Dawn Til Dusk...

So it all began as we loaded up the car this past Thursday and headed for Gallup, NM. April (my lovely girlfriend) and I grabbed all we could and headed down to an unknown 12 hour race I was sure I could go down to and win. I mean the preveous year's winner only did around a hundred miles in 12 hours, so naturally I usume they suck...not that the course could just be hard. Anyhoo, we arrive in Gallup late Thursday night and get a hotel sparing having to set up camp by moon light. Early Friday comes around and we make our way to the race staging area, hummm, strange, we seem to be the only two people out here. Waiting, walking, it appears as if the trail has not been ridden in quite some time. I decide to call the race director...Okay good, there is a race, just doesn't seem to be anyone here just yet. We walk the first three miles of the course and I am a little worried by how technichal the course is, not like dakota ridge, but a little more than I had wanted. By noon we go back to find others lingering in, we at this point are setting camp with only four others. I am feeling good, however, three out of the four are also on Single Speeds. Oh well, I guess that means I won't get a freebie! So now we are waking on race day to find that MANY others have made their way over night. Okay, so it appears there will be over 50 solo's and like 18 solo single speeds.
7am Saturday and off we go...the first race of the season and all laps need to be done by the 12hr mark to count. Lap one is under way, three miles in, wham...over the bars. Hustling to regain my position I am up and realizing I am not trained and need to go slow and steady if I want to see the end. Funny note, all the people that said the course was not technical had crashed out of the race by lap three, YIKES! My first two laps were in the 1:25 area, very good for the conditioning I am in. The race goes on as I keep seeing all the SS'ers buzzing by. I am happy I have kept moving but my spirits are taking a beating having to watch as the others fly by. So I make six laps and decide that there is no possible way to get two more laps but I try anyway. Starting up lap seven I get to the tent and sure enough I only have time for one more. Out I go pressing to get done, though I do understand this will be it for me. I came across the line finishing around 88 miles in 10:41ish hours/minutes. I got a little sick to want to go drink my way through the awards so I talk April into checking into a hotel and I am plenty proud of my first race results for 2006. So we drive back to Colorado Sunday, beat up and ready to rest. Once home I get on-line to find that race management had left my third lap out and that that means I did not get sixth like the results had stated. I called race management this am to find out what had happened and they were actually aware that a mistake was made but they were waiting to hear from me as they didn't know exactly what happened. So low and behold they are now saying they believe I ended up in third place for Solo SS class and that they would correct the results before giving them to the paper tonight at 9pm...they also said that I should look for my third place award in the mail sometime next week!! I really tried to do the stone proud, 3rd this time, first next!!
miSSionary