Category Archives: race

I finished it! I feel like I should thank my sponsors… my wife and kids for letting me ride, my moto buddies for encouraging (taunting) me to try it, Robert and Chad for being an awesome pit crew, Chris @ Pocatello Power Sports for the deal on my awesome KTM bike, without their support, I never could have come in 166th place out of 307 starters! Seriously though, probably the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done and it was an awesome sense of accomplishment to cross that finish line.

Race Details: this year it was 125.5 miles, started and ended in Idaho City, ID. Almost all single track, see map and elevation profile below, if you weren’t climbing, you were descending with your brakes locked up.

Here’s my stats:
40+ B Class – 8th Place out of 24, Bronze Medal
Overall B Class – 29th Place out of 116
Overall Long Course – 166th out of 307 total riders (there were 123 DNF’s!)
My Starting minute: 10:46am, crossed the finish line at 6:40pm

Crew stats:
Brock – 1st Place and Gold Medal in the 30+ A Class! (although there is a scoring error, they didn’t check him in after the finish at the bike impound, they’re working on fixing it)
Brandon – 40+ A Class, 8th Place and Silver Medal! Barely missed the Gold Medal by 27 seconds
Rich and Chase – followed some bad arrows and ended up “houring-out”

Photo Album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alhill/sets/72157644995185742/

Things I learned:

• Do NOT make adjustments to bike before the race, I adjusted my rear brake in the garage before loading up. Ended up too tight and it got hot and locked up my rear wheel in the middle of the first special test. I had to pull out my tools to adjust it so it would release, took probably 5-8 minutes or so. A ton of people passed me, my time in that ST was horrible and I came in 6 minutes behind on the first check.
• Simple math is hard when you’re exhausted. If you miss your time on one check, you have to adjust all the other times by the differential. I ended up 35 minutes off my original time sheet.
• Drink a lot. I went through two full camelbaks and added more water at each stop and still didn’t get enough.
• Cramps suck! I started getting them with 45 miles left to go, in weird places too.
• I only went over the bars once, I was right on a guy’s wheel on a nasty descent and it was too dusty to see the ruts, got crossed up and ended up superman style with my bike on top of me. Worst part was that both my legs decided to cramp up while I was sliding down the hill… haha, ouch!

Congrats to Brock for qualifying in the LCQ and coming back to win the main event, way to go champ!

I went to spectate and cheer on the local guys at the Pocatello Power Sports / Cache Valley MX Endurocross race. The course looked pretty brutal and I’m a wimp because I’m glad I chickened out and didn’t sign up to race… although I’d like to go practice on the course if they leave up permanently. Good thing Brock (KTM 36F), Chaz (KTM 41F), NateZ (KTM Red/Black gear), NateL (Yamaha 1X), and Chad (KTM 139) were there to represent the local talent… I don’t think I recognized anybody else from around here?

Here are a couple of videos, the first one has all three of Brock’s races (about 12min), the second is of Chaz giving it a good go. Good entertainment!

I’ve been really itching to ride since getting my bike all put together and ready to go, as I was trying to drum up interest to go hit Cherry Creek or the Knolls word came in that our friends up in Pocatello were helping put together an “Enduro-X” race at the Pocatello Motocross Park.  I’ve never been interested in racing and I’m pathetic on a track, but Zac and Nate talked me into going up to “just ride”.  I had a ton of excuses not to go (out of shape, haven’t ridden since October, never ridden my new bike, never raced, etc. etc.) but I was just too excited to try out my new moto and had no other options.  Anyway, it ended up being a ton of fun, I was definitely in the wrong class, they talked us into racing the Intermediate/Expert class so we could all “ride together” (haha), but I wouldn’t have done very well in the Novice class either.  I think I was the only “racer” out there that would pull over and take pictures when I got too tired to hang on to my bike anymore.

The race format was pretty cool.  There were four sections to the 3.1 mile loop: 1) Track 2) Slick greasy field with a couple of ditches 3) Single-track technical rock gardens, climbs, and a snow drift 4) Back to track with log/rock jam section.  They started the race at 11:30 and ended it at 1:00, the goal was to complete as many loops as you can in that amount of time.  I was so happy to see that checkered flag when I did, I was getting ready to call it quits.  There were quite a few riders that didn’t finish, so I was happy to at least be one of the ones who did, even though I was at the back of the pack… I was just going to ride, remember?  We had a good showing from the rest of the guys though, CJ Hymas won it, Brock Buttars came in 3rd with Brandon Wallin hot on his tail in 4th.  Zac Andreason was in the middle of the pack and Levi (works for Brandon) was seriously rockin’ the novice class.  Nate’s bike sprung a water leak out of the pump seal, so he didn’t even get off the starting line unfortunately.  We didn’t stick around to see how Keston did…?

So, would I do it again?  Hmmm… ask me next week when my body stops hurting.  *Hey babe, where’d you put the vitamin-I?*

Click here for the full photo album