Just Do It

     After Macon, I scrambled to get my wheel repaired as quickly as possible. It’s tough for us to get stuff done at the shop because not everyone carries Roval spokes so we have to go all the way down to MOAB in Franklin. I love that shop, but it is almost an hour and a half for us to drive down there so it's hard to fit that in on a full week of work. Luckily, I had a morning where I could go down and they were able to service it while I waited. Nashville traffic is getting awful so I avoid going through downtown during the morning hours and ended up taking the back way home from the shop through the Natchez Trace Parkway. I stopped at the massive bridge over Hwy 96 for a few pictures and just to get out of the car. That bridge is a marvel of engineering and one of the coolest things on the Trace. It was a cold week with snow flurries almost every day and the snow was coming down lightly as I walked around the bridge.

The bridge over Hwy 96 on the Natchez Trace Parkway

View from the top looking west down 96

     The SERC Series was set to open up this weekend in Newberry, FL, but we did not plan to go. It’s about a 10-hour drive for us on a good day. With it being Spring Break season, traffic is usually much worse and everyone in this area heads for Florida to get in some beach time. It really is amazing how many people from our area go to the beach. I would say 80%, maybe more, of the people that I know that traveled for Spring Break went to either Daytona, Panama City, Destin or Gulf Shores, AL for Spring Break. I am just not that fascinated by the beach. I’m a mountain man.

     My recent form and the cold week of riding on the trainer had me itching to get out of Tennessee and race. By Thursday I was thinking a 10-hour drive didn’t sound so bad. I did a super cold 18-degree mountain bike ride before work that morning and it really made me start considering how hard a trip to the Sunshine State would be. My stomach felt a little weird this week, but a good prescription of sunshine and bike riding can always help with that.

Frosty singletrack on my 18-degree ride

     By Thursday night I was 90% in. Shannon said she was up for the trip even though a two-day run to Florida makes for a rough Monday morning at work. We didn’t budget for this race, but I thought we could do it cheap if we camped and didn’t spend any money on food. Basically, just pay gas and entry fee. We asked Dina if she wanted to go, but she was not interested in doing the red-eye. We checked for hotels just in case the weather turned sour, but there was nothing to be found. The NCAA tournament was going on down the road in Orlando, Bike Week was in Daytona and the NHRA was having the Gator Nationals in Gainesville. Camping was looking like our only choice no matter what.

    After work on Friday, I decided the trip was a go. I got registered and packed up the car. We were on the road before 5am on Saturday. It was a surprisingly easy drive with almost no traffic at all, even in Atlanta. We were hoping to do some exploring and actually had time Saturday afternoon to stop by Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park in Gainesville before going over for a pre-ride at Haile’s Trails. Devil’s Millhopper is a sinkhole that has a rainforest ecosystem inside the hole. We hiked a short trail from the parking area to the hole and then took about 150 stairs down to the bottom of the hole. At ground level above the sinkhole it’s the typical Florida woods, full of huge live oak trees and groves of palmettos. As soon as you begin to descend below ground level the plants change to massive ferns and all sorts of bright green vines. It was very green for this time of year. The bottom of the hole was a swamp. During wetter times of the year it holds water and forms a small pond. I can’t imagine what the plants on the walls of the sinkhole would look like in the summer. It was already very green and jungle-like.

The path toward the sinkhole

Spanish moss overhead

Shannon reading the info signs on the way down the stairs

Ferns everywhere

The swampy bottom wasn't much more than a mud pit today

     It was a nice stop to loosen up the legs from 9+ hours in the car and definitely a sight worth seeing. I enjoyed seeing so much blue and orange on the people as we hiked. I’m a Florida Gator fan. It’s rare to see anything Gators at home, so it was a little weird to see Gator apparel on almost every single person we walked past. It’s one reason why I like coming to the Gainesville area.

     I didn’t feel great on my pre-ride of the course. I got out of the car with a headache and my legs felt really tired. I attributed it to the long car ride and figured I would feel better after some ride time, but I didn’t. My head was pounding and my neck was tight the whole ride, but I had a good time riding the loop with Shannon. I did two laps as it was a short course and had a lot of new features. The last part of the loop was all new trails. That had just been cut in and were not even fully packed yet. 

Bike ready along with the new self-feeding stick I made this week for those times when Shannon isn't there to give me a bottle

Interesting flowers along the race course. They were bright and very strong smelling. If anyone knows what they are called I'd like to know. Very unique.

First part of the course goes by this old house...

...and this old car.

Through the metal pipe that has been on every race course I have ridden here

First quarry lake on this year's course

Each climb rewards you with a lake view

Shannon in the spanish moss zone

     It was typical Florida with fast, roller-coaster trails. The newer parts featured some longer open sections and tougher climbs than the previous race courses we have had here. There are great views of small quarry lakes all over the course, but the newer sections had the most spectacular views. The lakes on that side were much bigger and the views from the trail were great. We didn’t see any alligators swimming in the lakes like when we came in 2011, but we did see plenty of turtles and ducks.

The course also crossed over the legendary Gatorback motocross course

The trail was running along this cliff next to a really deep quarry lake

     Shannon cooked us up some chili for dinner. It was a bit hotter than I thought and I ended up burning my tongue pretty good, which made the rest of dinner a lot less enjoyable. I got scalded, but Shannon was able to eat it with no problem. I don’t know how she can do that. She can eat food that is melting through a plate and take showers so hot they will melt the tub. I must just have sensitive skin outside and in.

     They only allowed RV camping at the race site and all we have is a tent. We ended up just throwing up the tent in a field and sleeping there since we couldn’t find a campground and really didn’t have the money to stay anywhere anyway. Shannon worked on my neck before bed and got it to loosen up. That took away my headache. We both actually slept really good for being in a tent in a random field. Shannon tested out a Klymit inflatable sleeping pad that her Mom gave us for Christmas and really liked it. I want to try it out next time we camp. If we can tolerate the pads as well as the cots we use now it would really save us a lot of packing space. These pads roll up into a small bag about the size of a bike water bottle.

     I was wandering around the course early Sunday morning and noticed a massive tree lying just off to the side of one part of the trail. It was a huge live oak that had split in half at its base. The halves fell in opposite directions, making for really long log. The branches of the tree were half in the ground, half out. Some went underground before coming back up above ground. The branches held the massive trunk up off the ground. I climbed up on top and walked across. The trunk was so wide it was like a sidewalk that was eight feet off the ground. The smooth curves of the branches heading down to the ground looked like massive slides. I felt like I was walking through the woods of the movie “Avatar.” It was a very cool find to start the day.

     The highlight of my race day was actually at registration. I got my #1 plate as defending champ of the SERC Series. It’s a red number plate, modeled off the points leader’s red plate in supercross. It is cool to be able to run the red plate all season, but it’s also a target. Everybody wants to beat the guy with the #1 plate.

My SERC #1 plate as defending series champ

     I felt pretty bad in my warm-up. My neck was still tight, my stomach hurt and my legs felt tired. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot for the race. We only had four Pro riders on the line, so we combined with the Cat. 1 19-39 class again for the start. The Cat. 1s had a holeshot award so that made for a fast start. I expected to be last to the woods, but I actually beat a few guys to the singletrack. The opening piece of tight, twisty trail was super fast. It may have been the fastest I have ever went through a trail that tight. Ryan Woodall was in front and he took the line of riders through this trail like a speeding train, borderline of out of control. At the first open section, I surprised myself again and not only stayed on the group across the field, but started to move up. By the time we reached the first hill, the other three Pro riders were at the front and pulling away. I was still trapped in among the Cat. 1s, but at least I was there and moving forward.

     Halfway through lap 1, I got clear of the Cat. 1s and moved to fourth overall. I could see second and third place ahead at about 20 seconds. I pushed hard to get across to them, but was still 20 seconds off third at the end of lap 1. Dustin White had managed to stay on my wheel and the two of us were rolling along together again just like last week in Macon. The 40-49 class came up to us as we started lap 2 of 4. Bob McCarty and Shaun Smith came by us like we were sitting still. Smith actually roosted out of one of the corners. They had already made up a minute on us and went right after putting another minute on us on lap 2. I was feeling better at this point, but had nothing for their pace. Dustin and I continued on together, pulling away from everyone behind, but still not closing down on third place. Since Dustin was in Cat. 1 19-39, we worked together where we could as it benefited both of us. Mose Howard caught us near the end of the lap. He was running third in 40-49 and also started to work with us. He finally dropped us coming in to the finish area. I seemed to have no legs every time we got to the final open stretch of the loop which met us with a big headwind.

Me late in lap 1

Bob McCarty leading the 40-49 train

Grant Wilson

Me leading Dustin White and Mose Howard on a descent off the motocross track

photo by Jess Edens

     Third place was farther ahead on lap 3, but I kept chasing with everything I had. My legs were holding on so far, I just lacked that snap that I have had the past two weeks. My tongue was throbbing in the middle of the race from the chili burn of the night before. I guess it was getting dry with all my breathing and that made the burned spots ache.

     It was still the Dustin and Dustin show the rest of lap 3 and most of lap 4. I had Shannon out on course and he had a big group at the finish cheering him on. We just pretended that every yell for Dustin was for both of us and it was like we had a cheering crew around the whole course. The #1 plate also got me a lot of cheers. People I have never met were very encouraging when I would come by. Honestly, it was probably the most support I have ever gotten at a race.

Ryan Woodall smashed us today

Mose Howard

I love this picture of me going past all these crazy vines. I never noticed them being there when I was riding, but Shannon saw them and used them to make a cool picture.

     My legs started to fade on lap 4, but I kept the pace high. I started to gap Dustin in a few places, but he would always get back to me. On the final steep climb of the lap I popped him off my wheel. I thought he was gone, but then he snuck up on me in the last open section that had plagued me the whole race and passed me just before the finish line. Harrison Klapheke charged hard at the end and nearly caught us, coming in about 10 seconds behind. I ended up fourth out of four in Pro and seventh overall. I was hoping to do better, but on a day that I didn’t feel good I will take it. I got some good points and enjoyed a day of riding in the sunshine with some beautiful views. Part of the reason I felt bad was because I had the highest average and max heart rates I have seen in years. That’s good to see on a day when you didn’t feel great and explains why things felt so hard.

photo by GoneRiding.com

Mose

On my last lap

Pro podium with Woodall on top

photo by GoneRiding.com

     We didn't get much video as our current camera does not have the best quality, but Shannon did film the start and a few clips in the woods. You can see the video below.

A few quick video clips from the SERC opener

     After the race, I felt sick, but I wanted to ride more and show Shannon the crazy tree I found earlier in the day. We rode around the course to the tree, played on it for a while, then I finished another lap on the course. The trails here are so much fun that I couldn’t resist doing one more lap before climbing into the car.

Standing on the tree looking down one of the halves

Shannon sitting on the tree. Gives you some size comparison.

Shannon on one of the branches

These pictures do not do the tree justice. It is huge!

Turtles in one of the quarry lakes

There's stuff growing down under the water.

     Our drive home was not as nice as the drive down. We hit all kinds of traffic and detoured around half of central Georgia from Macon to Atlanta. We lost about three hours in that one stretch and got home after 11pm. It was a tough trip on the body, but I had a great time and would do it again in a second. Now it’s time to rest up for Chickasaw. It will be nice to get to race close to home after traveling six and 10 hours to each of the last two races. I feel I am more ready for Chickasaw than I have ever been so I hope I can get up there and contend for a win this year. More on that in the next post!