HVAC - Bike Leg re-cap!

During the pre-race meeting we find out that the bike leg will be first. Usually the run is first, so this is a nice twist. Frank and Bethann go over the map in detail and Kristen takes copious notes (notes which really pay off). Frank tells us what to look for at certain check points (CP’s) and Bethann tells us that we are not to ride our bikes on any main roads unless the clues indicate that we are allowed. There will be a bag with poker chips at every CP and we are to take one poker chip a team. Lastly, Frank tells us that the first CP is at the top of a killer, monster, very long hill and the first team up will get their poker chip handed to them, while the other teams must bike a short distance to another spot where they will be scattered on the ground.

After the meeting, we have 10 minutes to get ready for the bike and lay out the running gear. We have a mini-pep talk and decide we are going to take our time getting to the first CP because there is NO WAY we would ever in a million years be the first team to the top. Hills aren’t our strongest suit.

With 3 minutes to go, all the teams are supposed to line up by bib number. We are team #19 and should have been near the front, but for some reason the teams can’t (or strategically don’t) line up by number and it’s just a mass of bikers crowded together waiting for the “go”!

I’m not going to go through every CP because there were 11 total, but I just want to start out and say WE ROCKED THE BIKE LEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were near the middle-end of the pack, but we stayed steady. We didn’t follow the crowd and it payed off in a lot of instances. It was muddy, rocky and rooty but we kept a quick pace. There were definitely some crazy long hills and we were forced to walk our bikes, along with a bunch of other teams, but we stayed on our bikes for 90% longer this year than we did last year. When I think about last year’s race, I think about walking the bikes for a majority of it.

There were a couple minor falls. During one particular harsh “fall” going over a log, Kristen may have yelled out in pain, then said she didn’t like being rushed and then asked if I would be a surrogate mother for her if she couldn’t have children because of the said “fall”. I said, of course I would be a surrogate for you, and then didn’t respond to any other comments. We had just gotten a little off track and tension was mounting, so sometimes it’s best to not say anything! :) That really was the worst of it on the bike leg and it wasn’t even bad – as our loyal followers know, it has gotten wayyyy worse!

In case you were wondering, the other teams were helpful this year and in return we offered help too. There were many times when another team would give us a heads up on where a clue would be located and we would pass the info on. We usually didn’t give the info out to teams that were directly in front of us or behind us; it was more to teams that were super lost and didn’t pose a threat.

After we got our poker chip at CP 11, 13 miles later, we cruised into TA and found out we were the first all girl team to arrive (our time was 2:24:46)!!! Later we found out that the next all girl team rode in 20 minutes after us. After a bike leg like that, we felt on top of the world and ready to finish the run like true champions!!!