And I Still Feel Kind of Tired!
That’s the general concensus at work post-Mayhem. Running the Dirt Demo as well as our own stand means that we need to get to Mayhem by Thursday and the extra nights of socialising take their toll on us finely tuned athletes.
Saturday saw the “Singletrack Cubs” ready for action. With the last minute addition of an old customer of mine Mike ‘The Strike’ Lawrence, Mats ‘33% solution’ Lund, Ben ‘Whippet. Haworth and myself Matt ‘The Carthorse That’s Seen Better Days’ Letch making up the team.
First lap wasn’t too bad for me. Dry(ish) and good fun. I went far too fast and thought I could taste blood in my mouth but other than that… fine.
Gradually over the night the usual horrors occurred: after the 2nd lap I was convinced I wouldn’t make it, I had cramps and a very large dose of self doubt to go with it. In fact everyone already looked tired. Tanya (my girlfriend) had to give me a pep talk and a tuna roll to calm my fears.
3rd lap. For some reason peddling through plasticine seemed good fun and I felt a lot better and I realised I’m probably half way through my laps. After some complicated maths (why is it so hard at events?) it was worked out I could go to bed for a few hours before my next lap.
After dreaming of intense unsyncopated tribal drumming which morphed into rain on the tent as my eyes opened it was time to start again. Harsh hash harsh. Opposite-locking like I was in an old 911 on the rideable bits, followed by pushing like a single cylinder Russian tractor on the way up the unrideable sections. Shitty but also ace! The weird sleep- and exercise-deprived tiredness is a hard-to-get high and it should be cherished as it’s going to be followed by a massive come down. Which hit me at about 4.00pm Sunday as I had a massive pointless shouting match with a very good friend.
Results came out today. And we came 38th out of a few hundred and I can just about type again and I don’t want to eat everything that I see.
Thanks to my team mates and friends for making the event. Thanks to Pat and his crew for letting it happen.