Sean and I rolled out of Austin around 4:50 on Saturday morning, stopping in Giddings from some Whataburger before heading to Bluff Creek Ranch. We got signed up and ready to roll no problems, so the race stared well.

On my first lap, I hammered out of bad habit. I got out in front of a lot of riders, which was good as there were a lot of riders having problems. The course at this point was wet and slimy but not gross. That would come later…

Lap two I was really hammering, throwing down way too fast a pace. I made it 90% of the way up the carpet climb [ Paydirt Bridge -- ed.] and was feeling good. I felt a little too good and carried a bit too much speed into the second wooden bridge on The Palisades, which caused me to slide out (the chicken wire is for show, not traction). My bars spun around and the blades on both levers hit the ground. When I got the bike up it looked like I now had antlers; both lever blades were bent and the rear brake lever had pulled the blade out of the master cylinder…great. I had a contingency plan, a fixed rear wheel, but I did not want to run it yet. I nursed the bike around the rest of the lap, still turning in a highly respectable 38 min lap. I borrowed a few tools (wrench and needle nose pliers) and went about rebuilding the MC on the brake lever. I was lucky, despite pulling things apart the MC stayed sealed and all it needed was a mildly complex reassembly. So after about a 20 min stop I had a rear brake again…though the rear lever curved up and the front lever was now curved down.

All was well in my world again and I started off at a slightly slower pace this time. After finishing two more laps I was feeling like a rock star. The bike was working great and I was planning for a 15-16 lap race. Well about 4.5 miles into lap five that came apart. While JRA (just riding along) I hurt this horrible crunch and my crank locked up. Couldn’t be my ceramic bearings, they will never lock up. No I managed to break 3 out of 4 chainring bolts. F*ck. I was riding along with a guy from Bike Medic, who told me he had extras in his shop box and so I carried the bike back to my support area, scratched my lap, and hunted down his kit. Well it wasn’t going to be that easy. I got two bolts placed and tightened the unbroken bolt, but I could not get a bolt into the fourth hole… strange. Well I look very closely and I see the bolt hole in the ring had deformed and was no longer round, so I couldn’t get a bolt in there (I later came to realize the entire chainring was no longer round, people pay extra for those). Great. So I just threw a couple industrial zip ties in and took off.

At this point I had lost a good hour on my lap five and was starting it over again. I had a bike with three chainring bolts and two wonky brake levers. I was just thinking one lap at a time. I was feeling good, but not willing to push it for speed or torque. I Just looked ahead to one more lap. When I got through lap 6 I thought maybe I can make 8. When I got to 8 I thought I could make 10. When I got to 9 I realized I could time it just right and start lap 12 just before hour 12 and finish a full dozen. About this time I got a second wind and I just went nuts. I had been checking my three bolts every lap, and I had tightened them the first few laps, but the last few they had held tight. I figured now was my time. I could get in 10 no problem, even if I walked the last one. I figured I might as well go as hard as I could for as long as the good Lord let my bike hold together. So I turned up the juice. I turned in a couple mid 40 minute laps, just as it was getting dark. Soon I realized 12 was in the bag and 13 might happen if I bust it. So at 11:47 I made it in and immediately went out for lap 13.

I had only planned for 3hrs of lights, and I had only planned for about 11 hours of food. Lap 13 was a slower, darker, and hungry lap. But I got through everything with minimal trouble. By this point the trail had gone from decent to horrible, to fast, to shit in a can. Everything was slick, deep, and crunchy. I was in the habit of just lubing the sand in my chain, which kept it silent for decently long periods.

At the end of the night I only got 13 laps. If I hadn’t had two mechanicals and a drag-ass lap I really think I could have churned out 15. But by the good graces of God I was able to go strong as long as I did. Every lap past lap 5 was a bonus lap and I’m glad I got them. I finished 99 miles in 12:45. I was running a gear 5 teeth taller than I was riding 2 months ago (32-18 vs 30-21). I rode everything I wanted to ride and I felt like with just a bit more food I could have gone another 12 hours.

Thanks go to Dustin Payne and Sean for my acting pit crew, filling up my bottles as the night got dark. Thanks to Sean especially for getting my ass home. I blanked in and out of conversations for most of the ride back home. I knew he was tired too, so I wanted to keep talking but I know my pauses between comments were getting mighty long and my answers where often totally crazy.

This served as a good way to gauge my current standings. 99 painfully muddy and slow slow slow moving mile, 4700 ft of climbing in 12 hours… Now for 100 miles and 10k of climbing in only 12.