014: bacon, tofu, and jerk

Everything hurts.

I guess that is somewhat to be expected. As a member of the C3 powered by bacon, tofu and jerk (3 man masters) team. I am pretty worked. I love racing at Marysville, I love the ideas and heart Mike Kuhn comes up with and makes happen at the farm. Thanks to Mike, his family, the visit pa team, and everyone that worked hard to make this rad weekend happen. That being said in all of the endurance team racing I have done, I don't think I remember a more challenging course that we raced on this weekend. It was relentless, but awesome and fun.

For those who haven't figured it out fatmarc = bacon, tofu = auer, jerk = jan.

Did i mention I am totally wrecked?



What follows will be my endless ramblings, and experiences from the race. This will likely get long. Get a cup of coffee and enjoy a little fatmarc time...

NIGHT Team Time Trial.
The night time trial during the Marysville race has always been one of my all time favorite events. This year added a new twist with the team time trial. Now this would present somewhat of a challenge for our team as Jan, Auer and I have distinctly different styles of mountain biking. We finally decided on an order and figured we'd stick to it for the entire course. I would lead to show Jan the lines, Auer would follow in case we boggled, and Auer is the strongest of us so if he got jammed by the slinky effect, he could chase back on. Sometimes it sucks being the strongest.

We took off strongly, and hit the woods. A big log jammed us up a bit, but we were talking to each other and were able to calm ourselves down, and get back to our flow. We were moving along at a very nice clip. Then it happened. Jan's light died. Later talking to Bill Gentile I would explain that we lost a light during the ttt. He asked if it was one of his, I replied no way, it was a lights and motion, which I lovingly refer to as the "50/50" light, as in every time I race at night there is a "50/50" chance that the light will work. Bill laughed his ass off.



But I digress, when Jan's light died, I figured we were done. Jan stated, "keep going we can do this, keep me on your wheel, Auer stay close." From there on in it was like my favorite Speed racer episode, you know the one where Speed goes blind in a crash and Racer X has to give instructions as to speed so he can drive:

"180 degree corner"
"quick up coming"
"big log"
"big log that you could break your collar bone on"

The final field opened up and we raced across the line. Truth is we were stoked. Clearly we would have been better off with all our lights, but once down a light it really made us work together and focus. When the results were posted we were even more stoked as we took the 3 man masters class. Overall 3 man teams we were second by just :30. Not to shabby for a team with just 2 lights!

Fast Forward Juniors
Just wanted to gives some props to the FFJD team who we camped with this weekend. Zach has really put together a super group. Now I probably dropped too many f-bombs; told an inappropriate story of two; I did my best to not walk around the campsite naked. No juniors were hurt during the camping at the FFJD/C3 compound. It was really wonderful to get to hang out with such a great group: Jake, Gunnar, Kyle, Jenny, Madison, and of course C3's own Sam the hammer who is used to our hi-jinx. Can't forget Don, one of the programs senior juniors.


Perhaps the best line of the weekend from the compound was this exchange:

Gunnar, "so how cold are the showers?"

Jan, "about 1/2 an inch..."



I also need to point out what a great group of parents; supportive and cool. I want to start a Randy Bergy Fan Club; dude is super clutch.

12 hours on the Farm.

So despite the code which says the youngest rider starts off the race, which would have been me, we decided to send Auer first. Our reasoning was simple, Auer is a triathlete, and a pretty good runner. His effort had him to the bikes second and not breathing hard at all following the Lemans style start. Similar efforts by me would have resulted in cardiac arrest, and certain doom.



Our plan was pretty simple, don't try to set the world on fire, go out put in consistent hard laps and let the cards land as they May. Auer ignored this to some point putting in 2 of his laps in sub 50 minute times. Jan and I kept our laps in the 50-53 range for the most part. Our plan worked pretty well; at 3:00 we had a 9 minute lead. By 5:00 we had grown it to 16 minutes. When I started my 5th and final lap at a little past 8:00, I hit the course determined to get Jan out for a 5th lap, and with the knowledge that we had built up our lead to just shy of a half hour. Although I did come up just 2 minutes short of getting Jan out for that 5th lap, he did have to kit up and sweat it out a bit for the count down. I was a little heart broken as I turned the final corner and saw all zeros on the timing clock; but that was pretty short lived as Matt put a beer in my hand and we celebrated our victory a little bit.


perfect photo bomb of Jake who did 9 laps ...



I'll be honest I knew we had a rock solid team, I also knew that if we rode cleanly, and stuck to our guns we'd have some success this weekend. I wasn't sure it would end up as well as it ended up, but hell I don't see W's too often, I'm not going to complain. The Lowe Riders are a great team, and those guys really kept us honest. Props to them. I know they have had a lot of success in the MASS XC series this year, and should I decide to return to XC next season, I fully expect those boys will be slapping me around pretty well out there.

Wes has gas:




COOL PRIZES THROUGH OUT THE DAY.
Kuhn and company did a great job of putting up preems all day. They would offer a preem for whoever came in closest to a given hour, if two teams were headed out at the same time they offer a preem for whoever won the lap. Fun, cool stuff like that. I won a preem when I came in closest to 1:00 as I rolled through on Carolyn Popovich's wheel, showing her the respect she deserves by not jumping her at the line. Following her in made me the closest to 1:00 and gave me the prize. Showing respect is always proper. A big Win for me as I picked up a number of Beef Cake supplements that I am sure will help push me over the edge and finally make the Clydesdale class.

I was on the losing end of said preem when Gunnar, Kyle and I headed out at the same time. Those little bastards ganged up on me on the first climb and slapped me around pretty good. By the grace of god I was able to get back around Kyle, but Gunnar took that one. Be kind to juniors and how do they repay you? by slapping you around, UGH !



Perhaps my favorite was the lightest bike contest. Anyone who knows Jan knows that this was a contest that he had to win. With a twinkle in his eye that I thought was reserved for small children at Christmas time, Jan pulled the REBA off his bike between laps, returning his carbon fork to his set up, and set off for the weigh-in : 19.2 lbs was the winning weight. Jan's reward: a sweet bike scale, and the ever lasting knowledge the he truly is the world's biggest weight weenie.

this guy kept half wheeling me.

thanks...
First and foremost to my wife, who finished her vampire novel this weekend (not twilight), and made sure our team stayed on track. She made sure we ate, and I always had food waiting for me between laps. She was just clutch. We have something of a life less ordinary, and without her I know none of this would be possible. Thanks for everything.where all the magic takes place:



Thanks to my friends and sponsors: C3-athletes serving athletes, Henry's Bikes, Howard at Newark Bike Line.

Thanks to my great coach Chris Mayhew. I was sick and off the bike the first 14 days of the month, and frankly wasn't sure what I would be bringing to the table. Chris does a great job preparing me. He did a wonderful job of making sure I remembered how to ride a bike, but also make sure I was pretty fresh coming into the weekend. Those that follow fatmarc.com know that Chris and I have been working together for a few years now. Without a doubt in my mind, Chris has helped me improve as a cyclist, and any success I've had is in part a product of the energy he has dedicated and direction he has given to me. Thanks man.

Thanks to my clutch teammate Kris and Jan. A little over a week ago, I was in a really bad way, and gave these guys the option to opt out of the race. They wouldn't let me. This was something we had planned for a long time, and we were going to see this through to the end. I am truly lucky to be apart of such an awesome program such as C3-Athletes serving Athletes. That is not directed at just Jan and Auer, but all of my homies in Black.

Auer says welcome to the gun show:

Props...

To my friend Breyla-la who had a pretty disastrous ride in her comeback event a few weeks ago, and I know she was in that deep dark place that all racers get to from time to time: "this is fun!? Why the fuck am I doing this!?" But Amy dug in, she really showed some moxy and has put in two really good rides and two great results in the past couple of weeks. I don't know that she could have had tried to have more issues early in her race this weekend, but she never gave up, kept fighting to the end, and finished a well deserved 2nd on the day. Nice to see you with mojo again Amy; good on you.

thanks for reading. I'm going to pop some vitamin I, and take a hot bath.

respect.
fatmarc

Nikki:




nikki's rat tail



"I don't think i can play any other way but all out... i enjoy the game so much because I'm putting so much into it."