Silverton Whiteout

Fat bike Race!
I have two things against this type of race right off the bat!  It involves riding fat bikes faster than one should,  and second, it involves that cold, wet, white stuff called Snow! "Blek"

To make matters worse,  I didn't even want to participate in this lamebrain event. 

My friend, Rex,  had this "great idea" about a month ago. "lets put a team together for the Silverton Whiteout"  took him about a week to finally talk me into it, (I think partly it was to shut him up).  Besides, Id never done a race like this before.  But to be clear I really didn't want to do it

Well a week to go, and would you believe it, Rex bailed out of the race.  something about some stuff, conflicts, timing...  I don't know, I stopped listening when he said he was out.

Now skipping ahead a bit..  I borrowed Rex's Specialized Fat Boy,  and boy did I have a great time.  It was cold but the right clothing make all the difference,  not to mention it got up to 50º that day. 

I raced the  Duo category with Pete. 

Pete lost the coin toss and rode the first lap.  He thew down a sub hour,  which naturally meant that I had to throw down too.  My lap was quick, although I missed a critical turn and lost about 5 or 6 minutes.  but still managed to get a 58min lap.   And so, that's how the day went,  he and I raced sub hour laps all day for 5 laps each and a 3rd place finish.

Around mid day the snow turned to water and slippery slop,  I crashed (not hard) once, by trying to get from one side of the trail to the other.  The course traveled the nortic track out of silverton some 5 miles to the turn around point, then a fun snowy decent back to town, with a monster snow hill near the finish and a Blazing downhill.

Now on to our teammate and coworker Ashley.

Ashley decided two days before the race to sign up for solo.  She managed to borrow a Surly Moonlander from a friend and didn't stop riding all day long.  She pulled out 8 laps and a first place by a full lap.

My final lap was really more of a parade lap, as we had 3rd locked up tight.  This last lap began at dusk, which meant I had to bring my light,  at the first check point I caught up to Ashley out for her 8th and final lap.     She was completely in the twilight zone,  Forgot her light for this lap, and talking about quitting.  
I decided to give her a little moral support and ride with her to the finish.

Overall, I had a complete blast!   Thanks Rex for talking me into it! and letting me use your bike.