The racing season has started for mountain bikers in St. Louis! Actually, it started in Park Hills, at St. Joe State Park. The Noah Foundation, dedicated to helping families with children affected by Congenital Heart Defects, put on an amazing fund raiser to kick off the season. My family, along with a lot of the members from the South Side Cycling Club, descended on the park early Saturday morning. Great weather, great turnout, great course, and great people. The idea was simple: Every racer lined up at the same time at 8:00am. When the starter said GO, every rider had 1 hour to complete the 7.75 mile course. At 9:00am, every remaining rider had to line up again, riding the course again within the next hour. That happened at the top of every hour all day long. As long as the rider was there at the start, they got to do another lap. 58 riders started (and another 9 NICA kids, who started 5 minutes later each hour and did a slightly modified course).
Bang! The first lap was off and running. You can see Eli and I on the left side. It was the first time we were able to do an event with each other. We knew we could beat the hour time cut pretty easily, so we paced ourselves and were pleasantly surprised at the condition of the course after a rough February of weather.
We played it just like our normal mountain bike rides...I ride behind him, letting him pace, and giving him tips and encouragement along the way. We finished our first lap in 44 minutes. Plenty of time to eat a little PBJ, drink some water, take a quick bathroom break, and line up for the next run at the course. We were well taken care of by our South Side crew, and it was nice to sit down for a minute between laps.
Most people made the time cut and lined up for the second lap. Eli kicked it up a notch and chopped a minute off of our first lap time. About 20-25 people were time-cut or just dipped out by the third lap. These kind of events begin to wear a person down after a few hours, though. On the third lap, Eli was going well and then began to fade a bit. I urged him on, and we still turned in a sub-47 minute lap. He's a tough kid! Each time out, we had a group of people following us, happy with the pace that Eli was setting.
On the 4th lap, Eli and I parted ways. He wanted to chill and just make the time cut. Hindsight says we should have gone a bit easier in our early laps, but that made 30 miles for him and a total of three hours. More than good enough for a 15 year old stud. I took the opportunity to take a hot lap on lap 4, and was able to come in at around 36 minutes. Kinda stupid, and it was only good for the second fastest time of the day!
Eli finished his 4th lap well under the time cut, in 52 minutes. But, he had enough and called it a day.
I kept going for another few laps. I was feeling tired, but I turned in a couple more 40 minute laps after my hot lap. This photo is at the start of lap 7. I knew this would be my last lap. The promoter gave us all a surprise and decided that we would run this lap BACKWARD...by starting at the finish line and finishing at the starting line. Sounded crazy enough to be fun. The course was a strange bird in the opposite direction, and I missed a turn or two but got on track for a 42 minute lap to end my day.
I smiled a lot this day, even though I was hurting. My legs started cramping just a few minutes into the last lap and I suffered with them until I finally finished. The park was nearly empty by this time, as all but the race promoter and timing guys had gone home. They still had to hang out for the 5 guys left standing!
The results. Lots of hardcore riders out there. I ended up 6th overall with a little over 53 total miles, which didn't have much to do with speed. It was tenacity, and 5 guys had way more than I did. Eli ended up 17th, which was super cool given that he's technically a junior. Super proud of him. Very proud also of the people that showed up and made this race possible. I think this should end up on people's race calendar for the coming years. What could be better than an early season opener benefiting such a good cause?
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