The troll in my wheel

J.H and I drove this past weekend to Salmon Arm, B.C. to do a 6 hour enduro race. The general idea is 6 hours, 11 km loop and basically the most # of laps wins! Sounds exciting...no?
To make a long story short we had a blast!! The course was epic. Complete with stunts, fast single track, long fire road and single track climbs. Being our first "enduro" race neither J or I knew what to expect, both physically and logistically. Perhaps we were over prepared -with the tent, pizza, gels, bars, water bottles, cooler, water jug, spare wheels,5 spare tubes, pumps, Co2, rain gear, cold weather gear, hot gear, hot balm, chamois cream etc. I guess our strategy was- if we have it, we won't need it- and in the end it paid off as the race went so smoothly!

The best thing about the race was that it was actually a race. It was a close battle with the girl behind me and it definitely made me push the limits of my cardiovascular endurance and technical skills! Even though the mantra of the day was "wonderful, wonderful, wonderful me," I couldn't help hearing a little voice saying "Sandy, this could turn out to be really really good, or really really bad!" Then, by my 5th lap, I was starting to see things like small trolls running through the bushes saying "he who doth count his blessings to early will pay with great sacrifices of skin, bone and humility." Luckily, the trolls disappeared when I had a power gel and some more water, and I was able to keep it together and hold onto SECOND place!!
Anyway, now J and I are thinking of doing more enduro races but it seems the few scheduled to be held in Alberta have been cancelled. So, onto Camrose for a "short?" 2.5 hour race this weekend. Hopefully I can keep the trolls out of my wheels and my momentum going.