Chequamegon Short & Fat

The picture is from my starting position for the Cheqamegon Short & Fat. I figured that I was mid-pack of the 800 starters. I knew that my work was cut out for me if I wanted to hit my goal of finishing in the top 100.

The first mile or so was paved and slightly downhill. It took me a good 40 seconds just to cross the start line, but then I opened up the legs and the lungs. I probably pissed a few people off as I was yelling "on your right" over and over. I was flying past people and briefly saw a top speed of 27mph. I kept it pinned and passed alot of the people through the uphills to mile 3. I had to back it off to recover for a bit and then started picking people off for the rest of the race. In the last mile I saw 5 people in front of me and told myself that I had to pass all of them to get inside 100. I made the last pass on the top of the last hill and flew to the finish.

I was pleasantly surprised to finish 61st overall and 9th in class. Fun times.
More to come later.

The more: This was a fun trip to reconnect with some old bike buddies from my days of living in the Mpls area. I drove up on Friday morning and did a pre-ride of the course. I was a little concerned about getting a good starting position as I knew that last years winners had an average of 16mph or slightly higher. I rode at 80% and had an avg of 12.5. The guys showed up around dinner time and we BS'd late into the night. The morning came quick and we slowly got our stuff together (why do I always wait until the last minute?).

After driving to the finish area, we rode the 3miles to the start line. It was a short but good warm-up. I secured a decent start spot in the first 1/3 of the start chute and went to find a port-0-potty. When I returned, everyone had moved forward (but kindly left my bike alone). Net result was me started in mid-pack. I won't bore you with more race details, but I felt good and raced smart. Woulda, coulda, shoulda if I had a better starting position (not for the win, but top 30?).

Mark, Darcy, Shawn and I stayed up until 2am that night reliving old times. Had a good breakfast in the morning and drove the 7hour return. I would have liked to ridden more, but it rained most of Saturday and into Sunday. I'll definately return for this race again and hopefully to get the family onto the trails and into the cabins/woods.

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