End of Year Party: Part 2

After the riding came the fun and games.

Annie and I set up our chairs and watched as people pulled a log with their bike, tossed some Huffys, and raced around on adult tricycles.  I thought about tossing the bike for a few seconds and then figured that with my luck I'd tweak a muscle in my neck or pull my back throwing it so I decided against it.  I was about to do the log pull with the Glow Worm when I saw someone completely stall out on their singlespeed... so nope for that.  Irish Luke, however, did give the pull a shot.  

It wasn't just a straight out pull.  You had to go out and around a cone and come back.  Navigating the turn so you didn't knock the cone over was a bit tricky.

watching for clearance 

Pure determination as he gets back to the finish line.  Luke crushed it, leaving me with no desire to get up there.  

TheMutt was organizing the coed tricycle relays and was embroiled in a little family competition.  TheMutt was racing with Little Miss Sunshine as his teammate and found himself stacked up against Lunchbox.  It was a close come from behind win - but ultimately Dad knows best.

Little Miss Sunshine trying to get started again after the ditch in the course

 Lunchbox had the lead going into his leg of the race but TheMutt pedaled furiously to gain some ground.  Out of the ditch the race really heated up.

TheMutt was catching up, Lunchbox tries to put it down to stay head

 Lunchbox started weaving, in an apparent attempt to prevent TheMutt from drafting him...

TheMutt looking back to ensure his victory

see that tongue hanging, I think he almost died!

 In the end it was all smiles!

After his victory, TheMutt was looking for a couple more coed teams for the tricycle races when Annie surprised me by volunteering us.  Annie's foot wear for the event was, let's say, more "fashion" minded than riding friendly, but she jumped out there without a worry.  

Annie took the first leg of the race.  The hard part about riding the tricycle was that the cranks were directly connected to the front wheel - so if the wheel is turning, so are the cranks.  If your feet came off the pedals going down the hill into the ditch area (thanks Lunchbox for the ravine climb section!) it was hard to get them back on and keep your momentum - I found that out the hard way.

When it came to my turn I had quite the gap to make up, and I hit the course pedaling my ass off.  I lost my footing as I hit the gravity cavity section (see how the dip in the course gets bigger and bigger each time it is mentioned??) and had a hard time getting back on the pedals... basically I had to start from a complete stop which ended my chances of catching up - it looked like I might as I started off pretty fast.  But it was fun!  You couldn't take yourself too serious on that thing, and that is what it's all about - FUN!

photo credit: Danielle

Then it was time for the main event... the bike derby!

If you don't know what a bike derby is... well, it's basically a bunch of people riding around in a circle trying not to put their foot down.  The only rule - you couldn't take your hands off your handle bars (you know, to push over your competition).  - Derby photo credit: Annie

TheMutt mc'd the event, telling the crowd to step in closer as riders went down.

Dicky started sizing me up 

So I leaned into him, and he gave up, for now.

Then Irish Luke stepped up.  He started putting on the squeeze

I reminded him who had given him a beer and was able to sneak out behind him.

Just in time to avoid Tom Tom's exit from the rodeo

In the end it came down to Dicky and Irish Luke.  It was a solid battle, but ultimate Dicky took home the inaugural Derby Belt. 

After the derby we got our grub on.  The food was gooood.  Annie and I hung out for the raffle, and the woman in front of us won no less than 6 times - for real!  After that we had to take off - so we missed out on the band.  Seriously people, this is not an event to miss out on - I expect to see you there next year.

End of Year Party: Part 1

The Year End Party was Sunday, and it was great!!  An awesome amalgamation of the Tarheel Trailblazers and out sister club, the Dirt Divas.  So much awesome awesomeness happened that I am preemptively splitting this post into two.  Part 1 - the trails, Part 2 -  the events/party.

Before I get to far into this thing I must say that Annie attended the event with me.  Her assessment of the situation - great time!!  My brother, who did not attend, was feeling kinda left out as he said - "even for a non rider it sounds like that would be a fun event just to check out all the crazy challenges you guys were doing."  You know what?  He is right.  So even for you non-riding friends of riders (or even just a curious citizen) I STRONGLY recommend you get your butt out for the party next year, you won't regret it!!

Ok, to the trails.  So I've never ridden out at Anne Close Springs Greenway before.  The name itself is misleading.  It's not a greenway - they are legit trails, so set your mind at ease.  The "close" part isn't that far off.  It wasn't hard to get to at all... plus, I got to fill up in South Carolina on the way home so I saved about $76.03*.

As we were readying to hit the trails a number of groups were breaking out, beginners, intermediates, and the faster mustaches riders.  I apparently fell into the fold with the faster riders.  And it was a quick pace off the start.  It had me spinning out on the Glow Worm (which made it through the ride seemingly out - slow leak in the rear tire, prolly need new sealant...) as we rode down a dirt road to the trail.  The trails were NICE and the pace was fun... that is until we hit some old road and went up a hill.  For some reason I decided being up in the front of the pack was good for me and I kept pace all the way to the top.  Ooops, we missed a turn.  Back down the hill - this time I pulled up the rear.  I'd about blown myself up maintaining some sort of race pace off the start so I settled in to have some fun.

These trails have everything: roots, climbs, twisty stuff, about 12+ bridges (with about 8 coming within a half mile span) including a sweet suspension bridge, and.... drum roll please - TWO WAY TRAFFIC!!  I've gotten so used to one way trails riding around the Charlotte area that it was strange but exhilarating to hit some two way trails again.  That might sound a bit weird, but for me it brought back memories of riding back up north.  And towards then end, when I was riding alone, it had a very "state forest" type of feel to it as I wasn't quite sure where the heck I was going!!  (except for the fact that the trails had markers, with those little cell phone squiggly boxes that bring you to websites when you scan them.  I didn't stop to scan them, I don't think I have an app for that, but if they actually bring up a map showing your location then that is THE BEST THING EVER THAT SHOULD BE ON EVERY TRAIL!)  Anyway, people did MUCH better with the two way traffic then I would have imagined - since most of the riders were from the one way Charlotte trails.  Of course, there were a few frightened people, but I did my best to move over and encourage them to keep coming - which most did happily.

So why was I riding alone at the end?  After the downhill back to the correct turn the group kept the pace up.  I had two riders behind me and as we were getting dropped by the group, I found that I was dropping them... I didn't think I had the legs/lungs to catch back up and hang on to the group so I settled in at my own pace.  Soon I came up on two random riders that I was happy to trail for a bit.  Then we hit up with a group of Dirt Divas - at which point Good Guy Greg (the sweeper) caught up so I regrouped with him and head off ahead of the Dirt Divas.  Soon I was out ahead all alone and came to an intersection without any clue as to where to go, so I waited.  We hooked back up and G3 gave me a run through of the trails ahead and we were off.  We hit some climbing so I again opened up a gap.  I came to an intersection and wasn't sure which way to go, but I was enjoying the trails so I didn't really care - I just went.  I eventually figured out how to get back, I was out for about an hour at this point and I didn't want to leave Annie all by her lonesome for too long.

When I got back it was time to get changed, crack and beer, and see what kind of fun was going on.  You'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that stuff from me - but I'm sure someone else out there in the internerds will be talking about it today - I'm looking at you TheMutt and Dicky.


*rough estimation based on the numbers my fingers struck on my keyboard