On a whim and a prayer
There we were, driving west on 90 through South Dakota Thursday evening. The goal was Spearfish to explore the riding since we'd heard a lot about the trails. But the weather was looking questionable and I hadn't been able to find any resources about trail conditions. I also knew that there was an Ultra Trail run based in Rapid City, so the trails in that area were likely to be congested. Hummm.... What to do. And then one of the posts about the Bear Bait 8 in Casper caught my eye. Huh. I mentioned it to Nick "There's an 8 hour race in Casper on Saturday. Pictures look like it might fun." I didn't think it would go anywhere from there. After all, we were both tired from some solid days of riding and running, as well as being stiff from driving. And we were totally unprepared for racing of any kind, let alone an 8 hour event. To my surprise, Nick's response was "Let's do it! When does registration close?" In about 4 hours... Done deal - all we needed was a team name and some food for racing!
Team name was easy. "Alien Baby" Why? Because this would be the first race for Nick after his surgery and it does look like he had an alien baby removed. A silly name for racing on a whim. The food was a little harder. We were at the tail end of the trip, with only a little food remaining in the cooler. And nothing really resembling the kind of spread we usually have for a 24 hour race! But this was "only" 8 hours, so we didn't need that much, we just needed to find a grocery store. Once that was accomplished, time to chill for a bit before getting our numbers. Believe it or not, Casper has a really good sushi restaurant and that hit the spot. After getting out numbers, we drove up the mountain. I'm sure I'd been on Casper Mountain before - maybe one of the years I did the marathon - but I'd never ridden there. That was back before I was really even thinking about mountain biking and before people started realizing that there was good money in attracting mountain bikers.
The goal was to find a campground near the transition area at the Nordic Lodge. We'd been told that there was plenty of camping scattered around, but nothing was really in a convient spot for an easy race morning. Not wanting to dink around and miss a preride, we just pulled into the Nordic Lodge's parking lot. Pre-riding took priority.
It was a good thing we did - this was the kind of course that was challenging no matter how fast you were riding! There were plenty of long climbs and quick descnts, a few rock gardens and generally punchy riding. But what made it challenging were the twists. Nothing was straight forward riding - it wasn't rocks that made you think, but the trail itself. The faster you rode, the less time you had to react to the twists in the trail. Tight turns, ducking and dodging under the trees. In and out of shadows, never quite in shadow long enough to adjust before popping out into the next meadow filled with wildflowers. The course was both physically and mentally challenging. Without the excellent job of marking, I would have been completely lost. But the arrows and ribbons were perfect. While I never knew where exactly I was on Casper Mountain, I always knew I was on the course.
After pre-riding, we pondered the camping situation. In the end, we decided to go under the radar and just park in the back of the lot for the Nordic Center. Worst that could happen is we'd get told to move in the middle of the night. Best case, when we woke up we'd have the perfect location for our pit. During supper, we worked out the plan for the race. We decided that I would start and then worked on the lap times based on our pre-ride. Even on a whim race, we still wanted a plan!
Team name was easy. "Alien Baby" Why? Because this would be the first race for Nick after his surgery and it does look like he had an alien baby removed. A silly name for racing on a whim. The food was a little harder. We were at the tail end of the trip, with only a little food remaining in the cooler. And nothing really resembling the kind of spread we usually have for a 24 hour race! But this was "only" 8 hours, so we didn't need that much, we just needed to find a grocery store. Once that was accomplished, time to chill for a bit before getting our numbers. Believe it or not, Casper has a really good sushi restaurant and that hit the spot. After getting out numbers, we drove up the mountain. I'm sure I'd been on Casper Mountain before - maybe one of the years I did the marathon - but I'd never ridden there. That was back before I was really even thinking about mountain biking and before people started realizing that there was good money in attracting mountain bikers.
The goal was to find a campground near the transition area at the Nordic Lodge. We'd been told that there was plenty of camping scattered around, but nothing was really in a convient spot for an easy race morning. Not wanting to dink around and miss a preride, we just pulled into the Nordic Lodge's parking lot. Pre-riding took priority.
It was a good thing we did - this was the kind of course that was challenging no matter how fast you were riding! There were plenty of long climbs and quick descnts, a few rock gardens and generally punchy riding. But what made it challenging were the twists. Nothing was straight forward riding - it wasn't rocks that made you think, but the trail itself. The faster you rode, the less time you had to react to the twists in the trail. Tight turns, ducking and dodging under the trees. In and out of shadows, never quite in shadow long enough to adjust before popping out into the next meadow filled with wildflowers. The course was both physically and mentally challenging. Without the excellent job of marking, I would have been completely lost. But the arrows and ribbons were perfect. While I never knew where exactly I was on Casper Mountain, I always knew I was on the course.
After pre-riding, we pondered the camping situation. In the end, we decided to go under the radar and just park in the back of the lot for the Nordic Center. Worst that could happen is we'd get told to move in the middle of the night. Best case, when we woke up we'd have the perfect location for our pit. During supper, we worked out the plan for the race. We decided that I would start and then worked on the lap times based on our pre-ride. Even on a whim race, we still wanted a plan!
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| Every race needs a plan - that's just how we roll. Even if it's scribbled in pen on the back of the race flier! |
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