2012 6 Hours of Warrior Creek

I attended the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek with the Cool Breeze/Trek Bike Store Team.  I was a last minute addition to Layla’s team.  She was at the Charlotte Youth Cycling League races and asked if I wanted to be part of a duo team. 

I met up with Layla, Martin, Franci, Dave, Rob and George in the Cool Breeze Cyclery parking lot and we hit the road at 7.  The Race Director reserved us a spot right at the Start/Finish.  Frank and Jon were there when we arrived and we set up our Pit.  We put up both shop tents, a table, some chairs and one bike rack and were ready to roll.

It was decided – or I decided – that Layla could take the first lap.  I was thinking the course was going to be muddy after all the rain we received the previous week and I used the excuse that Layla had registered the team so she got to go first by default.  The mountain bike race started promptly at 10.  The first lap had about two extra miles of campground roads before the riders hit the trail.  Layla had a strong first lap.

I started my lap and realized real fast that the trail was crazy fast.  I overshot several of my first turns until I adjusted to the trail.  Warrior Creek is a great trail.  It’s nothing but up and down, turn after turn.  There aren’t any sections where you can settle in and just ride.  I was having a great time and had plenty of ‘rabbits’ to keep me motivated.  I checked my heart rate only to realize I was racing.  I’m pretty sure my HR was about 165 for the whole lap.

I saw Dave on the towards the end of my first lap.  I caught him and a group of about 7 guys right before one of the climbs. They were kind enough to let me by one by one.  I worked my way up by passing on the inside of the switchbacks and the guys were more than happy to let me by. 

After that, it was full gas  to the finish line.  Total time for the first lap was approx 1:01 for 12.66 miles. 

Layla had a much stronger 2nd lap and was back to the pits.  The crazy part was about 10 minutes before I headed up to the pits, I just happened to check my front tire’s pressure and it was half full of air.  I run tubeless tires and was able to determine that I had a small hole in the sidewall.  Unfortunately, the Stan’s wasn’t sealing the hole so I had to put a tube in the tire.  Nothing like a flat to take your mind of the next lap.

I hit the trail again and was off.  Because the race had been going on for about 4 hours at this point, I had long stretches of trail that were just to myself.  I was just rolling having a blast.  But i could tell that going hard was taking it’s toll on my legs.  They started burning on the small steep climbs.  And of course, at about mile 4 I went to grab some water only to learn that I had lost my water bottle.  No problem, I knew Jasen and Franci had started in front of me and I hoped to catch one of them to get some water.

The only problem with this theory is that they were running great.  I managed to catch Franci after mile 8 and she gave me one of her bottles which saved me.  The rest of the lap was just pure fun.  I was catching solo riders and was so glad I was racing on a duo team.  I couldn’t imagine racing Warrior Creek Solo.

Everyone finished up and had a great time, although they looked very tired.  Layla and I finished 6th in the Duo Coed class.  There were no major injuries or crashes, just some trashed tires and tubes.

The Cool Breeze/Trek Bike Store team had great representation at the race and I’m sure we are all looking forward to next year!