Well on May 31, 2008 it all came together. I have been racing fora couple of years now but have not been able to establish a consistent and permanent team to race with. Things changed on May 31, 2008.
The Ozark Greenways Adventure race near Richland, MO was a 8-14 hour race which is one of the most heavily participated races around, drawing 78 teams of 4 racers per team. In past years it was even as high as 90+ teams. Through mutual contacts, myself, Marc Fisher, Darren Helton and Jill Plassmeyer joined to race together for the first time ever. We had all raced in various races in the past but never all four of us together.
The race was a spectacular event for us in our initial race together. We had high expectations and we lived up to them despite some serious adversity. About the midpoint of this race, we jammed it up Cyclewerx style and got our groove on in the Orienteering course. We went into the woods in 10th place and came storming out in 4th place after completing the course. Next, we transitioned to the technical bike section, and that is where the poo hit the fan. With about 3 miles left in the technical mountain bike section, Jill's bike pedal broke off of the crank. We spent a couple of minutes trying to fix it, but when it was hopeless, Darren made the call to take Jill's bike and they swapped. What a bummer. We were smokin along, looking at a top 5 finish in our first ever race together, and now this. I was envisioning getting passed at that point by 20 teams. Well I'll tell you what, we only got passed by 4 teams. We hooked up a retractable dog leash that I threw into my pack at the last minute, carabinered that bad boy up to 'one pedal Darren' on his bars, and off we went like a blue streak. I sucked down an Enervit and felt like Lee Majors, pulling Darren for 8 miles while Marc pushed on his back when he could. Every little bit helped. We actually passed one team during that final leg. We ended up finishing 7th place out of the 78 teams, and we knew at that moment we had something special. A team was born. I love the team aspect of this sport. So many dynamics come into play that these races truly are an adventure.
The Cyclewerx Adventure Racing Team. Pushing the limits both physically and mentally.
1 comment:
Bryan failed to mention the laugh everyone got when I (Jill) showed up on race morning with a kickstand on my bike. Little did I know having a good bike was important for adventure racing. We even had a hard time finding a team with the tools needed to take the kickstand off. Good laughs had by all............... (especially the team that we borrowed the tools from) :)
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