Separation of Men and Boys

I now realize how much younger my body was 15 years ago. The Wigwam MTB Challenge really separated the men from the boys. Believe me, although I am 32 years of age, I was not only a "boy" when it came to this race, I was a "baby".

First off, let me appologize for having no pictures but I was much more concerned with staying alive and not "angrifying" any of the elite racers with my slow pace and lack of singletrack knowledge.

With that being said, everything started out pretty normal. Ascending a paved road to one of the higher points of the course. Then through a nice wide open off road area. "Take the best line", I kept telling myself. Back onto a paved parking lot. Wow, if this is as hard as it gets, I've got this thing licked.

We stopped and got the group back together. Don (the clinic leader and race director) told everyone that this was where the real singletrack started. Ok, I can handle that. Pedal, pedal, pedal, LOG! Whew, that was close. Ok I'm bleeding now. I think it's time to take this a little more seriously.

Listen to Don. He'll help everyone through this. Now we're entering Witches Hollow. Switchbacks...going down hill. Wasn't prepared for that, but at least I didn't fall off. A little muddy down here in the hollow. Slippery too. Whoa, stay on the trail not in the creek (yet).

Now it's time to go in the creek. Some people had enough sack to do it. I was not among them. Up hill out of the hollow. Through the mud. Not prepared for that. I walked my bike for the first time. Got out of the hollow.

Nice ride along the lower river. Pretty easy going (or I was just getting used to this offroad stuff). All of a sudden we stop. There's a group of people stopped, some from my group of first timers, some not. I asked some guy what we we're all waiting for. And he replied "to do the equalizer". I then looked straight ahead and realized that the part of the woods that I thought we surely wouldn't be stupid enough to ride through, was in fact where everyone was going. I tell you this, that hill was at a 60 degree angle if it was a foot tall. I made it 3/4 of the way up, and it felt tlike my bike was going to flip over backwards.

From there the group was back together, and we had a nice run back to the finish line. That 5 mile course was as taxing as doing 50 miles on the road. I am still rather sore as I right this some 40 hours later. Would I do it again? Hell yes!

Thanks to Don Edberg and everyone at WORS for making this fun and non-threatening for a 30 year old virgin (so to speak). Once some pics are posted of the race from yesterday, I'll try to provide a link to the WORS site.

Pedal through it

Craigers