For the first time I actually got a good nights sleep.  Maybe it was the 3/4 Pepperoni Pizza from Yahgis but I felt pretty good when I awoke at 4 AM.  Breakfast was a big slice of bacon, spinach, cheese quiche, bowl of oatmeal, and two cups of Barrett’s Coffee.  Most everything had been laid out on the table the night before so I was able to take my time, let my food digest, and prepare for then looming sufferfest.  As I was loading the bike I did notice that it was a tad chilly but neglected to put on any arm or knee warmers banking on the fact it was to warm up later on.  This decision did lead to a bit of mockery at W.C. once I got there surrounded by others with all sorts of stay warm gear.

Like others had mentioned, the ride down to Zilker was a nice pace that allowed me to get warmed up since for most of the trip I was drafting behind Jeff.  I figured as long as I stayed behind a singlespeeder I wouldn’t be pushing the pace.  Mentally I was going through the various stages of the ride and where I was going to be making stops and taking stock of my physical condition.  As we hit the park, we bombed down some stairs across the pool house and I made a b-line for the pisser as I figured there would be a line like last year.  I saw a group skip the stop and take off, I figured that would happen.  I stopped perhaps a little too long and after finishing the rest of Jeff’s beer, I realized that I was either last or damn close to last so I just took off after the main group.

I managed to pass Tim and James relatively early on, before the first creek crossing and then Jeff and Greg not too long thereafter.  As I approached the first crossing, there was a large group removing their shoes and socks before the crossing.  I figured since my feet were still wet from the early dip in W.C. may as well deal with it so across I went, thankfully I was wearing my Swiftwick socks.  This got me to about where I wanted to be which was somewhere mid pack.  A few more crossings and I was for the most part solo again.  Right after the 360 bridge, I heard someone behind me and I think it was Garrett, he had a flat and needed a pump so for the sake of karma, I stopped and loaned him my pump, hopefully it was enough to get him through the greenbelt.  After he aired up, I managed to catch up to Sean by the chains and rode with him on up the rest of the greenbelt and on up pumphouse.  Once we got on the road, I just told him to go since I knew I wasn’t going to keep up with him.

This left me to ride the T.C./Jedi/Mulch section solo for the most part.  I did end up catching up with Druber much to my surprise as he was trying to fix his brake rotor.  Not to long after I needed to take a pee break at which point both he and Dave passed me.  Across the dam we went and Dave and someone else (black rigid bike) took off the HOL.  I was determined to attempt all the climbs this year instead of walking them and was pleased to only dab 3 times on the way up.  There at the top Sean was waiting for me and we rode to 360.  Again, I told him to go and he took off.

This year my strategy differed since I now knew of an additional water stop that would allow me to skip the stop at Chik-fil-a this year.  My kitchen timer that I brought was set to go off every 15 minutes so I could ration both my water and fuel/electrolyte intake and for the most part this worked out really well this day so with the skipped stop, I settled into a comfortable pace and mentally prepared for the upcoming climbs.

I latched on to a small group of roadies and chit chatted with them for a bit until I reached Courtyard, there our paths diverged and I went to go suffer.  Much to my amazement, I didn’t suffer as hard as I thought I was going to on the climb.  I managed a nice steady pace all the way to the top and wasn’t really hurting, the same pace was repeated on City Park and then it was a nice pedal down to the park itself.

On the way down I figured I might as well take in some solid foods so I munched on a Clif Bar (which I now know wasn’t a good idea) and had some Clif Shot Blocks.  Upon arrival at the park I made a quickish stop to pee and reapply some DZNuts (really glad I brought extra) and booked it onto the trail.

The lap at City Park was for the most part uneventful, I had to keep reminding myself not to try to clean the really hard stuff even though I wanted to.  I could feel slight cramps coming on.  Somewhere up where the trail gets near the main road, I heard some hooting and hollering and saw a Hammerhead jersey going by, it must have been Espers on his way out.  I also saw George’s truck go by at the same time.  As I continued through the trail I realized that my body can’t handle the amount of calories I took in on the trip in and so I rode uncomfortably for the next few miles till the feeling passed.  Rolling out of the trail head I saw another EBer sitting and having a snack, I almost stopped to do the same but still felt good and still had some miles to go so I pushed on.

On the way up City Park I saw someone off in the distance and picked up the pace.  It turned out to be Druber who admitted that he was now in “just finish” mode and taking his time.  I asked if he was going to refill his bottles and he said no, so I rode ahead to go fill mine.  I guess he passed me as I was stopped.

Getting back onto 360 I rode for a bit with a some guy in a Mellow Johnny’s kit and he was joking about all the mud on my bike before he sped off.  I was still feeling pretty good so I picked up the pace a little and eventually passed Sean leaving St. Eds.  On up the trail I went, keeping it in granny and just churning along since I really didn’t feel like burning any matches before Thumper.  As I got to the top my quads started cramping so I downed some more Clif Shots and 3 Sport Legs capsules and hoped the cramps would dissipate on the way down.  Fortunately for me, I again ran into Druber as he was walking up from the gnarly section of St. Eds with the advice of “Don’t go that way”.  We ended up finding the right trail and took off.  I got a little bit nervous riding so close to the cliff so elected to walk that section as Druber took off.  At the bottom I ran into Greg as he was getting ready to start.  He said Tim and James were behind him.

Sure enough, on the way to Yaupon I saw Tim and James,  I gave a thumbs up and kept on pedaling.  I caught up with Druber just before we headed up Yaupon and he crested well before me.  I got a slight jump on Thumper as he had stopped to eat some trail mix but he caught me early on and I waved him past since I knew I’d be slower.

I don’t like Thumper.  I can ride most of it on a good day but I don’t enjoy it.  This day made me dislike it even more.  With quads a cramping I took my time on the climbs and walked the steeper one and any technical obstacle I saw fit.  At one point I almost crashed and when I put my leg out to stop, my quad seized so hard I thought that I was going to tear something.  Luckily I didn’t.  I was certainly living up to my team’s name at this point and made the executive decision to stop and reapply some more DZNuts AND Chamois Butter.  I’m so glad nobody rolled up on me because that would take some explaining why I was standing in the middle of the trail, chamois around the knees squirting packets of lube into it, oh well you do what you need to do.  So on I went and when I reached the halfway mark I was able to turn it up a notch just to get the hell out of there.  Just for good measure and to keep the status quo, I knocked my head against a low hanging branch (and it’s GOT to be low if I hit MY head) and tweaked my neck…again.

Right at the exit I hear someone behind me and it was Greg who gave me chit about catching me.  I was planning on riding with him back to W.C. but he said he needed to take a call and I took the opportunity to gain some distance (seems to have been a lot of that going on).

I was still good on water so I didn’t need to make anymore stops, just get to W.C. and do my lap that was it.  I truly believe that one of the hardest parts of the EB is riding down Parmer and smelling all the different fast food restaurants and resisting the urge to stop.

Once at W.C. I ended up finding a second wind and put the hammer down.  It was refreshing blowing by folks out for their own ride at W.C. while I was finishing mine.  I ended up catching Druber again and passed him somewhere in the Log Loop or Marks Art.  There were a couple of times that I second guessed myself as the flour was sometimes hard to see but I finished it all out hoping every time I saw the ‘P’ sign that there would be a little marker saying to go that way but no, on and on it went until I finally crossed the finish.

It was really great to see everyone still hanging out so I quickly got changed and had some of Wei’s freakin fantastic homemade cookies while I drank my Endurox recovery drink.  As we were hanging out we saw all the others roll in until Tim and James came through and donned lights to go finish their laps.  Casey arrived not too long after with the one thing I CRAVE after any ride… a cheeseburger.

Tim and James would later finish in a tie and once again there was a chug-off as a tie breaker, since neither was ready to pound a beer, surrogates were chosen.  Don’t ever pick me to be in a chug off, you won’t win.

All in all it was a great day and I’m happy to have knocked almost an hour off my time from last year and still feel pretty good today.  Tender Gooch Racing certainly represented with all 5 of us finishing.

After months of extremely hot weather and drought conditions here in Austin, we’re now getting our asses kicked by El Niño. Austin has been acting like Portland for quite a while now. These wet conditions have created havoc for the mountain biking community by closing trails and creating unsafe conditions. The organizers of the EB (SherpaXC and Cody @ Hammerhead) have decided to move the EB to Sunday November 1st!

Tender Gooch will be in line for extra helpings of pain and suffering at the buffet.

Check out the thread at the HH forums.

Let’s all cross our fingers now.

After the 60-72 mile ride (depending on whether you rode from home or not), we stuffed ourselves with burgers from Phil’s Icehouse, Waterloo, or burritos from Chipotle. The next day, we had a sillyrace that made us a little muddy.