1st post. What the hell could I possibly write that anyone would think was even remotely interesting? Spent the weekend at Ocala, Florida participating in the 12 Hours of Santos race. I did the 6 hour solo event - my first endurance race. Got in under the cutoff time by 1 minute so I was able to get in one more lap in excruciating cramping pain in every muscle of my legs. Yee friggin haw. I had already done the last 3 of 6 laps in ridiculous pain but I kept pedaling and was amazed I made the cutoff so I figured I might as well do that last lap. I stopped for about 20 minutes where we had the water and food table setup along the course and took my time, but I was the last racer to make the cutoff so I wasn't in danger of getting passed and I certainly wasn't going to be catching anyone ahead of me. I limped around the last 8.5 mile lap and finished 28th out of 95 - with another 15 Elite riders ahead of me, but I'm counting them as another class altogether. Those guys ended up doing 9 laps. 7 laps for me in my first endurance race is pretty awesome, but I'm not feeling all that awesome and I'm thinking I'm not going to be doing a lot of these events. You're basically paying to torture yourself. I'll probably do events like this on a team. The team riders do a lap at a time over the course of 12 hours so there's some night riding involved, but you get about 3 hours rest in between laps so you can really haul ass on every lap. That's the kind of racing I like.

I went out too fast and put in some good lap times for the first 3 laps, but then the cramps hit and never went away. The fact that I did 4 laps in immense pain just goes to show how stupid human beings can be when we let our egos take over and ignore our bodies. A smarter rider would have quit on the 5th lap. But I'm proud that I rode 60 miles on a hard trail. I just won't be doing it again for quite a while.

The best part was the hanging around the fire the night before and the night of the race. I will avoid the beers next time the night before the race, and probably double up on my intake the night after. If for no other reason than to numb the pain. Carolyn is a female rider who is so good - and so HOT - and on top of all that she's really cool and nice and I'm SO in love, but she's married so I keep it to myself. It was nice that she hung out with us around the fire after the 6 hour race. Yeah, she beat me, but only by about 45 minutes - 20 of those minutes I was sitting in a chair contemplating doing the last lap. Anyway, she's a great rider and she's nice and hot and I consider myself lucky that I was able to show off my mad pyromaniac skeelz with the fire while she was hanging out with us. Hey, ya gotta put your best foot forward and I'm a much better pyro than rider. I'm sure she was very impressed. And the delusion continues.

So I'm getting ready to sleep in my own bed after two fitful nights of sleep in "the pit" - the bottom of an old limestone mining pit which has the Vortex trail built around it's rocky rim. My legs are screaming at me, but I'm still hoping to ride Quiet Waters tomorrow after work. This blog is about work, but you won't see much actual discussion about it. I design book covers for a publishing company and I like it. I also do some freelance graphic design work. That covers that.

We'll see if I feel at all motivated to continue posting. For anyone who would stumble across this and actually read it, well, you really do have WAY too much time on your hands.