Race Report: Outside Sports 6 Hour Super D

You'd think I would learn.

Every race we've done here has been bigger, gnarlier, longer, and crazier than the last. Dodzy, Craigieburn, Lyttelton. Each one sounded super fun, I would get all amped up... and then it would be the single most difficult thing I've ever done in my whole life. (Well besides the Urban DH, never even pretended I was going to enter that one.) So, you'd think I would learn.

Obviously the "6 hour" aspect makes this race sound hard, but, Scott & I entered as a team. Therefore, I thought, he'll do (at least) half the work. 3 hours can't be so bad. And it's gondola assisted. So there won't be much climbing. Basically, I figured I entered myself in a 3 hour race to see how many downhill runs I could get in. Like a morning at Northstar. No biggie.

View of the gondola from our condo

Gahhhhhhh, I'm always so wrong. Yes, there was the gondola "assist" (aka: 5 minutes to catch your breath), and yes, I rode down the mountain. Technically. There were steep climbs. There were mellow climbs. There were long climbs. There were short climbs. There were climbs with turns, and climbs with roots, and climbs that crossed creeks. There were also nice steep DH sections that didn't last long enough. There were flat pedal-y bits through river rocks. And then there was the 3 minute section through the campground at the bottom, which zig-zagged around like a drunk panda in a zen garden.

Scott and I traded off a little ankle transponder which clocked the times for our runs. And gave me insight into the life of Martha Stewart. We communicated via text messages which we checked while the other one was out racing. Things got exciting when Scott's derailleur ripped off and became one with his rear wheel. I ended up doing an extra unexpected lap, and then he finished off the entire race with a lap on my bike. And I prayed for his its safety.

It was exhausting. If we were out for a ride, I probably would have done the lap twice, patted myself on the back, and shamelessly devoured a cheeseburger. I went five laps. Scott went seven. But he's all tough and pro mountain biker man. 5 laps. I nearly died. Oh yeah, we got 5th out of 9 co-ed duos. You could either look at it as Scott boosted my results, or I dragged him down. I bet he doesn't ask me again next year.

Per usual, I have no pictures because I was busy dying riding. But here's a couple of bike related pics from the rest of the weekend.

What I take a picture of when we get to Queenstown

What Scott takes a picture of when we get to Queenstown

What traveling with us looks like...

An evening ride 15 minutes northwest of Queenstown (Zoot Track)

Stay tuned in for more pictures from Queenstown over the next few days! Hope everyone has more exciting Easter plans than I do!