Black Bear Rampage 2008

Well, this past weekend, Smap and I successfully finished the 2nd and our 2nd Black Bear Rampage. I didn't take a lot of photos this year like last year. I am hoping they will have some on the website that I can steal later.

I took the day off of school on Friday to help prepare for our two night camp at the Ocoee River. This is one of our favorite places to camp for several reasons. We love the Tanasi Trail System, Smap loves to paddle the Ocoee (I use to, but prefer not to now), and the campground is easy to get to and has a lot of shade on one side for our dog/child Ippon. We always have to take him with us of course!

We got down there and set up camp next to a good friend Shannon. She is another one of my girl friends who left Knoxville for a better city. It is okay though, she is only in Nashville, so I still see her frequently at mountain bike races! Shannon was camping with another friend of ours (Ed), who is from Knoxville, but we camp with him more than see him. It was nice hanging with them off and on all weekend.

The weather could not have been perfect for this year's race. Last year it poured in the beginning, leading to a sloppery wet crappy ride for me. Tons of issues last year. This year's problem for me was cramping. After finishing the race and speaking with most of my friends, I was not the only one who experienced major cramping this year. I have never popped so many Endurolites in my life, but thank goodness I had them because they saved my life for the last 20 of the total 44 miles.

Smap entered the men's single speed division and got 5th place. I think he was twice as old as the guys who beat him and he was only 1:30 behind 3rd. He did awesome. He also improved his time from last year by like 8 min's or something. And, they made the race longer this year by adding a two mile ride up the street to the turn in onto Brushy Creek trail. This was to break up the mass start in each category. I was very proud of him for the lack of training both of us had put into preparing....I married a natural.

My race was good too. I was of course the only single speeding female out there. I got combined into the W's sport category. The ride up the street wasn't too bad on my single speed...I think I went onto Brushy Creek in 4th position out of 14 Sport Women. I finished 5th. I improved my overall time from last year by 14 min's. I was disheartened at the awards ceremony because I was under the impression that my W's sport category was going to be divided into two age groups....up to 34, and then 35 and over. The top three women who won were all over 35, which would have put me on the podium for a 2nd place. WOULD HAVE.....they decided to combine our age groups and just make one group since "there weren't enough of us" to warrant two classes. I CALLED B.S. on that one!!!! There were 2 guys who finished the BURLY BEAR division and they both got to get up on the podium and receive prizes....3 pro women, podium and prizes, 3 juniors under 18...yep, podium and prizes.....but, we only had five in our age group and 9 in the 35+ age group, so we didn't have enough! Ridiculous... I was so disgusted by this I just couldn't stand it. I only wanted to have my photo made on the podium standing near Gary Fisher (one of my icons)... Their prizes sucked, so it sure as hell wasn't about that. UGGG.

Anyway, enough ranting. The race was fun and I got to see a lot of friends, and meet new people. One of my friends that I met this summer at a race is 47 and she kicked major butt to get 2nd in our field....she did all this with MS and a cracked rib.....yes, MS!!

I especially enjoyed the weekend because it was kind of Smap and my 3rd anniversary weekend...three years on October 1st!

We'll see if I can get over my frustrations with the store who put the race on this weekend and possibly compete next year. I did get to meet and talk with Gary Fisher a few times. Gary was roommates with Kent Bostick...a Knoxville pro cyclist who is still a pro in his 50's now. Smap met Gary a few years ago at Trek World and found out that they had Kent as a friend in common, so it was cool when Smap walked up to Gary on Friday night and Gary remembered Smap. Smap did take my photo with Gary, but I don't know if it is an acceptable photo by my standards to publish on my blog (I looked gross). :-)