It was billed as a mountain bike race. It was actually a shrewd bit of marketing.
Officially, Saturday’s 6 BC was billed as the second in a series of four, 6-hour endurance mountain bike races sponsored by the Triangle Off-Road Cyclists. And while there was indeed a race (these results prove it), it was also a cleverly crafted sales pitch by the venue host: C’mon out and race — and see what kind of trail you could be riding every day of your life for the rest of your life without ever throwing your bike on the roof rack.read more
6 — Course length, in miles. 6:00:00 — Number of hours to complete as many laps as possible 73 — Number of racers. 8 — Age of the youngest rider, Cedric Clyburn. 5 / 5:09:46 — Number of laps and the elapsed time for Cedric, who was riding a bike with 24-inch wheels. The last time I saw Cedric on the course, a female racer (sorry, I didn’t catch her bib number) was helping extract Cedric from a tree he had flipped into. After the race, while everyone else was celebrating in the beer garden, Cedric was hanging at a nearby playground. 14 — Age of the youngest female rider, Sophia Clyburn. 6 / 6:21:53 — Number of laps and elapsed time for Sophia, who took third in the Female Solo category. 47 — Age of the second oldest racer, Anne Bringuier, who won the Female Solo Open category, completing 8 laps in 5 hours, 52 minutes and 4 seconds. 53 — Age of the oldest racer, me. 11 — Most laps put in by a racer, tied by six individuals: Matthew Lee, Alex Hawkins, Kip Clyburn, Alex Harrill, Saputra De and John Hinson. 5:41:08 — Fastest overall time, by 39-year-old Matthew Lee, winner of the Open Men’s Solo Division. 28:33 — Fastest lap time, recorded by Justin Kingon. 1 — Number of gears used by the 11 racers in the Single Speed Solo category. 11 / 6:04:07 — No. of laps completed and elapsed time by the Single Speed winner, Saputra De. His was the fifth best performance overall. 66 — Number of miles ridden by the 8 racers who completed 11 laps.read more
A reminder that I’ll be tweeting live today from 6 BC, the second in the Triangle Off-Road Cyclists’ four-race, six-hour endurance mountain bike series. (Whew! Hope I’ve got more lungs for the race than I had for that sentence.) The race is a coming out of sorts for the new trail network at Briar Chapel, a green community emerging south of Chapel Hill. Word has it the trail has good flow, some of it very vertical and rocky.read more
One of the many things I like about taking a long ride, run or hike is that it purges my mind of life’s daily distractions — bills, deadlines, squirrels. The resulting void clears vital space for creative thinking, for random thoughts, ideas and whatnot to bubble up from the subconscious and get some air time. Usually, this is good thing. Sometimes it is not.read more
In our ongoing crusade to keep you active in these dark times (post Daylight Savings, that is) here’s a different approach: Instead of cursing sunset, go to bed with it — so you can get up in time for your 6 a.m. boot camp.
Boot camp. For years, this approach to fitness was exclusive to the military. New recruits went into the service soft and squishy, got spit out six weeks later buff and tough. The idea got co-opted about a decade ago as gyms and private trainers began offering take-no-prisoners classes that gave a taste of the military experience, minus the two-year commitment and haircut. The workouts were popular because they were concentrated (perfect for people with tight schedules), intense (“guaranteed results” actually meant guaranteed results), and varied (each workout was different; you didn’t know what to expect from one day to the next). Over the past five years or so, the concept has been co-opted further, into a more … civil version. Or, as Anne Triebert likes to call it, a Boot Camp for the Rest of Us.read more