9 hours of cranky monkey...

Sunday, I took my fixed gear bicycle out for the first time in 2 years.

Diane, sanded and painted some deck furnature.

Pretty peaceful day.

Saturday, well saturday was a 20 hour day.

Kid Chris, Monkey and I were a 3 person co-ed team in the 9hr Cranky Monkey race at Rocky Gap State Park in Flinstone, Maryland. Our team was named C3- Honey Badger Don't Care. The venue was 3.5 hours away, so we were up at 4:30 and off for western maryland.

The venue was beautiful and the 8.5 mile course was fast, technical and challenging. The first three miles were fast and twisty with lots of rooty trails and a sweet little rocky garden or two. From mile 3 to 5 you were basically climbing with a couple of steep ups, and a couple of tricky  rock sections, the effort was rewarded with a ripping down hill, to the final 2 miles of the course which was fast, smooth, flowing single track. Super fun course with the fastest lap being a 34 and some change. (from Single Speed Super Star Montana- super nice guy too!)

We set up a little camp with Blake and Travis, who were both racing solo. Blake did 6 laps finishing 6th in the open women's class, and did 10 laps, finishing 3rd in the 35+ solo class.

Kid Chris lead off for us. Here Blake, Travis and Chris get ready for the lemans start.

Chris didn't know he was running.

As always it was great to see Mayhew, who was racing with Tille and Shieken.

Tille with the SWEET new hope Jersey...

 They finished 2nd in the 35+ men trio I believe. Chris really is a great teacher, and he was very helpful providing Monkey and I some pre-race information on the course.

During my second lap, I was riding with Mayhew, and we were move through the track pretty well, when we came upon Chris Mcgill. Chris won the 35+ solo class by putting in only 12 laps. I tried to make a cheeky pass, and ended up hooking my bar end on a tree and going ass over tea cups. Fortuneatly, this was my biggest hic up on the day. Thanks to the Chris for not laughing at me!

Chris is not checking his junk before putting in 12 laps.

Diane, Chris and I had devised a plan that we figured would give us a shot at getting 12 laps in, which we felt would give us a good shot to win our class.  We had a few minor issues along the way, one of which involved the emt squeezing chris's ass instead of trying to clean out his cuts, and  gravel from his skin after a little crash, but I digress. We had a plan, but came up 10 minutes short of fulfilling it to it's fullest extent and getting out for a 12th lap. The Evolution Cycling p/b Long and Foster, took the lead early on, and despite our best efforts, got that 12th lap in and took the win. Cheers to Randy Root, Alex Mata and Katy Curran for their efforts and the win.

Okay, we don't have the proper podium attire on, wonder if we'll get a fined from the team director for improper uniform?

Thanks to the kind folks from Pittsburgh Pro Bike/Trek of Pittsburgh/Team CF of Pittsburgh, who camped out next to us and were kind enough to help us out of a jam. It would seem that Diane and I brought our Jet Boil but no propane, so we couldn't cook our food. Our neighbors were kind enough to boil up some water for us. I have to be honest everytime I see the Pittsburgh Crew, I am totally impressed. Just seems like whether it's cross or mtb or anything these are really good people...

A little after midnight, in the pouring rain, which thank god we never saw during the race, Diane, Chris and I pulled into the driveway back home. It had been 20 hours since we left, and a pretty exhausting and wonderful race day for sure.  We sat in the car for a few seconds, waiting to start a furious unload in the storm. When Diane offered this, " for the record,  you guys had like an 1:30 of recovery between laps, I only had 1:20 or so... just saying..."  We laughed, and started our furious unload...

thanks for reading.

respect
fatmarc