I raced the Cowbell Challenge Mtn. Bike Marathon  this weekend.  This event is held in beautiful Davidson North Carolina, to support Cancer Research and other causes.  This was a very well run event, and a lot of fun, despite some logistical and weather related challenges.   I was fortunate to have Sinead and Eoin come down for the race, to act as my support.  We arrived in Davidson around 8:00 PM friday night, checked into our room at the HomeWood Suites, where we took advantage of the awsome Suite deal worked out with the race organizers.  After checking in, we went to the course to walk a little of it, and set up our tent.


Saturday Morning started early.  The race format was 6 loops of an 8 mile Mtn. Bike course, preceeded by a 6 1/2 mile ride to the start of the singletrack.  My class took off at 10:00 AM, with the Pro Women and Pro Men Categories.  I thought the start was going to be really chaotic, so I decided to hang back towards the end of the pack, as to not get caught up in any crashes, which I didn't.  The ride to the start of the singletrack was fast and furious on greenway rolling through the town and hills of Davidson; an absolute beautiful ride from what I can remember.

When we arrived to the single track, I kept going.  My plan was to stop every 2nd lap to refuel,  So I completed 2 laps and felt pretty good.  It was starting to get hot, and I kept forcing myself to drink.  However as the heat turned up, my appetite diminished.  I stopped after 2 laps, refilled with water, energy drink, food and had a coke.  After a 5 minute break, I felt pretty good.  I set out for 2 more laps.  Lap 3 went well, but lap 4 was difficult.  By this stage, my lack of eating and not drinking enough had caught up with me.  There were times I could have easily fallen asleep while riding the bike.  All I wanted to do was stop and lie down.  I did stop a few times, to force myself to eat a gu and drink, but it was rough getting back to the transition area.  This was definitely my slowest, most challenging lap.

Finally making it back to transition, I came to our pit, and Sinead and Eoin were there...It was Great to see them!  I sat down on the lawn chair, and downed a bag of lay's chips, 32 ounces of Gatorade, a coke and a few shortbread cookies, and started to feel human again.  So, after 15 minutes in the pit, for a much needed break, I set out for my last 2 laps of the course.  Lap 5 went well, I think it was my best timed lap, but when I crossed the finish, I had only 45 minutes to make the cutoff for lap 6 to count.  I knew I wouldn't make it, as I'd been averaging 1 hour lap times, and at this stage I had ridden 46 miles of single track.  However, I went and tried to finish lap 6 under the cutoff.  While on the course, I realized I didn't make the cutoff, but finished the lap anyway.  I think I was the last person on the course, but I had come there to ride 54 miles, and that's what I did.

Total ride time was 7 hours and 30 minutes, missing the 6 lap cutoff by 30 minutes.  I placed 8th in my category out of 29 starters.  My goal was to place in the top half, which I exceeded, so I was very, very happy with the day.