6 Hours of Brady

Story by Bobby Irwin:
-----------------------------------

The 6 Hours of Brady's Run mountain bike race was a ton of fun and a good benchmark in my ultra endurance race training.

Dirty Mike and I represented Ag3r in our respective classes: 6 hour solo/male (me), and 3 hour open (DM). 

Photo by Mike Briggs

 The whistle blew at 10 a.m., releasing the demons onto the brutal 1.5 mile service road climb to start the race.

Photo by Mike Briggs

(It is worth mentioning that this race was extremely competitive in terms of skilled and fast riders.) Almost every fast guy from the tri-state area showed up to battle it out.

I held on to Dahn Pahrs wheel as long as I could, but he eventually dropped me once we got into the singletrack climb. I settled in and figured out the pace I needed to hold for the next 6 laps !

Photo by Mike Briggs

The 8 mile loop consisted of long climbs, fun tight singletrack, and a loose, rocky downhill at the end. My first lap I turned a fast 46 min. The next three hovered around 50 min, and the final two were each just over an hour. With temperatures hovering above 90, each mile got harder throughout the day.

At one point, I was cruising down a wide open trail, just freewheeling, and then hit back into a tight, rocky singletrack climb when I heard someone yell from behind me "Leader!!! Leader back!!!"...to which my reaction always was, if you think I am just going to let you around after asking like that, you have another thing coming!!!...it was Jordan Snyder. I laid the hammer down and crushed the climb, as if to think i would actually drop this dude. He made it to the top, and then proceeded to ride away from as if I was standing still. I was crushed.

Luckily the frustration propelled me to finish strong!! 

Photo by Mike Briggs

Kudos to DM for handing me up fresh bottles of electrolyte drink and snacks after he finished his 3 hour race.

Around lap 5, I started to feel like I might cramp up, and I was running out of water. Thank god they had an aid station half way through the lap, where I stopped to pour cold bottles over my head. I also finished the aid station attendant's french fries, and inhaled a package of Shot Bloks faster than you could blink an eye.

After i went out for lap 6, it was getting to the point where my body could not recover if I made a hard effort on a section. I just couldn't cool down properly anymore. I came through the clock at 5:37, so I could've went back out for another lap, but the rules dictated that any lap you are out on after the 6 hour mark must be completed in under 1 hour to count towards you total number of laps. I was not sure that I could do this, so I threw in the towel.

Photo by Mike Briggs

I ended up finishing in 6th Place (of 42) in the Solo male/open (under50) category, and 12th Place in solo overall (not sure how many participants overall, this included SS).

http://www.smileymiles.com/2015/RES15%20BRADYS%20RUN%206%20HR%20LAP%20RACE%20OA.htm

Dirty Mike hammered away 3 fast laps to finish in 6th Place overall in the 3 hour race!!! (with a malfunctioning fork) Great Job!!

Photo by Mike Briggs

The event concluded with pizza, donuts, and a live band!! I stayed for the awards ceremony and then made the trek back to Apollo.

Photo by Mike Briggs

Thanks to Chris Miceli and all volunteers who put this event together, it was fantastic! There was also $2500 raised for the "It's About the Warrior Foundation", through raffle ticket sales. See you next year on the podium Brady's !!!

-Bobby

STAY DIRTY, my Friends!!!