We went down Friday so we could practice and pre-run some like terrain on Sat. We went to Manchester National Forrest (9 miles south of the event start) and rode there. We had 2 casualties on Sat, one strained shoulder after a stuck throttle in deep whooped out sand trail and a break/dislocation that requires surgery. Those two rode home sunday, the other 5 of us pressed on to the race!
Instead of a hotel, I rented a house about 30 miles south of the event on Lake Marion in a gated community. 505 bucks for Fri through Monday morning and that included the cleaning fee, so 505 OTD, assuming you don't damage anything! Fully pimped out, wireless broadband, Dish network, flat screens, surround sound, awesome pad. 4 bedrooms, 2 garages, private boat ramp, dock and behind a large security gate. Only 3 houses on the peninsula for now, and the other two were empty, so we were the only folks there all weekend! The guy we rented from was way cool and had no issue with us working and wrenching on the bikes and stuff. I got the home through VRBO.com. I have been using them for years, try them next time you want to rent a vacation home form the owner for cheaper than a Holiday Inn rate!
Here is a shot of the house
Looking out the back deck, has a lower deck also with a fire pit
Sunrise on our private boat dock Sat morning!
Looks like it was made for me to ride on!
My Husky likes this dock! Took my bike down for a photo op!
The boys at dinner. We ate really good. Adam and Bill are awesome cooks!
Our pimped out living room.
So it was fast, it was fun. I finished 11th in my class (B50+). Considering this was a new bike I had 6 hours on, first race of the year with minimal practice, I am a fat ass and out of shape, I had a slight mechanical issue and still recovered and didn't hour out to finish, I am happy! My fuel pump popped out of it's mount in my tank and would no suck gas once I got to 1/4 of the tank and the bike finally died at 61.1 miles. I sat on the trail for 15 min in section 5 until one of my buddies showed up. I could not find a can or container to save my life, so I McGyvered it! I took my spare front tube and cut it, used it to drain gas into. Put about a qt in my bike and she fired up. Got me to the road, only .2 tenths from where I stalled! Marshall at the road had gas, he topped me off and I hauled ass to finish with a 162:26 (162 minutes 26 seconds late). SERMA used all "pauses" vice mileage resets, so that was cool. Awesome single track that WAS NEW, never used through the pine forests. Open and fast. Traction was killer except for the pine needles at times and sand berms could bite you if you came in too hot! Only bad places were 2 sections of "brush" about 8 feet tall and it was tight and full of face slappers. Those sections sucked, but not too bad.
Arrowed well, run well and weather was SUNNY and 82 with NO CLOUDS, only Blue Sky! What a race. And being up front on Row 9 was AWESOME. No clapped out, whooped out row 70+ trail for me. It was so open the pro's could just go by you like you were not even there. I am a believer in early rows, back of the pack blows as the trail gets pretty beat up 30-40 rows of 5!
Great race, a keeper and you guys would love it.
