6 Hours of Stony Creek

Yesterday was the 6 Hours of Stony Creek, this trail is in my backyard, its my home course and I ride it at least once a week.  Along with the 6 hour race is also a 12 hour but for me its to early in the season to ride a 12 hour, I have raced 12 hour as well as 24 hour solo. I left for Stony Creek with plenty of time to register and get ready, but forgot that part of the road there is closed due to work on the Clinton River Trail which crosses it, so I had to back track and rush because of traffic, but I did get there with plenty of time for the start. After registering I set up my bottles, I brought 5 large water bottles and 1 small one that I keep in my back pocket incase I run out before I get back to the start area, I'll use one bottle per lap which I figured each would close to an hour. For the race they used what is called the Time Trial loop which is approx 10.5 miles with just under 1000 ft of climbing per lap, I know this course, every rock and turn in it.

Ready to go!

After the pre-race meeting we set off, I was in no hurry and rode toward the back, its a 6 hour race why kill myself in the first hour? I was in the back of a group of about 5 riders, as we got to the top of the first climb Sheldon Hill, the lead rider took a wrong turn, oh man I should know better than to follow someone else, I was focused on the guy in front of me and not looking at the course, I saw the lead rider start down a steep drop that no one ever rides, I yell out you guys are going the wrong way and turned around, everyone was mad at the lead guy, they followed me and were back on course, can't believe I did this!! We all Lost the lead group but really in a longer race like this it won't make much difference,  for me anyway. I was feeling pretty good having not been on my bike the past 2 days,  I started passing people and at one point I hear the woman in front of me yell as she rounds a turn, all I heard was turtle and as I make that turn there was the biggest snapping turtle sitting in the trail, wow I made sure to ride around him.  I'm now almost finished with my first lap and as I'm making the final climb I get an itch in my eye, I go to rub it and pull my contact lens out, it ends up stuck to my cheek so I grab it and put it in my mouth, I ride the final 3/4 of a mile with the lens in my cheek trying not to swallow it.  I finish lap one and ride straight to my truck clean lens with some bottled water, pop it back in and off I go. The ride settled down for me after this,  got into my groove and just kept at it, much of the time I was by myself, amazing that your in a race with so many people yet your on the course by yourself. Each time I returned to the finish area I would only stop long enough to switch my empty bottle for a full one, no stopping to rest or socialize. It was nice to see my best friends Dustin and Mike there to support me, at one point D chased me down and slapped me real good on the ass. Pretty soon laps 2, 3 & 4 were done and I was on my final lap. The course for the most part was dry, the single track was all dry and there were just a few puddles on the two track, enough to make  your shoes wet and mess up the bike.  I was still feeling pretty good on lap 5 and not knowing what place I was in, I once again return to the start area and check the results, I was in 2nd place and had used up 5:11 and if needed,  I could do another lap but decided that if 3rd place wanted to move he would have to head out first, then I would follow and make a race of it, he didn't so my second was locked in. It had been a good day for me, I finished with 5 laps 52.7 miles in 5 hours and 11 min and 3960 ft of climbing, for this early in the season I was happy with how everything went, oh did I mention that because I'm going in for colonoscopy on monday the only solid food I had all day was a bagel and 3 scrabbled eggs the rest all liquid nutrition.

Link to my Garmin Data

Post race smile

Love my orange mountain goat!

My 2nd place Hoodie