Eric

No doubt, What an epic ride! It was way too humid and way too wet, but the sun came out at about 12pm and became wayyyyy too hot... and even more humid... I had a hell of a day out there.... Started the trail at 7am, wanted to get a head start on the crowd. I planned on doing only one lap but wanted to make sure that I could finish in the 4.5 hour time frame... Started off on a great pace, in the roughest part of the trail, went over the handle bars twice (damn rocks) where my front wheel planted (snipers) and did not roll forward (hate it, when that happens-- need more bike head angle). licking my wounds, headed forward, ran into many riders at this time that started from the Dam and were riding counter clockwise. I made it to the DAM, still on a 3.45 hour pace, feeling somewhat OK, but drenched from the humidity, I had plenty of water and food and some tunes to keep me going. Made it to the other side of the Dam, and thought maybe I should top off my water at Cedar Breaks park. Naw, I will be fine... (wrong).... The relentless rock gardens kept me on my toes, climbing up and around the south side of the lake really started to take its toll on me. My legs and lungs were fine, but my upper body strength was having problems (damn rocks). Had to stop at the water hole (natural springs) and cool off, chill out and catch my snap.. About this time the guys that started at 8;15AM passed me, going very fast, I thought ' how the hell can you go that fast out here??' OK ready for more of this hellish ride. I could feel the light mist of rain in between the trees, not too bad, I can do this, but the more I rode the wetter the rocks became, front tire slipping right, slipping left and in between, the mud stated to get heavy on the tires... On ward, further down the trail, I ran into the same guys that started from the dam going CCwise, they all huddled up trying to get out of the rain and rest up before the rocky hell that lay in front of them... as I past them, I thought, I am glade to not be going that way, happy that it was behind me.... but little did I know what was in front of me.... Starting to make many stops to rest and mistakes in judgement on the trail, due to the pace that I had set in the beginning. Realizing that I was not going to hit my 4.5hour goal as I was 2.5 hours in and only half way around the lake.. Fatigue was setting in and my mind started work against my body, why the hell did I think I could ride this in that amount of time???? Keep pedaling, the flats are coming up and it is all down hill from there, no more rocks... made it to the stair climb, had no gas in the tank, it took everything I could to get up to the top of the staircase pushing my bike.. Made it back down and was thinking I am home free, I can do this, Wrong, body said no way... Cramp city, started to fill light headed and ran out of water (damn rocks), but I had an ace up my sleeveless jersey, buried deep in my Camel back, I had two small packs of mustered and hot sauce from Taco Bell, also found a small bottle of Pickle Juice.... Score!!!! After resting, taking shots of Pickle Juice and Hot Sauce, I felt renewed and thinking I could do this, just a little bit more to the park to refill my water bag and then jeep roads back to the Russell Park, all went as planned, until I had to climb up from the jeep road, thru the rocks back to Russell Park. The sun was out, it was about 12pm and the heat/humidity started to get really bad....This is a short 1.5 mile trail but it took me over an hour to get thru, my body was spent, the PJ and Taco Bell special had long passed, happy that it got me this far but i needed more... I stopped at the bottom of the climbs as well as the top of each, hating all of the rocks that I hit on the way up.. my arms were throbbing in pain..... Finally made it back to the car, I lay on the ground in front of my car thinking, never again...... It took me 6 hours to complete just one lap, I have ridden this trail before, only in the Winter, never in the Summer, previous times were about 5 hours. Glade this ride is in the past and humbled by all the riders that can do one lap under the 4.5 hours time limit.. I cannot understand why anyone would want to do a second or third lap, pure hell.... Good luck to all, thank you for letting me vent....... https://www.relive.cc/view/e1191064516

Guys, I drove in Dallas to ride the trail, I am riding rain or shine... Eric