Stone Temple 8

Hey race fans. Adam here, back from a grueling race weekend. The Stone Temple 8 was a huge success as I finished in 2nd place for the Solo Men. It all started with a Le mans start where about 40+ people dashed 200 yards across the gravel parking lot to their own bikes. This separated the group of people before we got into the tight biking trails. From there it was about one mile of jeep trail (which was the only double track in the entire race) before entering the single track.

Hour after hour the day slowly passed by as you battle your competitors, the trails, and your sanity. After each lap, Andrea was there to hand off fresh water and food before I took off to start the next lap. As I look back now, I don't really remember the last three hours of the race. I felt like I was just in cruise control with my only goal being to maintain the heart rate that I'd been at all day. Every time I put the meat to the pedals my heart would reach my target zone of 163 to 168 beats per minute. Then a down hill section would come after the climb, dropping my heart rate to the mid to upper 130's before rocketing back up to 163+ for the next section of pedaling.

There was a pretty steep and technical rock feature that I was warned to walk down after 4 hours of the race. This was advice given by someone who has battled this course and knows that after 4 hours your mental focus for maneuvering down such features is greatly compromised by your fatigue. At lap 8 I was thinking, "oh yeah, I've made it 7 times down this thing, why not try for another". Well, I should have listened to the advice because once again I found myself soaring over my handlebars and landing on solid rock. The wind was knocked out of me and my cable that ran my remote lockout for my fork was pulled right out.

Anyway, it was a quick recovery. I put my glasses on straight, scrapped the rocks off my elbow and chugged on for another lap after that (on lap 9, I walked down :).

Thank you Andrea for your support throughout the entire day, I love you. She also took a few photos, so check em out.

Looking at results after the race.

Making quick time through the single-track.

The venue at Curt Gowdy State Park.

Finishing up another lap before getting some refreshments from Andrea.

Thanks for reading!

I'll be posting again about the first Fat Fish Racing Cyclocross Event. Check back soon.