2012 Hammerhead 100/50/25--Ocala, Florida (5/12/12)

This has been a busy week cycling-wise. Although I took a couple of days off after the race at Ducktown, things started picking up mid-week. Wednesday was National Ride Your Bike to School Day and even though I ride my bike to school every day, there are only a few other kids who do also. My dad was trying to get the principal of my school to get actively involved in it, so that maybe more kids would get their bikes out of the garage, but she never got back to him and nothing much happened with that (unfortunately). Even so, my dad surprised me at school one day the week before and we made a short documentary about letting kids ride their bikes to school.

 

Wednesday afternoon, I took a ride around some of the trails that would be included in the Hammerhead race on Saturday. It was brutal. We hadn't had a lot of rain in a while and the trails were slick from leaves and pine needles. I slid out and slammed my shoulder into a tree--twice! Ouch! Needless to say, I didn't have much of a positive attitude about how the actual race would go after that.

Climbing 'The Wall'

On Thursday afternoon, I went to Brick City Bicycles after school to work for a couple of hours before going on the group ride that evening. It was probably one of the most exciting group rides I've been on. I was able to hang with the 'A' group for about 24 of the 32 miles, averaging around 21mph. I've never hung on to them that long and I think I could've done better but I blew myself up running the pace-line too long.

Friday after school, it was back to the trails to pre-ride with my friend, Bryce, who was planning to do the 25-mile solo race. I took him out on the most technical sections of the course: the blues on the 49th Avenue Trails, Nayl's Trails, and Ern-n-Burn. He loved Ern-n-Burn because it was a lot like a BMX track. We had a good ride and practiced a couple of especially difficult parts to make sure we knew how to ride them in the morning. After the pre-ride with Bryce, I had a much better attitude toward the course and I was feeling good about lining up to race the next day.

Last year, I competed in the 25-mile solo race and finished 33rd out of 66 riders, but this year I decided to do the 50-mile co-ed team with our friend, Jane. We thought we had a pretty good chance of making the podium, or even winning.

I lined up at the front of a pack of more than 100 people for the mass start. Dave Berger led us out on the motorcycle and gradually sped up as we got farther down the road. I had a good start and even rode Bob McCarty's wheel for a short time. I got right next to him at one point and wanted to turn my head and say hi so it would be in my video that I passed Bob, but it was too crowded and I decided it was too dangerous to play around at that time, which was probably a good decision, but I still kind of wish I had that footage--haha. (If you don't know who Bob McCarty is, I can describe him in one word--AWESOME!!!)

I was really having a good time running with the faster guys near the front of the pack and managed to stay there until I got involved in a big crash in the section before Ern-n-Burn, called Beyond. My leg got squished pretty badly and it hurt like crazy. Fortunately, my bike was ok, and I was able to get back up and keep riding, but it definitely messed up my flow after that.

By the time I got out of Nayl's and back to the 49th Avenue Trailhead, I was getting very tired. I had gone out really hard for this race, but maintaining that for almost 2 hours was getting tough at the end.

I did manage to finish my leg of the race in under 2 hours (1:51 according to my Garmin), which put us in 3rd place when Jane went out to do her lap. She was about 10 minutes behind Sarah, who was running in second after her partner, Regan Woodall (pro/expert rider) put up a really fast time. Jane raced a great lap, managed to pass Sarah with about 4 miles to go, and moved us up to 2nd. It was awesome!

We had a great time, and I'm glad I did the race with Jane as my partner.  Jane even let me keep the trophy. It's my first big one and I can't wait to display it!



Next week, the Mace family is taking a break from racing and doing a charity ride here at home. I hope to see the whole cycling community come out to support the 5th Annual Frank Pollack Memorial Ride Benefiting Hospice of Marion County. This ride is very special to us because Hospice took good care of my Grammy before she passed away in February.