James and I have been talking about doing the Idaho City 100 ever since I first started riding with him. It was always more of an impossible wish. 100 miles of hard mountain trails was simply out of our (my) league. However, add several years, lots of practice, a supportive wife, and a courageous moment of “we got this” and of the sudden you find yourself on the starting line. Now, this was an Enduro race, which is nothing like the all out race for position like the Hare and Hound style race we did last year: link.
An Enduro is much more of a race against the clock. You have an assigned start time and they let out up to three riders every minute. We were 89A and 89B, so we started 89 minutes after the race started at 9 am, so we rolled off the line at 10:29 am. Completely opposite of the Hare and Hound mass start of madness, we started out with a several mile slow meander through the town of Idaho City as we worked our way to the single track trail. There were 6 checks after the start. The goal is to cross the check right on schedule. If you are early or late, you lose points. Here was our schedule we were trying to hit:
In addition to the overall race, sprinkled throughout the course were five “Special Test” sections where you were scored on how fast you could complete the section. Probably about a third of the course was a special test section. A lot of the riders can get a perfect score going through the checkpoints right on time, so the special test sections determine the overall ranking and prevent any ties. Like the overall enduro race, the special test sections are against the clock, not other racers. Overall, racing the clock versus racing for position made this a much more of a “gentlemen” race. If someone wants to pass you, it’s no big deal, you just let them on by.
In order to ride in the race, you have to pass a technical inspection, which also happens to be the day before the race. The bike has to be registered, clean, have a spark arrestor, and it can’t be too loud. After we made it to Idaho City and got all signed in, we made it to the tech inspection with about an hour to spare before they closed down. Once you go through the tech inspection, you put your bike in the impound yard and you don’t get your bike back until ten minutes before your start time. So, there is no anxious tinkering, working on, or even warming up the bike before the race starts once you turn it in.
Well, I had the unfortunate experience of failing my tech inspection on account of excessive noise. Talk about a sinking feeling after investing so much effort mentally and physically to get there. Side note. I think there is a negative stereotype for people that ride dirt bikes, or maybe motocross. Yes, there certainly are some out there that are loud, obnoxious, and sometimes a little unsavory. However, you get to these events like the Idaho City 100 and it’s the real deal. People are nice, they love the sport, and they are very encouraging and helpful to others. There is a sense camaraderie and friendship among fellow riders. End side note. So after failing the inspection, I had a blank, lost look on my face as I stood there stunned. They recommend that I repack my muffler. When I told them I didn’t have the knowledge or the parts to do that, they pointed out another guy and recommended I talk to him. He poked around in his trailer for a bit and didn’t find any muffler packing. Then he lowered his voice and shared with me a true trick of the trade. He recommended we find a beer can (good luck finding a soda can) and basically make a muffler insert. It would help quiet down the bike and then it would burn out after a little bit once you got going.
So, with great anxiety and an unhealthy dose of stress, we started operating on the muffler. We got the end cap off which isn’t always an easy feet on an exhaust pipe. Then we started working one the can. It started out looking nice like in the picture, but by the time were done it was basically a wadded up ball with a bunch of holes poked through it. Nothing much to look at. Doubting that the can would really burn up, we put on a wire to help pull the can out at the end of the race to return the bike back to normal. With 15 minutes to spare, and really nothing else left to offer, we buttoned up the exhaust pipe and I went back over to the tech inspection.
I passed the inspection! I could breath again and my heart rate could go back to normal. I’d never been so happy at the thought of having my bike impounded. Phew. What an impressive lot of bikes this was.
It takes a lot of gas to fuel all those bikes all those miles. Here was one of the two gas trailers that hauled out our gas tanks to the fuel stops.
Finally the moment came. At 10:19 we were able go our bikes out of the impound and work out way up the line to the starting gate. At 10:29, we could finally start the bike up, and then we were off.
Here’s what happened next!
Finish line baby! We did it. No injuries, no damage to the bike.
Here is the trail we went on. The official tally was 98.2 miles, but my bike odometer showed 106.4, so it was somewhere right around 100 miles. The coolest part was there was no backtracking except for a tiny stretch through town. Thank you to all the amazing volunteers and everyone else that organized the race, figured out and marked the trail, and ran all the checkpoints and gas stops. This was a fantastic experience!
Post Script
There were no injuries on the ride, but wow, what a case of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)! I think this was the most sore I’ve ever been in my life. This was walk down stairs backwards sore. It wasn’t until the 7th day after the ride that the soreness was completely gone.
I ordered new muffler packing. When I took apart the muffler, all that was left of the can were these little nuggets and the wire. That guy really was right. The can basically burned up.
The packing in the muffler was pretty well shot. Turns out they recommend you repack your mufflers fairly often. This one was way past overdue.
–Update–
Here is a really cool shadow box that Kathryn made for me to remember the race! Thanks babe!
