Sunday, May 25, 2008

Escape From Granogue 2008


Escape From Granogue was held on the DuPont estate grounds in Delaware. The course provided some great views of the area and at times came very close to the mansion. For the sport, expert, and enduro classes, the course was around a 7 mile lap. The lap was done 2x for sport, and 3x for expert. The weather was great, and it wasn't too hot at the sport's 8:00 am. start time. Many of the other juniors that I like to race against were there, including Gunnar, Jacob, Josh, and Caleb. The course was very fast and fun. I didn't do the race last year, but I heard that it wasn't going to be very technically difficult. Although it still didn't have quite as many obstacles as I would have liked, the race was more technical that I thought it would be, and had a mix of terrain such as bridges, tunnels, railroad crossings, steep drops and climbs, and fast twisty sections. I woke up that morning and felt like I had gotten the flu, but on my way out of our hotel, I grabbed some hot tea and drank that all morning. At the start, I felt much better. Although I never heared or saw them since I passed them going into the singletrack, I looked back about 2 miles later and Gunnar and Caleb were right on my wheel. I knew that I needed to make a move fast, so I quickly passed a few people and picked up my pace. When I looked back and saw that Gunnar wasn't there, I slowed down so that I could recover well enough to race the 2nd lap with enough energy. I finished first with a total time of 1:29:12.25. Gunnar was about 4 minutes back and ended up getting 3rd. 2nd Place went to Cameron Dodge, who I had never raced against and did not know.

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