12 Hours of Northern Kettles

Well I made it; 12 hours of northern Kettles is over. After loading Mailen's Xterra to the roof with gear. Sean, Katie, Gretta and I headed East to Greenbush, WI. For those of you who are not familiar with your Wisconsin geography, Greenbush is between Oshkosh and Sheboygan.

Gretta packed to the roof of the car wondering, "Why do these guys need so much crap"

Friday night we camped out in a group camp site with a handfull of other racers. We were unable to set up our tents on the race course so we had to wait until Saturday morning to set up the Twin Six tent and all of our gear for the race. This was a pain because we had to unpack the vehicle friday night to get our tents out only to pack the truck back up and unload again to set up our site for the race. Friday night I didn't get the best sleep b/c we had Gretta in the tent with us. This was Gretta's first camping trip; she did really good, but got excited a couple times during the night and woke us up. Saturday mornign we were up at 6am and headed to the race course to start setting up our shelter, make breakfast, and get ready for the 8am start.

The course was 8 miles of all rocky single track. I was happy to be riding the Dos Niner. The large wheels and extra inch of rear travel helped take up some of the bumps. I rode pretty strong for the first hours, only stopping for water bottles, GU and a few pieces of PB&J. At about 2pm it started raining. Around 3 pm the course was like ridding on a slip and slide. I took my time finishing my 10th lap and went to our tent for a break. At this point it was still raining and I didn't know if I would go back out on the course again.

New Twin Six team kit, "It's Metal"

After another PB&J, some Builder Bar, a Coke and an hour and a half break, the rain stopped and the course was starting to get tacky again. I decided to put on a fresh change of clothes get back in the saddle. I was fortunate to have company for my first lap after the rain. Thanks Anne for being my winglady! I turned out 3 more laps and ended the race at 7:40ish pm. My records showed that I rode a total of 13 laps, totaling 104 miles. Fortunately for me, the score keepers had me down for 14 laps( I don't know if it was me or the score keepers who lost count through out the race?), but 14 laps was good enough for 3rd place out of 22 solo riders. One lap and one hour behind the winner.

The race was tough, I was happy that my legs felt good the whole time. It was my hands and butt that really took a beating. I am planning on two more 12 hour races this year and am still contemplating doing a 24 solo in Aug. Time will tell.


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