’ve ever done. The course is a tough course for a regular XC race, so it was even tougher to continue doing laps beyond the usual mileage! I was really exhausted and came in on my final lap around 9:10. They said we could leave out for that last lap if it was 9:59:59, so there was time left for me to rest and start another lap, but on my seventh lap (which was an entire lap in the dark by myself) I saw two coyotes and I was scared to go back out. I am so ashamed of that! Lol. The likelihood of wildlife even being interested in fooling with a biker is so minimal, but I guess I was too exhausted to be brave. I kept telling myself I would regret not doing that one last lap, but I could not get my poor tired body to care at that moment.

I was so excited to have ridden hard all day and not even come close to a spill, wash out, or crash! And then it happened at the very end of my last lap. I came up the road in the darkness and there’s the guy with the walkie talkie--I told him my number and as soon as he said, “Number 24 coming in…,” I turned left to go into the woods, and I hit the ditch a little too fast. As I popped through the ditch my front wheel hit that root there at the top and it was the same effect as if I had grabbed a fist full of front brake! My left forearm went out, my left foot unclipped, and bike and the rest of me came over my head in a slow-motion cartwheel. My right foot was still clipped in and I was trying to keep the drive side from hitting the ground. As I finally skidded to a stop (successfully on the non-drive side) I heard the walkie-talkie guy finish his statement that number 24 was coming in “....AS SOON AS SHE GETS OFF THE GROUND!” That was sooo funny to me! Don’t think I’ve ever come up from a spill giggling before, lol. I had loads of fun this weekend and there’s always next year to try for more laps! Wood n Wave did an excellent job on such a well-organized race! Those guys rock!