Nevada State DH Championships 2012

So i was pushed to enter a downhill race by a local shop owner Ryan ( Korebikeindustries.com) I had never entered any race and have always just rode for sport so i was a bit hesitant as i didnt want to go and look like a fool. So i made every excuse in the books to not make it but it still ended up happening and I'm glad I went.

We ended up driving up in my Kia Soul with my new sweet Kuat NV rack which made unloaded so much easier than my last rack. We got about 26mpg on the way up and it took about 5 hours to get there from Phoenixx
When we first arrived we suited up and got on the shuttle truck to the top. On my first run i stopped at all the drops and waterfalls and honestly wondered why the hell i came. It was some nasty crap. The very top was really loose shelf rock,super steep, had drops into berms of more shelf rock then had you cross nasty waterfalls and jagged rock gardens. Then the bottom was real high speed hard packed dirt with g outs and small long high speed jumps.
Friday night we scrambled to leave and find a hotel and settled on a super 8 right off the Las Vegas strip. We unloaded and bought a bottle of Jager and drank it on the way to get food at dicks last resort( restaurant where the waiters are complete a*sholes to you on purpose) had some good laughs.
Saturday we did quite a few practice runs and then for the last run i did the Super D course on my Hard tail to see what it was all about. Everyone looked at me like i was crazy but i went for it. I was following the full sus bikes until about halfway down i blew out my tire pretty bad so i hiked the rest of the trail. That night we just rested as race day was in the morning.

Sunday we woke up early at 7 and made it to the hill by 8 to practice. I decided i would only do one practice run to save my legs. So i did just that and then sat around until 11 and jumped on the shuttle bus to make my start time of 1136. I was nervous the whole time thinking what if one of the other riders catches up to me since there is only a 30 second split. I told my friends i think im in the wrong cat. The night before they convinced me i shouldn't try to switch to cat 3 (beginner) as i had never actually raced.

So I hike up the goat trail to the top and wait for my name to be called. I sit there nervously around all these sponsored riders trying to remember my lines and every turn and obstacle. All the sudden the timer makes me jump 4 people and starts counting down from 10 and i about hit him in the face running up the ramp with my bike swinging it to turn it around. At this point im literally shaking. So at the beep i just slam down on the pedals and go for it. I had one mishap that may have cost me about 2 seconds but the rest of my run was clean and i had enough energy to pedal most every spot. i lost juice at the bottom and slipped a pedal 20 yards from the finish but it didnt slow me down too much. Once i finished i kept ridng to my car fighting off puking in my helmet. I skid behind my car and laid on the ground for about 10 minutes.

I still didn't know my time so i ended up limping back up the hill to watch the rest of the riders finish their race. I of course took my horn to cheer them on
I chatted with some friends to ask how i did since i had no clue. Then said i looked faster than everyone that went by so far but i thought my mishap that stopped me dead had killed my time so i was just hoping i was in top half of my class (27 riders) after poking around a bit i found they didn't post my cat 19-29 results. Found out it was because they made me jump a few riders up top they had to sort out the times. They still marked the start time up top and your number and relayed down before you finished but they just had to go through it all again. So with all of that i kind of gave up trying to see how i placed. While blowing the horn at every rider i stopped for a second to hear Bob (announcer) say my name and said i had the 4th fastest time of the day. This really got my heart racing knowing that my whole cat had already gone. And i thought wow i am actually pretty quick !

So i went down and asked to see the screen astonished to see that I had actually won!

I ended up getting a gold medal on my first race ever. too bad i waited until I was an out of shape 27 year old!

here is the times, if you look through the list my time should impress anyone! 3:31.08

Im under cat 2 19-29
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1711/2013-jan-20-downhill-mike-nevada-state-champs-bootleg-canyon-nv/

Heres pictures from my actual race run, still looking for more.

My prize, Candy Components Knucklehead