Grind on the Greenway

This past Saturday was the 6 hour Grind on the Greenway in Fort Mill, SC. There were heavy rains the day before, but Saturday was looking good. I got to the race about an hour and a half before start. I had time to get set-up, checked in, and cut up with Andy and Stephen. Just before the race I noticed I had almost no back brakes left. Oh well, I guess I will have to not use them. The race started off at 11:00, with a perfect temperature on a sunny day. I decided to not worry too much about the start, most of the field was solo, and there was a a pretty good distance before we had to funnel into the single track. I started well, and worked through traffic nicely on the first lap, with the exception of the guy with two headphones in (loser). I started lap 2 feeling great and just wanted to keep a consistent pace, I kept working my way through the field. I wasn't paying too much attention to numbers at this point, I had 4+ hours to go, so I just rode. I took a short break after 2 hours for a bite of a sandwich and wet lube for the bike. The trail was not too bad, mostly dry, with the mud only in sharp turns, technical sections and the bottom of climbs (how does that happen? haha). I was staying at my pace and trying to find people to ride with. I felt good until 3:40 in (yes, I looked at the clock). I was hoping that I wasn't crashing (internally), so when I came back around I downed the rest of my First Endurance EFS and some COLD water. I also changed clothes, this seemed to work I was ready to go for lap 5, my wife (and pit crew that did a perfect job for the race today) let me know I was in 6th. I started paying attention to numbers, but that wasn't helping because I was lapping other riders in my field. I got on the gas with all that I had left for my last lap hoping I would move up. When I looked at the results , I had pulled in 7th out of 25 ( I know I passed #768 on the last lap). I was happy with the result and felt good with my performance.

Next week, Columbia!!