Being the least skilled rider in the group, I was excited and really nervous going into this. I've got over 20 years street riding experience, but I've only been riding dirt for two years and I've never raced before. I expected it to be hard and I was looking forward to pushing myself. It didn't disappoint, until it did. Trying to push myself on my first loop out I had more than a couple minor falls mostly due to my lack of experience of race condition trails (crazy rutted corners) and a couple of particularly slippery rooty sections. When it came to my second loop out I tried to keep it a little easier in the tighter single track and try and push myself only on the open fire roads. One particular turn wiped me out pretty badly and two other hard falls caused me to really take the last third of the course a bit slower than I wanted. After checking my injuries, they were a little worse than I had thought and I decided it was time to call it quits before I really hurt myself. Injuries and dreadfully slow lap times aside I had a great time and met some fantastic people!
Big thanks to everyone who gave me advice, stayed patient and picked up my slack when I DNF'd.
@Matt hooked us up with help from his friends and family. On top of putting up fast laps, when we were in need of something to cook dinner on Friday, he got us a gas grill in like 15 minutes while he was still at work!
@OneLapper for organizing this event and posting a crazy fast lap time at like 2AM in seriously dark woods and supplying a monster diesel generator to keep everyone charged. If you are going to do a race like this you should make sure
@wildman240 is on your team, he's a complete pit team all by himself, tools, parts, food, drinks, most importantly to me medical supplies, and more snacks than a commissary. Thanks to
@Philip for really trying to give me advice and improve my skills and putting some solid lap times in. Can't wait to see your goPro footage so I can relive the corners I wiped on. Last but not least big thanks to
@snydes who had to take what would have been my go out during torrential downpours at 4AM in the morning through a thoroughly wiped out and horribly rutted course.
All in all I probably won't compete in this event next year, but I had a great time and I WILL come back and actually finish this race. I feel I need to get a little more experience under my belt before I do that. I encourage anyone to try it, skilled or not, because even though it was hard, it was fun. So to sum up my injuries; blisters on both hands, minor cuts, some major bruises, a not-quite-dislocated shoulder, and a small hole in my knee. PSA: Wear protection! My dumbass could have prevented some of my injuries had I worn knee guards. There's your race inexperience right there, but I don't think that would have kept me from having to quit the race. You've got to know your limits, and I had passed mine. Last thanks to non-forum member Zack, Matt's friend who came to take pictures and video of us. That poor dude got terrible sunburn waiting at the last straight before the finish line to get some video of my sorry ass after I took twice as long as I'm sure he expected. Gnarly pics of my knees to come soon I'm sure.
edit:
I also want to apologize to the Alta community as whole for making the bike look so bad. Oh so bad. On the bright side EVERYONE got a chance to check out the Alta on a race course up close and personal as they passed me.
