Four Aces National ride report

[KKXR400R]

Here's my race report from the 59th Four Aces Mouse run.

1st loop
It had rained all weekend up here and cleared up on Sunday morning. Epic conditions! Got lined up and was ready to go. I was surprisingly calm this time. The banner went up and dropped at 9:45. Timed it perfectly. Got a another good start and ended up in a real good position. The first loop was pretty whooped out and very fast 42 miles. Almost no technical. I race a slower pace to conserve energy and finished the first loop by 11:15. No bad but I was shooting for a little less.

2nd
What can I say....this loop was the most unforgiving, gnarliest, brutal ride I have ever attempted. Right out of the box they took us up a hill and right back down the back side of it. It was steep and full of rocks. Walked my bike down halfway down and ate it bad. Bike ended up on top of me. Got back up jumped on the bike and tried in vain not to crash. I was dodging huge boulders and ping all over the place. Felt like I was riding a mechanical bull. I remember getting to the bottom and thinking to myself...That was only the first 2 miles...I have 44 more to go....what the hell was I thinking. Took off after a short 30 second breather. After a little bit of single track I realized they were taking us high and higher up this mountain....I knew something bad was coming up. I missed a right hand arrow but tried to shoot up the hill anyway...WOW...this thing was really steep....I looked up at one of the course workers and blurted out "are you beeping kidding me???" he laughed and said I might want to quit now cause it gets 10 times worse....I shook my head, turned around to get a good run at, then blasted up this thing as fast as I could. I thought the bike was gonna grenade right there. Got it first try....cool. That wasn't that bad. We ended up on the top of this huge mountain, in the wind with some gnarly single track. I was pretty concerned cause if I fell I was gonna get pretty messed up. Next was a danger sign with 2 down arrows. Great...I looked down and it was so steep I couldn't see the bottom....I blurted out "this is retarded!" This time it was pretty soft so I just killed the motor and "skied" down it, using my clutch and brake to control the speed. About 1/4 of the way down I here something behind me and then I see a bike cartwheeling down this hill to the left of me. Then to the right of me the rider was sliding down face first trying to stop his deccent. He got stationary about halfway but his bike was at the bottom of the ravine. He hiked down the rest of the way and got his bike situated. I finally got to the bottom and asked him if he was OK, he nodded yes. He then asked if I wanted to ride the rest of the loop together...Cool, now I got a riding buddy. We got situated and can you believe it....they took us back up the same hill we just came down but 300 feet down the trail...I just shook my head and asked "why?" More demanding single track and another good size uphill. The ground was still wet so the traction was amazing. After a smaller downhill we went right back up a huge uphill...this was getting ridiculous! After the uphill I got hung up on some single track and Micheal caught me and we started pacing each other again. I saw another danger marker with a number of down arrows, with a message...."yes, it's that bad" We turned the corner and saw nothing but rocks, boulders, and a check at the bottom....holy %$#@. It was the gnarliest thing I had ever seen. He and I looked down at the check and the workers looked like ants. Again I blurted out "why!!!" We descended down walking the bikes with the motors off. The first ledge (one of about 25) had about a 3 to 4 foot drop off but you had to turn immediately right....the next one was the same...but went left. I would walk the bike halfway down it and Micheal would maneuver it the rest of the way...then we would do this with his bike....It was nuts! About 30 minutes later. We came across a sign that said "the Plunger" It was about a 6 foot sheer drop off...I really wanted to just leave my bike and walk back to the pits. After 5 minutes we got his bike down and I told him to move to the right. I got my bike in position but high centered it on the rocks. After a little frustration I just pushed it off the ledge...Oh well. After an hour of this we finally got to the bottom....I remember pulling up to check and telling the workers...I hate you and your club...you need mental help...they started laughing...go figure.





We took off again and when the trail leveled out I saw a mile marker..."55 miles" We had only gone 13 miles....in 2 hours...It was not 1:15 in the afternoon. I asked him if he just wanted to call it a day but he reminded me that we probably went through the worst of it....Liar....After a quick mellow downhill we hit about 20 miles of open stuff. This was a relief! I was doing good time I remember flying through a sand wash around 45 Mph only to hit a rock with my foot....Oh that was painful. Blew my left foot off the peg, swapped, right foot off the other peg and played bronco billy for a hundred feet or so. It felt like I broke all my toes and the tears were rolling into my goggles. We kept trucking along. We ended up in this neat sand wash and I saw mile marker 75 with a sign under it that read "beer" Woo hoo. I figured 5 more miles and the race was over....boy was I wrong. I did my math wrong cause the first loop was 42 miles and the second loop was 44. I still had 11 more to go. We were heading up more sigle track and back into the hills and I remember thinking....I hope the finish is on the other side! We rounded the corner and I saw another sign "welcome to the blue ribbon downhill"...great....more downhills. Another steep downhill. Once again I got of the bike and tried to ski down. I Slammed into a rock and started tumbling 1/2 way down. I got my footing but the bike landed on top of me...again. After a minute or 2 I got the bike off of me and made the rest of the way down. Got to the bottom and got my last check on my card...."how many more miles" I asked..."8 more to go, with a little technical" I felt like someone sucked the life out of me. This guys idea of technical was ANOTHER single track waterfall. Then a sand wash with stadium-sized whoops. Just when I thought it was going to be over (another sign pointing with "beer" this direction)arrows lead us up another single track rocky uphill. Thats' when I saw Tracy. She was on the side of the trail with her bike down in the sand wash. I asked her what had happened she said she ran out of gas. We had a discussion about our injuries we sustained during the race & tried to figure out how to get gas in her bike to finish. I knew she was frustrated to go all that way (the same hell that I went through) just to run out of gas. My buddy Michael came up took her stuck stub and proceeded to the finish. After about 10 minutes of contemplating, I said that I would finsish & come back for her. There was a little miscommunication between us as I thought she was done & she really wanted to finish. When I got back to camp, I raced over to Dane & we went to get Tracy. By the time we got to her she was wandering around trying to stay warm as the temp dropped about 15-20 degrees & the wind picked up.
So that's how my day went on SUnday, I hope you enjoyed the read!!!!

[MXER101]

Ok, so this won't be a novel like the hubbies!

We started the weekend out with a pre-ride with Dane on Saturday, it was fun! Dane took us on some epic trails through spangler hills. It started to rain so all of us were soaked & cold.

I really don't know what I was thinking when I chose to sign up for 2 loops today. During the first loop, I took a header into the dirt (as all of you saw), knocked the wind out of myself, hit my hip & hurt my arm. Since I felt i was riding pretty well, I jumped back on & kept going. Aside from the whoops first loop was fun & fast. I came into the pits I was pretty stoked when Dane said I was the second woman into the pits (sarah kritsch was first) So I left again onto my venture into loop 2. Immediately into loop 2 there was a rocky downhill. Amy Hasten was there showing me which line to take, her motivation was encouraging. So I kept going. After that, I had several episodes on a few of the uphills. The first uphill took me about 10 attempts :? The second about 4, well you can get an idea what kind of ride I was having thus far on loop 2. I have never been down such steep downhills (45 degree downhill at mile 55 & the Blue ribbon downhill @ mile 78) in my entire riding career. Oh yeah the royal flush downhill was fun too : . Seeing that I am vertically challenged it was twice as hard, the bike fell on me several times & the other riders had to help me out from underneath. There was a nice conga line of riders helping each other down which made it somewhat easier. We got a nice break after one more uphill (which I finally made with out a problem) only to end up in more technical & the Blue ribbon down hill. I saw a sign that said "Beer??" and at this point I was hoping that the finish was just around the corner, but I was wrong. Well, all my "episodes" cost me a lot of gas & I ran out with 6-7 miles to finish. As I sat there waiting for someone to pass by I started to hurt a little bit. Kevin came by & I told him I was out of gas. There was a miscommunication between him & I. He told me that he was struck by a bird on the trail & that he broke his toe on a rock in the sand wash. I told him that I was out of gas & was hurting a bit (esp my arm) & he asked to see it. Well, the swelling & bruising made it look completely deformed. I thought he was going to bring me gas so I could finish, but he thought I was done. So he took off. While I was out there the temp must have dropped about 15-20 degrees. I had to start walking around to keep warm till he got back.
I don't have to get much further into detail about the course in my report Kev did that already. Just imagine his ride on the downhills but 10x's harder for me since I'm shorter!
Its OK though, I am glad I had an opportunity to attempt 95% of a national & make it through(Kev said everything towards the finish was easy). Just my Luck :x
Thanks Dane for coming out to get me : I did not go to work on Monday. Instead Kev & I went for xrays. I ended up with a badly bruised forearm, my neck hurts like H**L, my hip is bruised & I could hardly move still. But in the end it was a good experience
-Tracy

[Mainjet2001]

Kev.....Tracy,
Thanks for the killer race reports.
I don't really know why the races have gotten so tough but that is the reason the 1 loop only has gotten so popular.
You two are a couple of pit bulls though and I'm proud of you both.
Hope to see you at the Checkers Hare & Hound.

[Flash393]

Great report you 2, glad you're OK Tracy and it's just bruises.