Full Moon Fever

Tom Petty reference there. That's right.

So every now and then I go on a ride and when I think back on it I think to myself, "Man that was stupid". I end up coming out on top (no crashes), but I end up feeling like I pushed my limits a little too far. I'm all for growing and getting better, but sometimes I imagine I just got lucky with a ride that I shouldn't have done.

This sums up my feelings on last night.

Yesterday was the last day of the "Control" game and it looked like our second place team was in position to take over first. All we needed was to go nuts and do a lot of riding. Fair enough.

I got called out and so I knew I needed to throw something big up on the board. I picked Harding, but when I talked to Matt, he convinced me to do Blackstar-Motorway instead.

A quick history about me and Blackstar-Motorway ... first two attempts at it were terrible. I fell apart physically and mentally. Third time was earlier this year and it was awesome. I've just recently started to feel like this ride isn't a big deal. The idea of doing it at night though adds some of the fear factor back in.

Preparation for the ride was done in haste. It was a last minute decision and it wasn't easy to make considering I was tired and wanted to just stay home and eat and watch tv.

To the ride ...

Matt and I got to the meeting spot on time and we both agreed we'd ride as fast as we could and take a minimal amount of breaks so we could get home at a decent time. Matt told me he had only charged his light for an hour, so we agreed to split time on the lights. Mine was fully charged, but just to be safe we'd go one light on, one off for the duration of the trail.

It was windy out, but not very cold, which was a nice change. As it turned out, there were no clouds in the sky and we had a full moon. We were able to ride 80% of the way to Beek's on moonlight alone. That was a pretty cool feeling.

The fireroad in between Beek's and the Motorway is pretty much a blur. My legs were definitely giving out on the last few climbs. I always forget how steep and loose some of those climbs are. Man I hate them.

We stopped at the start of the Motorway to do a quick head check. It's kind of a tradition to stop and make sure we're ready to go down. You can't go down the Motorway with your head turned off.

The ride down was uneventful except for one fall. I was coming down about halfway through the Motorway (really rocky and loose section) when I tried to cross a rut to get a better line. I failed. Ha. I came off the bike ok and just stumbled into a bush. No big deal.

I had several close calls though. The Motorway has a lot of loose rock spots and by the time the trail was done I had lost almost all my confidence mentally as well as physically. I think the combination of being in the dark and being tired added up to some "not so great" feelings.

We made it though. Total ride time was about 3 hours and 20 minutes, which is 10 minutes off the pace of my personal best. Not bad considering how I was feeling and how slow I was going down in the dark.

Some guy bonking on Blackstar-Motorway: