LEMURIAN -- EPIC ADVENTURE!!!

Wow! To say this weekend went well for us would be an understatement! After a dismal performance in Sundays' Donkey Pop, I was pretty upset to have under-performed my home town race. But, in the spirit of moving onward and upward, I was able to mentally dispose of the Otter quickly. Unfortunately, the severe cramping I suffered stayed with me until the day before the Lemurian, making me question whether or not I would thrive or merely survive!

Fortunately, the entire Butler clan was able to put down some great rides and really enjoy the adventure of this incredibly cool race! This event offers 3 courses; the 8 mile "short/beginner", the 20 mile "intermediate/sport" and the 27 mile "long/expert" course. While there is "only" about 4500 feet of climbing on the 27 mile course, the way that it unfolds is brutal, painful, and only can be fully comprehended by actually riding (or in many cases walking...) the steeps of Whiskeytown Lake's scenic, but treacherous terrain. Not only are the climbs an assault to the senses, but the descents strike fear into even seasoned veterans and most riders barely have the physical and emotional capacity to handle the arm pumping final decent without catastrophic results...

On the 8 mile course, Bri knew it was going to be a pure sprint...and she was right! On the ascent she rode by last years beginner victor (and of course, NEMESIS!) Leah, who is a strong climber. Bri kept her in sight up the climb and then took the brakes off down the treacherous Ice Box trail to open up a comfortable margin of victory! Not only did she win her class, but she ended up 3rd overall out of all the beginners! NICE WORK!

On the 20 miler, we had Brett and "Pro Joe" ready for battle. Brett knew what to expect and blazed to a solid 4th place finish...narrowly missing the podium, but improving his time from last year considerably AND earning 8th overall out of all the 20 milers...about 70 of them! Nice job Brett!

Big Dad (aka Pro Joe) was in for a real special treat! Driving to the event, he was unsure of what race to do. I simply advised: "The short course is a pure sprint, you will hardly even get up to operating temperature and then be done. The middle course will give you some adventure and there are only like 2 climbs to contend with. I am pretty sure you will think it's easy..." When the long course looped back on the middle course, I passed Pro Joe and he was lookin' strong! I said "Good job Dad! Only a few more miles and then it's ALL downhill to the truck!" Oops. Not quite...

Upon coming into the finish, words along the lines of "Brian, I am going to KILL YOU!!!!" MIGHT have been muttered. Honestly though, in his exhausted slur of speech it's really impossible to discern what was really said. The POINT is that Pro Joe CONQUERED his demons, the course, and made it around safely in what coincidentally turned out to be only 9 minutes long of his goal time...3:09. Had it not been for some cramps, I think a 3 hour flat was in the cards! After a beer, he was doin' better. Upon realization that he podiumed with a 3rd place in the "Legends" he was on cloud nine! After looking at his race number of "309" we realized his destiny had actually been carved out pre-race...

Travis made the trek again after a dehydration bout last year nearly took him out of the race. This year was time for a little payback! He ripped his way around the course on his Giant XTC to finish in a very respectable 2:37...Waaaaay better than last years near death march!

As for myself. I had a pretty good day. I unleashed the fury that I wanted to impose upon the Otter Pop and had it not been for a poor decision regarding equipment choice I probably could have done even better. It's ok though, I like to have some room for improvement each year! I ended up 3rd in my class and 21st out of almost 200 long course riders, so I was a pretty pumped on that!

However, my finishing time of 2:27 was 21 minutes SLOWER than first place Xterra racer from Canada, Mike Vine. That guy won last year with a 2:07 and this year he did a 2:06! Unfathomable! He battled tooth and nail with Trek/Volkswagon's Tim Olson for much of the race before pulling away on his Intense Spider on the final climb. I believe he won by about 1 minute, so those guys were both hauling! All I need to find is about 46 seconds per mile...

All in all, a great adventure, epic mountain bike race that seems to bring out strong riders who only show up for certain "big mountain" events like this and D-ville. So not only is the course challenging, but you can be sure that the talent pool is plenty deep if you are looking for a challenge! Pencil it into next years calendar for sure! Nice hair...