Dennis B Murphy >>>>>>>>>>

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September 2006

9-26-06 Race season over. I placed 7th of 8 at Maybury... short course, it was only about 5-1/2 miles long. It was basically a sprint for those fast guys. I may try a couple cyclocross races, but no races until next spring.

9-18-06 Second Place!
.....The first Hanson Hills endurance race was grueling. There was alot more climbing than any of the events I had done this year. I early on set a goal for ten laps, but as the evening approached, I realized I would not reach this. The course was about 10.5 miles long. By the end of lap four, I was very sore. My hands, knees and shoulder were aching. I took a break for on-half hour, popped some ibuprofen and rested. I then felt pretty good in lap five, but made a discovery! My front shock was bottoming out! How it lost air I do not know, but I gutted it out for the rest of lap five and also for lap six. This was strategic since at the end of lap six I would be forced to make a longer stop in the pits to put lights on the bike for the approaching night riding. We were required to have lights by 630pm and I knew that I would end lap six at about 545- not enough time for a seventh lap anyway.
..... I stopped after lap six to add lights, change jersey and put air in the shock- that made a world of difference! With air in the shock as required and my new Ergon Grips my hands and wrists were doing quite well. But it was now late. I ended lap eight at about 915pm and decided to call it a day. I had time to do lap nine, but not the energy. It was a bit disappointing for the night ride portion. I enjoy the night riding but for this race we had limited time to ride. Most of the events are Noon-to-Midnight races and we effectively have nearly four hours of night riding (8pm-midnight). But the Hanson race was 10am-10pm event so the night riding was limited to about 1-1/2 hours.
..... So I came in after eight laps with no idea of exactly how many competitors I had or what their lap counts were. Turns out that there were five people in the category. Fifth place did seven laps. Fourth and Third place did eight laps like I did but I must have came through the chute earlier then they did to beat them. (i.e. I did my eight laps in less time). If either one of them had gone out and done one more lap they'd have had second place. First place had ninie laps. I had toyed with the idea of doing the ninth lap, figuring if I did do it I would arrive back to the chute at about 1030pm so I chose not to.. likely had I done the ninth, I would still have taken second place since the winner would have probably finished his lap nine ahead of me. With this event, I effectively move into fourth place in the endurance series behind Mike Seaman, Brent Walk and Steve KinleyI could not have caught any of them (either by points or ability- as they are all three awesome riders). There was some amazing riding by other's that day.. Ezra Mullin (13 years old) did THIRTEEN LAPS- as did Danielle Musto. Friend Shari Scurr also completed eight laps!
..... Camping was allowed on-site so I camped there both Friday and Saturday night. There was a band playing on Friday when I went to bed at about 11pm, but I never heard them- going to sleep nearly immediately!

9-6-06 Labor Day weekend update:
.......After a five hour Thursday drive to Ohio for work- we came back and arrived in West Michigan about noon on Friday- in time to go to the office for a few hours. I figured I'd be out on the holiday weekend by 3pm, but a memo from the upper echelons told everyone to stay for the full day. So out at 5pm and off to Grandville to balance and rotate the tires for the upcoming long drive.
.......Got home and began packing gear for the 12 Hours of Drummond Island race. I also had to charge my bike lights, so Joni and I had dinner first (pasta of course) and then I left for the Upper Peninsula. A five hour drive later I arrived at the Detour State Forest Campground at 1230am and set up the tent by car headlight. (Cheap stay- only $10). I set the alarm for 9am.
.......I woke before the alarm, ate a bagel, had an OJ and packed the car. I then drove to Detour to catch the ferry over to Drummond Island.(The M134 highway becomes Detour's main road, ends at the ferry dock and resumes as the same M134 on the island). Incidently- if you want GOOD coffee, two doors prior to the turn to the ferry is a little place called the Garage- which apparently used to BE a garage, but is now a very good coffee shop and gift shop.
.......I only had a slight difficulty in finding the resort (there are several on Drummond Island). Once there, registered, set up and prepared.
.......The turnout was light. None of my major competitors were present except Steve K, but he was racing the 24 hour event. (Steve would finally do 32 laps for 204 miles- he rode more miles than any other solo rider or team- period)! I had one competitor for my event, Tony T., who was doing his first endurance event.
.......The first half mile of the trail was extremely technical, with roots and rocks galore and a bike speed of perhaps 4-5mph. Once past this technical section of single track the trail would become mostly wider two tracks and snowmobile trails. A few small stretches of golf cart track and a ride along the edge of the driving range- then back into another quarter mile technical section again, then onto the road and wide trail (and bumpy grassy stretches) to the finish/loop. The trail was overall quite rugged and bumpy and took a toll on my wrists and shoulders- prompting me to by the Ergon-grips for my bike for the next event. Judging by my first two or three lap times (approximately 35-45 minutes for the 6.5 mile course), I set a pesonal goal to reach sixteen laps this event. ( I actually did have one 30 minute lap- what turned out to be my eleventh lap- since I was trying to hit twelve by 8pm, on lap eleven I really moved to get that next one in).
......I did as before- relying solely on Heed for hydration and Perpetuem for fuel. I did drink a couple RedBulls during the event and used only a small amount of Hammerjel, but I felt pretty strong and steady. I had intended to stop at 6pm as I did at Ithaca and Pando. However, the reasons for stopping then did not now exist. It wasn't hot and the trail was tricky in spots, so I determined to continue riding through until I needed to make an extended stop at 8pm to put lights on. By 8pm I had 12 laps. I stopped to change jersey and put lights on, rest and replenish bottles. Tony was also doing this. He then started riding again perhaps 10-15 minutes before I did. I took a quick review of the 8pm scoring results and confirmed my twelve laps and Tony's 10 laps. I caught up with him at about the three mile mark on the road after the second technical section, passing him to continue onward. By 1030 I rode through the chute and checked the 10pm scoring. Tony had completed his eleventh lap, the one on which I passed him, then stopped racing due to a sore knee. So it was 1030 and I had 15 laps and no competitive reason to keep going..... but I had my goal, so out for lap 16- which was the hardest lap-perhaps because I knew I was going to stop afterwards- and it took me the longest.
.......So with none of the powerhouse racers in my field and Tony doing his first ever 12 hour race, I took first place and was rewarded with a really nice, large bike gear bag. .......I left the island on the 130am ferry to go back to the state forest campground- but it was full. So I drove onward as I wasn't too sleepy, across the Mackinac Bridge to a rest area just south of Gaylord where I did finally drop the seat back to sleep. I arrived back home at about 11am Sunday.

......Monday, we drove three hours to Addison Oaks County Park in Oakland County to picnic with Brenden's girlfriend's family and ride. (They are also all mountain biker). There is a really good mountain bike trail there (the venue of the upcoming Sept 24th race) so we wanted to get a pre-ride in anyway. Joni needed to ride it since she is considering doing the beginner women's race on the 24th. We did one group ride, easy pace and keeping everyone together. Brian and I did a second lap after that while the kids ate watermelon... that lap hurt a bit after the 104 miles the previous day.

.....Some humor. While in the second technical section at about 10pm, I stopped for a "relief." It was pitch dark and there as a severe rustling in the brush to the right a few yards! Now there are bears out in these woods- presumably one adolescent bear as well as a mother bear with two cubs. So I started making noise and moving my headlamp around.... until (sheepishly) I realized it was sprinklers from the golf course hitting the bushes. I later found another guy had the same experience- thinking something was there until realizing it was the water! Too funny. Another guy did see a "bare"... apparently at dusk, as he passed an outlying area of the golf course, one of the girl workers decided it was too far to a bathroom and chose a spot near our race path to expose.... apparently it was quite the embarrassment for both of them!