Camp Hilbert #1

It was a dark, cold morning and a bone-chilling mist crept through the forest.
Once again, the DPR clan set out early in search of dragons to slay. This time the battle would be on the clan's home turf...

syke.

This is just going to be a regular non-fiction race write-up.
Or rather, my rookie-racer write-up.

Damon and I pulled in to Camp Hilbert Sunday morning at about 8 am for Hilbert Race #1. David Reid must have gotten there at 6am for some warm-up laps or something because he had the very first parking spot.
This was my first race of the season, first race with Design Physics, and the first actual xc race i'd done since i was probably 15 years old. So I walked around nervously for the hour leading up to the race trying to act like I knew what was about to go down.

The Enduro racers started at 9, and the under 35 Sport class starting siren went off at 9:02. Not really knowing how my legs were going to hold up, or what my strategy should be, I figured I might as well start strong and made my way towards the front before we hit the woods. I think i was in the top 12 or so once we were on the singletrack and we immediately hit the back end of the Enduro riders. The first lap was pretty much chaos from there on out. I kept leapfrogging places with a few different guys as we passed the enduro riders. I couldn't believe that i hadn't seen any crashes yet with all the full speed, through the bushes and over logs passing that was going on, when i hear some kind of cougar yowling from around the next bend. Actually a younger guy, maybe 13 or 14, was hugging a tree and his bike was 10 feet down the trail. Two guys stopped to help him, so I kept going. I never heard what happened, so i hope he was ok.

As the field stretched out and the passing died down, I ended up riding almost the entire second lap by myself. Eventually I spotted another Design Physics jersey up ahead and caught up to Paul, who I'm pretty sure was whistling Madonna's 'Like a Virgin.' He was pootling along, I guess it's hard to whistle and ride fast, so I stuck with him and caught my breath for a few minutes. I felt like i had pushed it pretty hard up to that point and was a little worried about burning out. Despite slowing down for a minute, the second lap turned out to be my fastest.

Making the turn onto the third lap, I saw that a guy with a Carytown Bike Company jersey was coming up behind me. I did my best to hold him off for almost the entire lap. I even crashed hard on that gnarly pile of roots down along the creek and managed to stay out of sight. Toward the end I caught up to some guys that, based on their pace, were riding enduro, and I kept trying to find the legs to pass them, but just didn't have the guts for it. I wish I had bit down and made the move though, because with not much more than a mile left, Carytown passed all of us and made me feel like a pansy.

I finished just in time to see some of the other classes start and almost get run over by Jeff going for the hole-shot into the woods. Despite feeling pretty burned at the end of the ride, I know I could have given it a little more, especially on that last lap, and I'm really looking forward to knowing a little more about myself next race.

Post-race, Hinmaton was flipping burgers with his phone, Roger was flopping cheese with both hands and Jason was counting cash like Young Money. The burgers, dogs, pasta salad, cookies, etc. were really excellent. Thanks to all those that contributed to the feast. All the other race attendees definitely appreciated it too, the grill crew could harldy keep up with demand.

It seemed like almost the whole team hung around till all the events were over, drinking beer, chowing on burgers and talking about bikes, races, gnarly crashes, excuses for being slow, and how long its taking to get those dang Stijl frames done.

Everyone that was out there get's a huge high-five because Design Physics|Stijl Racing has now bumped up to second place overall in the VORS standings.
Nolan, Damon, Jeff and Joe all finished second in their respective classes. A lot of top ten finishes for the rest of the team as well.
Official results are here: http://www.runriderace.com/chrs-1-results-2011/

There a ton of photos on RunRideRace's flickr (High fives to RunRideRace for such a great event too!)
and on the facebookz: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-Off-Road-Series/229702229900