Stick a fork in me......I'm done. A little before and after effect. The Cochiti 100 was Saturday.......and for me it was the Cochiti 55, and that was about right at my pre-race goal. It's hard to keep these tales brief, but here's my best shot. Being a self-timed event, I took off with a small group right at 6:29am, knowing it would only be a matter of time before the hammers, who left a little later, caught and passed me. One of many highlights of my day was pedaling along for a while with the former Governor, along the 13-plus mile, steep, Dome climb. On the Dome climb, Jeff H and John S cruised right on by looking quite strong. Chris H caught my wheel a while later and we rode together to the Dome Wilderness signage where Jens flew past us going quite fast. Big props to the moto guy who not only did some trail clearing the previous day, but also was at the Motown turnoff directing traffic early Sat. Thanks! It wasn't long on Motown before I went over the bars on some nasty rootage, but no damage done, and shortly after that Matt cruised right on by me, and let me tell you, not only is he super fast, he is smooth! When Lenny caught and passed me with a couple of guys at the end of Motown, it prompted me to pick up the pace, and I kept them within earshot as we hit graduation flats over to 10 plus miles of technical singletrack called the crosstown trail. Typical fun moto style trail with some loose, steep, hike-ups and downs, along with the faster, flowing stuff, and a steep, hike-a-bike at about mile 29, before some much needed gravity riding, wrapping it up on the awesome Media Dia singletrack complete with refreshing stream crossings, back to Dixon's apple orchard.

I couldn't believe how long it took me to complete the first 41-plus miles, but talking with everyone else, that seemed to be the common theme, even for the elite riders. I kicked back for about 15-minutes while my great pit crew, Ann, took care of my bottles and food, and before I knew it, she and Janet from El Paso, said they wanted to head out on Loop 2 with me. Sounded good, so we headed out and did a modified version of the loop to complete our day. I was pretty cooked, feeling the effects of afternoon heat, an upset stomach, and leg cramps, I'd battled all day long. Upon finishing, I spotted Tim relaxing in the shade with some friends, and doing some "carbo loading" before hitting up their second loop. Guess they got a later start than planned, but Tim rocked the first loop on his SS, so hats off to ya man and good to meet ya!

This was a very challenging endurance event, and I'm really glad to have participated. Big thanks to Matt for organizing, and to any of the 60+ guys and gals who rode. Turns out only John S and Matt completed all three loops, and that last loop looked like the toughest of the three. Way to go. The NMES web site has additional info and comments from participants.