I'm sitting here this morning digesting the race at the Berryman yesterday, and moving this sore old body about every minute.

All the "home boys" finished, and that was quite a feat in itself as the 2009 BTE was truly epic. We knew it was going to be epic when we could see all the streams flowing full bank on the way down. When we arrived at Bass River Resort and went to check into our A frame rental, the water from the "flooding river" was lapping at the road we needed to use to access the rental.

Mitch had already figured out what EPIC stood for: "Everyone Paddling In Canoes!" Holy smokes, how are we going to get across the river? Scott Davis already had a plan. They took flat beds that the resort uses for their raft rentals and put all the riders that were doing the tour on the trailers with their bikes and forded the river with 4 wheel drive trucks. Those guys were literally snorkeling to get across the river and know their river well.

For race day, the river had dropped considerably, but was still too high to ride across. After fording a section of the more shallow water, they had made a temp bridge to cross. This made for a lot of entertainment as over 100 riders tried to get the "hole shot" and then cross the bridge. Numerous riders ended up in the river and others were jammed behind the line. We could actually ride the river on the way back but I don't want to see what's in my bottom bracket.

With all the water in the creeks and some sections of very muddy trail in the bottoms, the race was much tougher than last year as the mud robs all the forward momentum and zaps energy. With the rocky soil, it was surprising how well the trails dried out.

Lots of climbing and then awesome downhills with all the obstacles like roots and rocks, then it was climb, climb, climb back up the roots and rocks.

I do all three of the major Epic races and Scott Davis and crew may have "raised the bar" as far as best bang for the buck and racing experience. This race is not for people without good technical skills or a high fitness level. The climbs are very demanding, and they are frequent.

But then, I guess if everyone could do it, it wouldn't be EPIC would it?

Congrats to Denny, and Mitch for very respectable finishes on this challenging course. Can't wait to get back there next year.

I am feeling the burn in the quads this morning, that was a super tough course especially with all the climbing. I didn't expect that much climbing, wasn't as prepared as I had hoped. I rode well but not super, I was fighting off cramps for about half the race. I know my body well enough when to back off a bit (in fact I stopped a few times to get my muscles out of that spasm mode) but that costs time but if I had pushed harder I would have spent some time lying on the ground in agony.....but that's all part of racing. I was pretty pleased with results until I saw that one of the guys that I beat at RIM beat me yesterday by almost 20 mins. who knows maybe he had an off day at RIM.

Talk about tough conditions, that course was torture on a bike. At one point I couldn't get my bike to shift into my small ring (that spells trouble on a course like that) so I had to make some adjustments on the fly but over adjusted because when I hit the road section and jumped into my big ring my chain jumped over the side. I really didn't want to mess with adjustments anymore because I wanted to make sure I could get back to the small ring so I rode in my middle on the road. Had some serious chain suck on the last road section, I was afraid I was going to break my chain but was able to get into the finish.

Denny rode awesome (I hope he can walk today), we rode together for quite a while and then I stopped to try and locate a funky noise on my bike and he rode ahead. I thought I would reel him in but didn't, when I got to the last check station he was only 3-4 min ahead of me and I though I would catch him but he actually made time on me that last section. The last section was really rutted out with lots of exposed roots and rocks but man it was a fun section. It would have been more fun if my legs weren't fried by that point but still was a good time. I had locked my front shock out on the road prior to the last leg and forgot to unlock it, now I know why my arms were taking a beating on those descents (my sides were actually hurting hitting those drops).

Here is a pretty good pic of our "bridge" across the water on the way out, of course it was gone on the way back so it was a bit more damp and a whole lot colder!! It did wash a lot of the mud off though.

WOW!!!!! This was one of the toughest challenges that I have ever faced!!! Going in to the race my main focus was on finishing the 55+ miles. It was by far the longest ride of my short bicycling career. The climbing was unbelievable....like coach said it was climb, climb, climb then some downhill and climb, climb, climb. Most of the climbs made "The Grind" look flat and short!!!! I remember coming up to this one hill after the 2nd checkpoint and said to myself..."you got to be kidding me!!!!". I remember Mitch saying one time...."well here is another creek crossing....time to start climbing again." Everytime we hit the valley there was lots of water and mud....so actually the climbing was worth it to get out of the mud and water. I came into the last checkpoint and was completely exhausted and hurting. We had 18 miles left to finish and coach had already warned us that this section was the toughest technically. I wasnt looking forward to it!!!!! Margie, Molly and Jeri prepped my bike and changed out my CamelBak and I was off. A unbelievable sense of accomplishment came over me when I hit the gravel road for the 6 mile ride to the finish line....I knew I was going to make it. It had started raining about 30 minutes after I left the last checkpoint and I was cold and shivering when I hit the gravel. I went as hard as my body would go knowing I had dry clothes and warmth back at the finish. Margie had to pack me and my bike out of the finish line tent....I was spent!!!!
I had a blast and in some wicked tormenting way know that next year I will be back with a year under my belt!!!!!