The tortoise and the hare...

To quote a greatly used phrase on the local blogs, this weekend was "EPIC". Not only did I participate in a 12 hour mountain bike race, I also did the annual Corporate Cup 10K run.

SATURDAY
This day started off with me and Zod heading out to the mountain bike trail at Lake Manawa in Council Bluffs, Iowa for the Lake Manawa 12 hour presented by the Midwest Cycling Community. These guys did an excellent job in preparing and running this race that I would like to give a great big thanks to and look forward to the next one.

I arrived at the site at 8:30AM for registration. I met the three other members of the four man team I joined up with. Todd, Cody, and Tim all from the Elkhorn Valley Cycling Clubs Monster Team. These guys were great and I was definitely the slow one on the team. We got everything unloaded and the canopy set up. Cody and I went on a quick pre-ride of only the front half of the course. We got back just in time for the beginning of the race. We decided on the pecking order, Cody, me, Todd, then Tim.

Sitting around in between laps we began to feel the effects of the chilly weather that never went away the entire day. I think the temps didn't even reach 55 degrees, not to mention a brisk wind blowing over the Missouri river right onto us. It didn't bother anyone while we were riding; however, within minutes of finishing a lap we became chilled to the bone.

There were two other multi person teams we were competing against. At the outset one of the teams we wrote off as the overall winner because it was stacked with some serious animals, the top experts from the Psycowpath series. We decided to keep our eyes on second place and keep ahead of the other team. This was close, for the first half we were leading them by one lap. As soon as one of us would cross the line, the other was off for their lap. There was no pausing or break between riders going out. This seemed to be a good strategy and we kept to it. We weren't going to write anything off.

As for myself, it was a little tough for the first few laps. It's not really a good idea to ride a new bike you haven't gotten used to in a race. There were plenty of mishaps, both shoulders ended up looking rather bruised. After the third lap, I became dialed in to the bike. Zod and I finally became one and my last two laps in daylight were just plain incredible. It flowed.

Then came the night. I only had one light, an LED that works great when riding on the road but sucks on trails. Everyone else had massively bright lights. My night lap took me 44 minutes. It was the end of lap 22 and Todd took off for lap 23. I took a gander at the leader board and we were now tied with the animals. I couldn't believe it. They stopped after lap 22 to watch the Husker game. I'm not sure if anyone went to tell them but they never came out to catch back up. Todd pulled out an incredible 30 minute lap in the dark. There was 4 minutes left to start one more lap and Tim took off. The win was sealed. Tim finished a 30 minute lap too. We won with 24 laps (6 each), second was 22, third was 21.

Win or lose we all had a great time. If only it would have been a little warmer. MG took the win in the solo category with 24 laps. Congrats dude, that was incredible. Emily Broderson took first in the women's solo with 18 laps. You people are amazing. Congratulations to everyone else who was there and raced. Thanks again to MOD and the posse for putting on a great event. It was "EPIC". I look forward to doing this again next year.

SUNDAY
After five hours of sleep I was back in Omaha for the 10K run. My legs weren't feeling too bad. My left thigh was feeling just a tad tight, nothing debilitating though. After some stretching, water, and a banana, I was ready. I lined up in the mass of people and was ready to go.

While waiting for the start I began going through my goals for the race. Last year I did it in 1:10:??, I had alternated between walking and running several times. This time I was going to limit the number of times I walked. I was going to pace myself and not kill myself. I wasn't expecting much since I only run once a year.

The gun went off and the race was on. At least I hope it wasn't a drive by. It took a little bit to reach the start line and to get moving. Once it opened up and I was able to start running, it was on. I hit my pace and it was feeling great. I kept going, not once did I walk. I ran the whole thing. There were a few times I thought about walking it out, but my competitive side won out and I just kept running. I crossed the line at 55:43. A whole freaking 15 minutes better than last year. Oh yea, I now know my fitness level has drastically increased in one years time. This was incredible for me.

After crossing the finish, I could feel my leg muscles crying a little bit. So I decided to stretch out a little just to be on the safe side. Picked up my mug, some free snacks, and it was back to Lincoln for me. Sitting in the car for one hour was not a good thing. My legs were real tight when I got home. Even now, as I write this they are extremely sore. It's a good sore though, because I know I accomplished something. Next year I am hoping for better results again.

This was truly a great weekend.