race one and wors one

Well I threw my hat in and joined in on a 13 hour ride down to take on the Cohotta. I wimped out and did the 65 miles. There was still 15000 feet of climbing, it would be a wake up call this early in the season. We pre rode a bit on Friday and knew we were not in Wisconsin anymore. Hit up the local Mexican restaurant for food and drink and then a short ride ac cross state lines for beer for after the race. With a 7:15 start we were up early packing drop off bags and watching the radar. No warm up at all and a 2mile up mountain start. I blow myself up on the start and was at the tail end of the lead group. The hit so singletrack and the pace came way down and my heart rate dropped under cardiac arrest. We hit a creek crossing a few miles in and back up we went. I again had the heart rate way way up trying to hold on. We hit the top ans I wasn't dead so more singletrack to recover up till the 65 to 100 mile split. After the split we had a group of 5 that worked really well together. Coming up to mile 27 our first rest stop Darrin B goes blowing by us on the way back. We were crushed and wondering WTF. He was 14 miles ahead of us. Well we rode the lollipop and started heading back to our aid station up another huge hill. Stopped at the aid station eat a PBJ 4 hammergels and 2 five hour energies and we where off again. Man those forest roads sucked even more on the way back. At mile 55 we turned right and we were told it was all down hill from here. Ya right, 1 mile later we hit a giant climb and the rain started. With in 5 minutes it was pouring. Full thunder and lighting all around rain so hard you could not see straight. Now we started rolling tight( a river was running through it), singletrack that was flowing. I was loving it, the cold rain had the legs coming back to life. I started passing riders walking through these sections. Another guy joined my on the mudtastic adventure. We rolled over the bridge and onto the road to the finish. It rain left like hail riding that last mile into the headwind. 6:50:08, I was done with 65 miles.

Iola

Front shift pod busted 100 feet into the race and I did 3 laps in the little ring. The legs were still really tight from Cohotta and finally felt good in the middle of the last lap. I finished middle of the pack. Felt really good to see Don smiling and yelling GOOOOOOOOOOOOO. North Kettle 6 hour is next then Wausau.