Bear Hollow Hare Scramble…
Okay, so I had tried to get into dirt bike racing slowly. I tend to dive into whatever I am doing full tilt and I usually set myself up with high expectations. My plan was to do a hare scramble since it was described as most doubletrack and some singletrack if at all. Well this was on par with the most tech singletrack I have ridden at Browns and Duncans flats. But imagine riding that on the clock for an hour and half plus with 100+ other riders. My plan was to catch Matt (if I could) who started 1 minute in front of me and to pace him for a lap. Matt usually sets a pace that is comfortable for me. It sets a good rhythm for me to gain confidence and settles me down. Well a couple of minutes into my first lap I was passing guys a minute up on me and things were going well. After a mud hole I came upon a guy laying in the trail yelling that his leg was broke. I rode off the course and laid my bike down to help. I was amazed at how many people just passed right on by without giving any thought to help this guy. Luckily Ben stopped to help and we drug him off the course. Ben stayed long that I did but both of us did something that many, many other riders wouldn’t. I’m still amazed at that. I got back on my bike and started to catch and pass riders. Things were going good until the biggest and baddest climb of the course. I got knocked off line and stalled my bike. Getting restarted just SAPPED me of my reserve energy and things got worse. I started to make a lot of mistakes and wasted more and more energy that I didn’t have for some reason. Maybe it was the Lone Mtn ride on Thursday, maybe it was the trail scouting on Friday, maybe it was the DH runs on Saturday, or maybe it was the lack of food, or maybe it was the fact that I was just not physically ready for the pace that my brain tried to set. Either way I felt like I was going to black out at times and I got the chills at times, but I learned a lot that day about racing a 220 lb dirt bike. But it makes a 5 minute DH race seem like a stroll around the neighborhood. I congratulate Matt who got third in his class and Ben and Devin who seemed to handle it way better than I did. I’ll be better prepared for the next one. We had a good time and I wished I was more cognitive after the race to enjoy a beer with friends.
