Race report:
Mark and I decide it would be fun again to camp out at Oreana Sat. so we could sleep in race day morning and get ready at a more comfortable pace.
After we get camp set up, we decide to take the bikes out for a quick loop just to make sure that everything is working ok. About 2 miles into the ride I'm not 'feelin the love', lol. Feels like I forgot how to ride. (Mark will disagree with me on this but I feel that the sand at Oreana is a little different than the Murphy area sand ... Oreana feels deeper and more unruley.)
We continue on and hit some really deep square edged sand whoops and I almost go over the bars. Right about now I'm in a bit of a panic and start to wonder whether or not I should be racin, lol. If I can't even ride a quick 10 mile loop without acting like a poosey ... how the hell am I gonna be able to race a 90 mile dez race?
Back to camp we go and I am pissed and stressed out, lol. Of all the races ... Oreana is the most important to me cuz it was my first race in 07 and I placed/finished horribly. I was the last 2 lap finisher. So now I'm all freaked out and stuff cuz I was riding like a poosey and can't quite figure out what my prob is. I better figure it out before the race ...
Later in the afternoon our friends Dave and Tamera arrive and I seem to settle down a little and try to chill out and have fun. Seems to take my mind off things a bit ... but I'm still nervous as hell, lol.
Night falls and we are all introduced to the SOBE bomb!!! That right there took my mind off of everything! It was about the coolest camping explosion I've ever witnessed. You first punch a hole in the sobe cap, fill the glass bottle full of gas, then put the cap on the bottle and place directly upright in the fire. When it blows the cap off ... a huge mushroom cloud of fire bursts out. It's soo intense that you can feel the heat from the explosion. We saw about 3 or 4 of these before we turned in for the evening.
Race morning arives and I'm all wound up, lol. At the riders meeting they let us know of some potential danger areas with snow, ice, and hidden rocks and stuff , and let us know what waves we are to start in. We get geared up and warm the bikes up ... friends are taking pix and stuff ... telling all us racers good luck. Right about now I really really just wanna make myself sick ... just a quick empty of the stomach might make me feel better, lol.
Our friend Danita took some pix for us:
Mark and I before the race ...
Getting ready to be lead out to the start ...
We head out to the start and I end up not having enough room to squeeze between a couple riders on the B line ... funny thing tho I wasn't the only one who didn't have room to get in ... there were a couple other guys to my left that couldn't get in on the line either. That kinda frustrated me a bit ... but what can ya do?
Here's a pic that our friend Tom took of the bomb run start ...
So I have a pair of riders ahead of me that I'm hoping they get off the line quickly since I'm BEHIND them, lol. And what do ya know ... the flag goes down and I have my ktm fired over FAST ... the two guys in front of me are still kicking. Yup ... I'm not going anywhere until they move.
Part two:
So the guys in front of me finally get off the line and off we go. I kinda hate these starts cuz it's really hard to see through all the dust and stuff. I know better and make sure to NOT ride over my head at the start. I soon realize that I didn't get too bad of a start anyways ... so all is good right? Nah ... we soon get to an area that has riders flailing all over the place and one rider decides to sample the dirt right in front of me for no apparant reason ... I precisly run into his back tire and fall off the bike.
I'm thinkin ... great ... this is gonna be just like last year ... I fell off not far from the start too, then proceeded to continually fall off through out the entire race ... kewl.
I hop back on the bike annoyed as hell and off I go. I start to notice all the traffic around me. (This is new to me cuz last year I was at the back of the pack with the C's where I was pretty much alone for most of the race.). I'm now in some kinda conga line.
Here's a pic ...
I've got several riders in front of me and more behind me and can't quite get around the riders in front of me ... the couple guys in front of me were really spazzing out in the sand and I didn't want to take the chance of being taken out ... again, lol.
I finally find a spot to pass and get around a couple of guys ... I start to calm down and grab some confidence on the way when I roll up on a rider down. Dave and Joe were already stopped to lend the rider a hand so I kept going. It's always a wierd feeling you get when you pass a rider that crashed.
I shake it off and manage to keep in race mode ... and then see a PILE of riders ahead that all managed to take each other out. I squeak by them (everyone is ok ... just sorting out all the bikes) and start to get a really bad feeling ... I have never seen so many downed riders in a race before.
It wasn't long after that I had my first over the bars sample I think. I hit some square edged whoop and the next thing I saw was sand ... sky ... sand. I jumped up worried that I was gonna get used as traction and felt a sore spot on the right ribcage. Just so happens that there was a rider right behind me and saw ... the ... whole ... f'n ... thing, lol. A.) this is kinda good cuz he made sure I was OK but B.) how embarrassing, lol.
I get the bike turned around (somehow the bike was pointed directly in the opposite direction) and hop on and feel that something is really really wrong ... the freakin bars are really really tweaked. How the heck am I gonna race the rest of the 30 miles on the first lap with jacked up bars???? I know ... I have TOOLS!!! Wait ... no I don't ... cuz I was the stupid ****** that decided to take the tools out of my pack the night before the race to 'lighten my pack'.
Part three:
I'm now really pissed that I had the kinda yard sale to screw up my bars ... but am now also worried about what SIDRA still has yet to throw at us. It's not so easy riding nothing but sand and sand whoops with jacked up bars ... oh, wait a minute ... there might be something a little worse ... I roll up to a LINE of riders waiting to climb this short steep nashy toothed rocky thing. I'm about ready to pee my pants cuz there is no way around this and I'm also watching a lot of the riders stall/flail/crash on the thing. Finally it's my turn and I somehow make it up it ... it wasn't pretty tho, lol. Whew ... what a stress reliever.
I tell myself at the next check I'm gonna have the guys lend me hand and get the front all straightened out ... nope, fogot ALL about it. I got too excited about racin that I didn't realize til around 2 miles AFTER the checks that I forgot to ask for a little help.
I make it into the pits and am full of adrenaline. I chug some oj and mention that I need some help getting my bars fixed up. I hear this voice in the background ... 'I'm not helpin with that' ... I look over and it's Mark, with his shoulder in a sling. I'm like what the ... Patty tells me he's just fine ... just hurt his shoulder is all ... perfect. I now get to ride another 40 miles or so wondering what the hell happened to Mark.
I take off outta the pits in a hurry to make up lost time ... and wouldn't ya know ... right about the same mile marker ... I crash ... and tweak the bars AGAIN. And still no tools to fix the bike cuz I'm a dumb azz ... I get to ride the rest of the the second lap with everything jacked up ... AGAIN. Do ya think I remembered to ask the check people for a hand??? Nope ... too busy racin ... Fer cryin out loud Tresa.
I come to the same rocky climb and manage to stall and fall off this time altho I made it pretty much to the top. All I had to do is just kick it over and walk it to the very top ... the rider behind me thought different. He spazzed out and managed to crash into me pinning my right foot against a rock. I couldn't move until he got himself upright. If he woulda given me 5 seconds to get fully out of the way ... it would saved us BOTH about 10 minutes.
Now I'm really tired after that last deal ... used up most of my reserved energy. I manage later to miss part of the course and go off road a bit and over some pretty freakin big boulders and crash. A guy stops to lend me hand and direct me through the boulder area that's covered in tumbleweeds by the way so I can't see where the freakin boulders are. I tell him thanks for the help and am now back on course.
I realize that each time I do something stupid ... it's taking away my energy. So I finally do something I haven't been able to do in a race yet. I start to ride smart. I'm looking farther ahead and start to see better lines. I think in a couple areas I even made up a little time cuz I was smoother.
I finally come to the finish and see that a.) it's still light out and b.) people are still there! This has gotta be an improvement over last year's race. And I wasn't destroyed after the race this time either. If someone woulda asked me my name ... I coulda told them.
It was a good way to start of the 08 racin season ... now if I can just work on staying upright and being smoother I may place even better. I completed the 90 mile course 96th out of 172 finished riders ... much better than what I finished last year, lol.
Here's an after race pic ...
Mark giving me the after race hug, lol.
A couple friends of mine giving me congrats.
Mark and I decide it would be fun again to camp out at Oreana Sat. so we could sleep in race day morning and get ready at a more comfortable pace.
After we get camp set up, we decide to take the bikes out for a quick loop just to make sure that everything is working ok. About 2 miles into the ride I'm not 'feelin the love', lol. Feels like I forgot how to ride. (Mark will disagree with me on this but I feel that the sand at Oreana is a little different than the Murphy area sand ... Oreana feels deeper and more unruley.)
We continue on and hit some really deep square edged sand whoops and I almost go over the bars. Right about now I'm in a bit of a panic and start to wonder whether or not I should be racin, lol. If I can't even ride a quick 10 mile loop without acting like a poosey ... how the hell am I gonna be able to race a 90 mile dez race?
Back to camp we go and I am pissed and stressed out, lol. Of all the races ... Oreana is the most important to me cuz it was my first race in 07 and I placed/finished horribly. I was the last 2 lap finisher. So now I'm all freaked out and stuff cuz I was riding like a poosey and can't quite figure out what my prob is. I better figure it out before the race ...
Later in the afternoon our friends Dave and Tamera arrive and I seem to settle down a little and try to chill out and have fun. Seems to take my mind off things a bit ... but I'm still nervous as hell, lol.
Night falls and we are all introduced to the SOBE bomb!!! That right there took my mind off of everything! It was about the coolest camping explosion I've ever witnessed. You first punch a hole in the sobe cap, fill the glass bottle full of gas, then put the cap on the bottle and place directly upright in the fire. When it blows the cap off ... a huge mushroom cloud of fire bursts out. It's soo intense that you can feel the heat from the explosion. We saw about 3 or 4 of these before we turned in for the evening.
Race morning arives and I'm all wound up, lol. At the riders meeting they let us know of some potential danger areas with snow, ice, and hidden rocks and stuff , and let us know what waves we are to start in. We get geared up and warm the bikes up ... friends are taking pix and stuff ... telling all us racers good luck. Right about now I really really just wanna make myself sick ... just a quick empty of the stomach might make me feel better, lol.
Our friend Danita took some pix for us:
Mark and I before the race ...
Getting ready to be lead out to the start ...
We head out to the start and I end up not having enough room to squeeze between a couple riders on the B line ... funny thing tho I wasn't the only one who didn't have room to get in ... there were a couple other guys to my left that couldn't get in on the line either. That kinda frustrated me a bit ... but what can ya do?
Here's a pic that our friend Tom took of the bomb run start ...
So I have a pair of riders ahead of me that I'm hoping they get off the line quickly since I'm BEHIND them, lol. And what do ya know ... the flag goes down and I have my ktm fired over FAST ... the two guys in front of me are still kicking. Yup ... I'm not going anywhere until they move.
Part two:
So the guys in front of me finally get off the line and off we go. I kinda hate these starts cuz it's really hard to see through all the dust and stuff. I know better and make sure to NOT ride over my head at the start. I soon realize that I didn't get too bad of a start anyways ... so all is good right? Nah ... we soon get to an area that has riders flailing all over the place and one rider decides to sample the dirt right in front of me for no apparant reason ... I precisly run into his back tire and fall off the bike.
I'm thinkin ... great ... this is gonna be just like last year ... I fell off not far from the start too, then proceeded to continually fall off through out the entire race ... kewl.
I hop back on the bike annoyed as hell and off I go. I start to notice all the traffic around me. (This is new to me cuz last year I was at the back of the pack with the C's where I was pretty much alone for most of the race.). I'm now in some kinda conga line.
Here's a pic ...
I've got several riders in front of me and more behind me and can't quite get around the riders in front of me ... the couple guys in front of me were really spazzing out in the sand and I didn't want to take the chance of being taken out ... again, lol.
I finally find a spot to pass and get around a couple of guys ... I start to calm down and grab some confidence on the way when I roll up on a rider down. Dave and Joe were already stopped to lend the rider a hand so I kept going. It's always a wierd feeling you get when you pass a rider that crashed.
I shake it off and manage to keep in race mode ... and then see a PILE of riders ahead that all managed to take each other out. I squeak by them (everyone is ok ... just sorting out all the bikes) and start to get a really bad feeling ... I have never seen so many downed riders in a race before.
It wasn't long after that I had my first over the bars sample I think. I hit some square edged whoop and the next thing I saw was sand ... sky ... sand. I jumped up worried that I was gonna get used as traction and felt a sore spot on the right ribcage. Just so happens that there was a rider right behind me and saw ... the ... whole ... f'n ... thing, lol. A.) this is kinda good cuz he made sure I was OK but B.) how embarrassing, lol.
I get the bike turned around (somehow the bike was pointed directly in the opposite direction) and hop on and feel that something is really really wrong ... the freakin bars are really really tweaked. How the heck am I gonna race the rest of the 30 miles on the first lap with jacked up bars???? I know ... I have TOOLS!!! Wait ... no I don't ... cuz I was the stupid ****** that decided to take the tools out of my pack the night before the race to 'lighten my pack'.
Part three:
I'm now really pissed that I had the kinda yard sale to screw up my bars ... but am now also worried about what SIDRA still has yet to throw at us. It's not so easy riding nothing but sand and sand whoops with jacked up bars ... oh, wait a minute ... there might be something a little worse ... I roll up to a LINE of riders waiting to climb this short steep nashy toothed rocky thing. I'm about ready to pee my pants cuz there is no way around this and I'm also watching a lot of the riders stall/flail/crash on the thing. Finally it's my turn and I somehow make it up it ... it wasn't pretty tho, lol. Whew ... what a stress reliever.
I tell myself at the next check I'm gonna have the guys lend me hand and get the front all straightened out ... nope, fogot ALL about it. I got too excited about racin that I didn't realize til around 2 miles AFTER the checks that I forgot to ask for a little help.
I make it into the pits and am full of adrenaline. I chug some oj and mention that I need some help getting my bars fixed up. I hear this voice in the background ... 'I'm not helpin with that' ... I look over and it's Mark, with his shoulder in a sling. I'm like what the ... Patty tells me he's just fine ... just hurt his shoulder is all ... perfect. I now get to ride another 40 miles or so wondering what the hell happened to Mark.
I take off outta the pits in a hurry to make up lost time ... and wouldn't ya know ... right about the same mile marker ... I crash ... and tweak the bars AGAIN. And still no tools to fix the bike cuz I'm a dumb azz ... I get to ride the rest of the the second lap with everything jacked up ... AGAIN. Do ya think I remembered to ask the check people for a hand??? Nope ... too busy racin ... Fer cryin out loud Tresa.
I come to the same rocky climb and manage to stall and fall off this time altho I made it pretty much to the top. All I had to do is just kick it over and walk it to the very top ... the rider behind me thought different. He spazzed out and managed to crash into me pinning my right foot against a rock. I couldn't move until he got himself upright. If he woulda given me 5 seconds to get fully out of the way ... it would saved us BOTH about 10 minutes.
Now I'm really tired after that last deal ... used up most of my reserved energy. I manage later to miss part of the course and go off road a bit and over some pretty freakin big boulders and crash. A guy stops to lend me hand and direct me through the boulder area that's covered in tumbleweeds by the way so I can't see where the freakin boulders are. I tell him thanks for the help and am now back on course.
I realize that each time I do something stupid ... it's taking away my energy. So I finally do something I haven't been able to do in a race yet. I start to ride smart. I'm looking farther ahead and start to see better lines. I think in a couple areas I even made up a little time cuz I was smoother.
I finally come to the finish and see that a.) it's still light out and b.) people are still there! This has gotta be an improvement over last year's race. And I wasn't destroyed after the race this time either. If someone woulda asked me my name ... I coulda told them.
It was a good way to start of the 08 racin season ... now if I can just work on staying upright and being smoother I may place even better. I completed the 90 mile course 96th out of 172 finished riders ... much better than what I finished last year, lol.
Here's an after race pic ...
Mark giving me the after race hug, lol.
A couple friends of mine giving me congrats.
