The Stewart Super Six Pack presented by...MTBNJ
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
mwlikesbikes
Well-Known Member
That was the most fun I had killing myself for 55 miles!!! Thank you for a great, memorable time. The beer sirens/cheering crew at the mid-point was a total morale booster. All the racers were super cool about passing and getting passed. My only regret was hitting a tree in a mud hole and busting my front brake lever with about 4-5 miles to go on my last lap. It's amazing how much you miss your front brake when it's gone.
I hope I didn't damage the trails too much by skidding my back wheel.
I hope I didn't damage the trails too much by skidding my back wheel.
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
What a great race! You all did a great job running it smoothly and the chili was fabulous! My only request is do not put the women out in the front next time. It was really difficult to move out of the way for EVERY rider as they stampeded by on the first lap. That and I am sure a lot of the guys were annoyed being held up. After the first lap, at least we were all spread out a bit more.
Well, I think I came in last or 2nd to last or something like that, but that's fine with me. Being my first endurance race, my goal was to ride the whole time and do as many miles as I could. I stopped for about a minute to swap Camelbaks, but did ride every other second of the day. I did 5 laps and was able to walk away (barely). The laps plus goofing around resulted in just over 55 miles which makes it my longest ride on the trails so I am quite happy.
Thanks Team Mtbnj, Luke for the pics and laughs, and the cheering babes whose enthusiasm never died.
I agree. I was so annoyed when me and Pearl came up on Mandi and said "hi" then when we came up on you ad said "hi" we were so mad :rollingeyes:
In all seriousness it's probably more of a pain for you ladies since you're not moving for one rider it's more like multipal trains of 4-5 riders at the start of the race like that.
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
plus 1 on both accounts
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
The MTBNJ crew are all a bunch of stinking liars!
NO WAY that was your first event!! You guys absolutely KILLED it!
Just an awesome day all the way around. The course was awesome, although in all the behind the scenes work you guys had going on, you may not been aware of one element -- turns out the course was a bit muddy. Yeah. There was, indeed, quite a bit of mud out there. Seriously, though, that didn't matter at all. It was well laid out, really well marked, and had a little bit of everything.
Personally, I had a mishap that eliminated any goal I may have had for the day. I blew out my tire a few miles into the 3rd lap, ripping the sidewall open a little bit. It took me over 20 minutes to replace the tube because it was so slick from all the mud, and it was poking through the tire a little bit even with lower pressure. ChrisRU stopped by to help and took my old tube so I didn't have to carry it (Thanks, Chris! It was great to meet you!) Once I got going again, it was a weird combination of chase/resignation -- stopping for that long didn't do wonders for my legs. And I moved through the rest of that third lap pretty quickly, but was always waiting for the blowout and probably cooked myself a bit for later on. I decided I'd just keep riding until it blew out again and then if that happened, my day would be over. It never did! I spent most of my fourth lap pacing with Rob May (he's the guy with the Surly Pugsley with the balloon tires -- another PA guy.) And by the fifth lap, the chasing caught up with me. I was feeling it pretty bad after a few of those short power climbs up the rocks, and just hoped my legs would hold on to get back. I sucked down about four gels in that lap alone and it worked just enough to have me feeling somewhat human again as I hit the Start/Finish. The lady in the MTBNJ jacket said something like "You can do another one." So I just said, "Ohhhh-kay." And just kept going. That sixth lap was ... hmmmm ... long. I was climbing at about 2 mph and cursing my decision to run the 18T. As crappy as I felt, I decided I just want to get through my last lap and be done in under 7 hours. I thought that was reasonable -- it gave me about 1:15 to do the lap, which allowed me walking time on the bigger hills. And I made it! Ultimately, couldn't chase back to the top ten, but made a run at it -- after losing a total of about 23 minutes, I managed to get back to 12th place. Felt like a gift because I was happy just to get a chance to do 3 1/2 more laps with a ripped sidewall!
Best parts of the day: the beer and babes station. Every time I passed through there, it seemed there were more people and more screaming. It cracked me up to come into this wall of noise every lap. Those girls were AWESOME! Also, every time I passed Luke with his camera, he'd just start laughing, which cracked me up, too. I kept wondering how freakishly muddy I must have looked to make him laugh every time. Finally, that section of rollers just passed the swamp section was super fun all day long -- fast, and flowy like a roller coaster every time.
Thanks again to everyone from MTBNJ! You guys gave us all a great day to remember. It was nice to put some faces with usernames -- got to meet Capers (again), Matty and Chris. (And by the way, Matty -- LOVE the orange on that Misfit!)
NO WAY that was your first event!! You guys absolutely KILLED it!
Just an awesome day all the way around. The course was awesome, although in all the behind the scenes work you guys had going on, you may not been aware of one element -- turns out the course was a bit muddy. Yeah. There was, indeed, quite a bit of mud out there. Seriously, though, that didn't matter at all. It was well laid out, really well marked, and had a little bit of everything.
Personally, I had a mishap that eliminated any goal I may have had for the day. I blew out my tire a few miles into the 3rd lap, ripping the sidewall open a little bit. It took me over 20 minutes to replace the tube because it was so slick from all the mud, and it was poking through the tire a little bit even with lower pressure. ChrisRU stopped by to help and took my old tube so I didn't have to carry it (Thanks, Chris! It was great to meet you!) Once I got going again, it was a weird combination of chase/resignation -- stopping for that long didn't do wonders for my legs. And I moved through the rest of that third lap pretty quickly, but was always waiting for the blowout and probably cooked myself a bit for later on. I decided I'd just keep riding until it blew out again and then if that happened, my day would be over. It never did!
I spent most of my fourth lap pacing with Rob May (he's the guy with the Surly Pugsley with the balloon tires -- another PA guy.) And by the fifth lap, the chasing caught up with me. I was feeling it pretty bad after a few of those short power climbs up the rocks, and just hoped my legs would hold on to get back. I sucked down about four gels in that lap alone and it worked just enough to have me feeling somewhat human again as I hit the Start/Finish. The lady in the MTBNJ jacket said something like "You can do another one." So I just said, "Ohhhh-kay." And just kept going. That sixth lap was ... hmmmm ... long. I was climbing at about 2 mph and cursing my decision to run the 18T. As crappy as I felt, I decided I just want to get through my last lap and be done in under 7 hours. I thought that was reasonable -- it gave me about 1:15 to do the lap, which allowed me walking time on the bigger hills. And I made it! Ultimately, couldn't chase back to the top ten, but made a run at it -- after losing a total of about 23 minutes, I managed to get back to 12th place. Felt like a gift because I was happy just to get a chance to do 3 1/2 more laps with a ripped sidewall!Best parts of the day: the beer and babes station. Every time I passed through there, it seemed there were more people and more screaming. It cracked me up to come into this wall of noise every lap. Those girls were AWESOME! Also, every time I passed Luke with his camera, he'd just start laughing, which cracked me up, too. I kept wondering how freakishly muddy I must have looked to make him laugh every time. Finally, that section of rollers just passed the swamp section was super fun all day long -- fast, and flowy like a roller coaster every time.
Thanks again to everyone from MTBNJ! You guys gave us all a great day to remember. It was nice to put some faces with usernames -- got to meet Capers (again), Matty and Chris. (And by the way, Matty -- LOVE the orange on that Misfit!)
The start order is to my credit/blame. When race day came I just said: F it, I'm starting people in the order they were numbered to make scoring easier (100s subtract 1 minute, 200s subtract 2, etc). No matter what way you run it, people are going to get gummed up. Jane would have had to pass 100 racers on the first lap if I started the women last. So it's a tough call. Maybe next time you all go at once!
Good suggestion on the pit area. This was a good/bad situation I guess. I loved that it turned into a bit of a fun-party-shantytown but I also see how it would be tough for racers who wanted to cruise through. We'll work on that for sure. Controlling planned chaos. I guess they manage it at a cross race so we'll take it from there.
I'm stoked to hear that people had a good time. You guys cannot possible thank the volunteers enough. They did an incredible job out there yesterday. Thanks to them, because they rocked!
Awesome time yesterday! Congrats to everyone who was out there suffering! This was the first time I have ever been to a race and didnt actually race. I had a great time riding around fixing bikes and trying to keep people sprits up.
Shoogs, glad that we were able to get you going again. After seeing that crankarm, I thought you may have been sol.
Shoogs, glad that we were able to get you going again. After seeing that crankarm, I thought you may have been sol.
rlb
Well-Known Member
+1 I want to be recognized as a celebrity at my local shopping malls/my living room, even though I didn't actually participate
rocknrollgirl
Well-Known Member
Yes, we scoring girls were not taking no for an answer. Anyone that was talking about stopping got an offer of our food, some soda, wasabi peas, a group hug....
Some riders did not even get a choice, they tried to stop and we just yelled...ONE MORE LAP!!!!
Fun times....
Some riders did not even get a choice, they tried to stop and we just yelled...ONE MORE LAP!!!!
Fun times....
mandi
Well-Known Member
Awesome day, awesome people. Thanks to every single volunteer that came out and cheered! I couldn't have been happier to see the "beer" sign, and I don't drink beer. You ladies were awesome. Lisa was flawless with getting me my fresh camelback, Robin was always ready with the camera, and thank you Allison for giving me your energy bar! You don't understand how nice it was to CHEW something.
Chris from Halters is the man (but I already knew this, he IS my bike mechanic after all) for donating his time all Sunday to helping people & keeping us entertained. He even sang "it's peanut butter jelly time" for me.
I didn't mind the men passing, because I knew it was going to happen... and fast. When I saw them coming I let them know the left was all theirs. I rode in the grass A LOT. At times I even stopped on the side of the trail for a few minutes. But that is okay because this was a 6 hour race... I didn't need to feel rushed. (Plus, I got to yell at a lot of my friends as they raced by.)
Awesome getting to ride & chat with so many people. Loved hearing someone I knew scream my name from behind me (and a lot of people I didn't know)... especially because I knew they were lapping me! I couldn't think of a better way to spend 50 some miles in the woods. Thanks MTBNJ!
Chris from Halters is the man (but I already knew this, he IS my bike mechanic after all) for donating his time all Sunday to helping people & keeping us entertained. He even sang "it's peanut butter jelly time" for me.
I didn't mind the men passing, because I knew it was going to happen... and fast. When I saw them coming I let them know the left was all theirs. I rode in the grass A LOT. At times I even stopped on the side of the trail for a few minutes. But that is okay because this was a 6 hour race... I didn't need to feel rushed. (Plus, I got to yell at a lot of my friends as they raced by.)
Awesome getting to ride & chat with so many people. Loved hearing someone I knew scream my name from behind me (and a lot of people I didn't know)... especially because I knew they were lapping me! I couldn't think of a better way to spend 50 some miles in the woods. Thanks MTBNJ!
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Was that you at the finish? That was hilarious. I was afraid to even think about stopping! There was an older guy who was saying he was thinking about it and you yelled that he had to let you know. And then I came through and you looked at me for like one second and just said "You've got another lap" or something like that. I was afraid you'd beat me up if I said I wanted to stop.
walter
Fourth Party
It's all been said. Good times yesterday! Congrats to all my friends and folks who put in serious efforts! Thanks to Norm, Jake and Steve for throwing this thing and thanks to the Mtbnj riders and Chris from Halters for all the support! The girls, Luke, the after party were all good times!
Glad to help!! All you racers did awesome! It's easy to say "Just one more lap!" when you've been sitting in a chair for 6 hrs.
beer siren here...
for some of us, it was our first time being a siren and i just want to thank everyone for all their wonderful words about the beer and water chicks... we had such a great time cheering for everyone and helping out as best we could... i'm sure you guys will see me at future races helping out
and to everyone who raced-- you guys did an amazing job! quite frankly, i don't know how any of you survived all that mud!
(insert cow bells and vuvuzela horns and siren cheers here)
--Joy
for some of us, it was our first time being a siren and i just want to thank everyone for all their wonderful words about the beer and water chicks... we had such a great time cheering for everyone and helping out as best we could... i'm sure you guys will see me at future races helping out
and to everyone who raced-- you guys did an amazing job! quite frankly, i don't know how any of you survived all that mud!
(insert cow bells and vuvuzela horns and siren cheers here)
--Joy
maddawg
Member
Mom
Dr. Hott
"Beer Siren- festoon that man!"
Joy is totally rockin' the "Off" insect repellant medallion like Flava Flav.
Thank you, Robin, for the warm and dry socks, shoes, and for giving my bike a lift back. This lady totally saved my day (and my purple feet)!
Mandi, no problem with the protein bar, you looked miserable and I wish that I'd had an extra pair of legs for you. I trust that the bar worked good enough. in the future, I'll carry snickers bars- they taste better than Clif Protein bars.
Joy is totally rockin' the "Off" insect repellant medallion like Flava Flav.
Thank you, Robin, for the warm and dry socks, shoes, and for giving my bike a lift back. This lady totally saved my day (and my purple feet)!
Mandi, no problem with the protein bar, you looked miserable and I wish that I'd had an extra pair of legs for you. I trust that the bar worked good enough. in the future, I'll carry snickers bars- they taste better than Clif Protein bars.