Thunderdown In The Underdown

True to the title of the race we got just what it said, lots of Thunder in the Under. I was awaken to the lightning and thunder at 3am and it continued to pour until about 6am. I feared the worst, a day of slogging around in the cold and mud. The day stayed very cool, cloudy and damp, but the course was perfect. I have never seen a trail take so much water and produce no mud. The race was epic in size, my first lap was 90 min long and quickly moved to 2 hours. I picked a 34x20 for this one and discovered that I had chosen poorly. I could have run a 22 and been set for the day, so miserable was this gear that I contemplated stopping and changing, but decided to just suck it up and muscle it out for the day. By 4pm the sun came out and burned off the dampness. I came alive again and started dropping 20min off my lap time. With a final lap and a couple hours to go, I put on my lights and headed out, how great to ride in the dark on a 12 hour course. I commend Chris for not shortening the race as it really added to the event. In the end I finished 1st and 3rd overall and 1st in the series so I am fairly happy with getting my season back from the brink. This is it for me until next year or possibly until this winter if I head west to race, but for now I'm just planning on getting my self rehabbed and ready for another pounding next season.
I had to go to this race, I mean the winner gets a growler of beer, you can't beat that. Thanks again to Chris for putting on a fantastic race.

The worse part of racing marathons, the clean up. This is still sitting in my garage today ready for scrubbing.