MOMMA SLAPPED MY ASS AROUND!!!

The Middle Mountain Momma was this morning and we could not have asked for better weather for the race. Matt Trybus and myself headed over from Staunton to Douthat State Park to ride the XXC an endurance length 40mile point to point mountain bike race.

There were no water or rest stops. You were out in the wilderness by yourself for this thing and had quite a few monster climbs to tackle. You sarted from the start climbing for a full hour up to the middle mountain ridge top, and then had a killer climb up on the South side of the park that also lasted for around an hour that you started at mile 30. Thrown in for good measure along the way were some silly steep quad crushers that were only ridden by the superheros at the front of the ride.

At mile 15ish, after the really long stony run climb and numerous steep pitches on the Natl Forest trails Matt and myself split ways for a bit. His legs were feeling bad and we had covered two super steep climbs and one long climb but only 15ish miles. He told me he was going to bail when he got a chance, so I left him and laid the hammer down on a five mile gravel road climb as hard as I could and passed around 6 or 7 other XXC racers. I was proud of that and thought that as long as I could hold that position for the last 20miles that I would call the ride a success(even though later in the ride I decided finishing this hellacious 40mile epic was a success) so I kept the tempo up and ended up passing a few more XXC racers before the final slog up to the brushy mountain trail.

I ended up only going ass over tea-kettle on two of the many switchbacks and felt like I was able to finish strong so this ride was definately a success. AND THEN..... I roll into the finish expecting to see a dissapointed Matt that had stopped early because he was feeling bad, but.....there wasn't a bike(Matt's Bike) on my car, or near the car, or in the field where others were laying, hanging out, etc. around.......THAT DIRTY DOG KEPT ON TRUCKING! Hell yeah Matt. The 40 miles of nasty climbs and descents were all ridden by Matt. He also finished really strong in the group after thinking he would bail on completeing the enite ride.

TAKE THAT MOMMA!!!