8 Hours of Labor

             

The sun rose on Homestake Lodge on the Continental Divide just East of Butte Montana. The race was technically labeled as being in Whitehall Montana. Gina from Blackbottoms appeared with some scones tailor made for me by @sworksrider Rick Smith who was laboring away at the Outdoorsman Bike Shop in Butte.

Downing a couple cups of joe and some sconage I lined up my bottles and filled 8 of them with Carbo Rocket 350 and 6 of them with plain water. Soon it was time to line up for the start of the 8 Hours of Labor Mountain Bike Race.

I was at the line because of Bob and TRP which also paid for two nights lodging in the lodge. I had a good night sleep under my belt and was ready for the lemans start to the race.

Jesse Mong brought me some @SWIFTWICK compression socks which I got to try for the first time this year. They ROCK! I also used Swiftwick socks for the race and they held up very well. I was impressed.

The run was back this year. We ran up a small hill, between the owners lodge and his garage, down a hill and back around on a cross country ski trail. Probably around a half mile at the most. Jesse Mong and I ran modestly given our experience in this type of situation. Sten ran with us and his new sig other Christy pulled out into a huge lead using skill that could only be learned at Ironman races. We let her go ... she had a old crusty bike and we knew we could take her down soon enough.

The first lap was a heated battle between "team roadie no-talkers #1" and "team roadie no-talkers #2". So I lead some sections and they took over on others. It was a three way battle and I was up with them just because I didn't know if they were solo or not. Turns out they were both on teams and so I could of chilled.

At times we herded cattle and took the first dosing of moist cow shit smoothies. The inexperienced roadie types were disgusted with the cattle and I mentioned that this is the way we roll at Homestake. Once I said, "just wait for the 5th hour when they don't even care and will not budge."  Near the end of lap 1 I took the lead and won it outright.

From there things went south temporarily.  Seems these two team riders were so enthralled in their battle they went trough some markers and proceeded to cut the middle of the course and descend to a wetland near the far end of the course. I gave up trying to turn the guy in front of me around and went back to put up the flags that were knocked down.  I found the course again and started to wonder how may people had passed through since I was off lollygagging.

I found numerous corners where the flags had been laid flat probably by a rider that took a corner too wide. I proceeded to put up all the flags that had been knocked down. I was waiting for someone to catch back up, pass me, or come out of the woods. No one. I wondered if I had been passed by at least 2 or 3 of the lead solo riders. Just as I started to panic Sten showed up behind me.

"What place are you ... second", I asked.

"I don't know, I think so".

So we rode together and all the while I was trying to get things straight in my head. Then on a decent Sten went down hard and face planted so hard in the dirt that he had sticks embedded in his face. We paused for a moment for him to collect himself and went on the the start finish.

There was no way to determine what place we were in and to make things worse solo riders were passing through as I tried to explain to race organizers where the problems were. I was in a race and I needed to get going so I just took off and decided to just lap as many people I could to make sure I was in the lead. There was no way to determine anything at the scoring table.

Up to hour 6 everything went of smoothly. Ride in HR zone 4 and stop for Carbo Rocket on every lap. After hour 6 I started popping endurolytes and slamming more water. My last two laps were fast and consistent. I am pretty sure my last lap was my fastest. I finished the race with my first Three-pete. The damage was 91 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing in 8.5 hours.

Festivities were at hand in the lodge were I received a kick ass trophy and ate some great lasagna. Thanks Chris and Mandy of Homestake Lodge, you put on a great time...o/o