Monday, June 23, 2008

The Tale of 4 laps - Duluth Dirt Spanker

Lap 1 - good tires
Lap 2 - bad tires
Lap 3 - good tires
Lap 4 - bad tires

Craziest race conditions on a multi-lap race I've ever come across at this past weekend's Duluth Dirt Spanker. With scattered thundershowers in the forecast but only a 30% chance why bother with mud tires on a hilly course? How can a course go from dry to mud back to dry and finish out muddy? Not sure but it was rather impressive how it happened on Sunday.

Had a fantastic start up the monster hill getting in the top 12-13 with Mike "a single speed never looked so painful" Bushy, Jesrin Gaier and the rest of the speedy guys. Todd McFadden close behind. It was a tough climb but very doable. Was racing well with them, until another guy passed and unfortunately he lost the tail of the train, leaving Todd & myself stranded. Great quote from the seemingly never phased McFadden, "Not too worry, it's a long race, plenty of time to catch Brendan (Moore)". Saying it like he had no care in the world and was out for an easy joy ride. And woudn't you know it when the race was over, Todd, after having given up 2 or 3 minutes when we'd gotten slowed up, had climbed back 9 spots to finish 6th, just one spot behind Brendan. Mighty impressive.

Not for lack of excitment but even getting to the race was an off road adventure. Knowing the WI shortcut to Mont du Lac through South Superior Kate, I & the kids headed for the Oliver bridge only to be stopped short by road closed signs. This wasn't good because if we had to go back around thru Duluth we'd get there with about 5 minutes to start. So Kate stops at this bar in the middle of nowhere next to the road closure and asks this Sunday afternoon bar tender how to get through. Taking her for a pregnant woman out-of-towner -- he maintained the only way to get around was back through Duluth. The ever persistent Kate however insisted we didn't have time and needed to get through. How can we do that. With a chuckle and a roar of laughter from all the patrons in the bar he said -- "You're going to need to take the "goat" path". And sure enough, we off-roaded that Toyota Prius through some crazy over grown abandoned road and through the back yard of someones house and soon we were on the highway to cross the bridge and get to the race with plenty of time to spare. ..... sometimes when you're gonna be late for a race you just gotta be persistent!

I'll try to give a better race recap later but with the on again, off again conditions of each lap -- I skidded in a for an 18th place finish on the day in just over 2:13. Lot's of fun despite the slick as ice mud that would come & go and a nasty wet bridge wipeout. The hill climbing went great and gave it the best I could given the tires (Bontrager Dry X & Revolt) on the single track & downhill sections.

It was great to see everyone again and catch up for a while. Scotty & Sara KJ - as Kate & Sara got to swap pregnancy stories, their due dates are just 4 days different..... and right around the time of the Cheq Fat Tire -- oh, uh!. Also saw Michelle & Mike Flanagan-Hagg, Charlie "even worse tire selection than me" Farrow, Todd McFadden, Mike Bushey, Mike Weispfenning, just to name a few. Lastly, thanks a ton to Mr. all over the place - Tom Gaier, I think he passed out more water bottles yesterday than all the volunteers at the overheated '07 Grandma's marathon. Always cheering and encouraging, absolutely great guy.

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