VQ/CC Finishers(2013 Pow Wow Writeup & Pics)

I have heard that so many times that I have stopped listening...people seem to come back for more.

 

I'll bet it won't be your last. Great job today. See you next year!

 

My first CC, certainly not my last. I got this awesome brand from my rear rotor climbing down the stream crossing at the bottom of HJ. I hope it scars!

 

I didn't finish, but it finished me. I did knock ~45 minutes off my B*-MW time and missed the 4C cutoff by about 12 minutes.
Nice riding with mtnbikerj up Maple for a couple hours.
Also good to see so many people that I haven't seen in a while

 

Thanks to the Warrior Society all the riders and volunteers for a great day VQ/CC what a awesome venue this year can't wait until next year I think my CC time was under 6 hours just out having fun day riding did anyone catch who was on upper Holy Jim taking photos??

 

I know a lot of people were suffering but I hope everyone was able to take a moment to soak up the spectacular view we were gifted with.


Here is Timmay with his stoicly suffering face!

 

Same thing

 

Great day out there today. Due to my recent hospital stay and quite not up to speed, I made the tough decision to sit this one out and help out with the event making this the 1st Pow Wow since 2007 I was not on the course. I actualy enjoyed not having to get ready for the journey and just relax and soak in the vibe coming from all the others.

I was at the start and saw many of the familiar faces & lots of people asking how I was. It was great to see everyone and so eggar to go get on it. I tried to snap as many pics, but due to darkness, lots of my pics just weren't coming out too well. Here are the few I did get at the start.

Warrior's Vickie and Heather


Riders checking in and receiving wrist bands




Doug aka Abui(oldest entry)


Troy aka ThinkFast


Jay aka jbh65


My roomie Jen


Riders getting ready at the start


Vickie the WS Event Director addresses the riders


Tinker!!


And they're off!!



Once the riders departed. We broke down the start and I headed to the finish area to help set up there. Then it was off to the 2nd aid station where I spent the majority of the time. It was great being there as I finally got to see how fast the pros got down the mountain.

Tinker came through HJ aid station without stopping for aid at 8:50am! That's 3 hrs 20 minutes #-o


Others were hot on his tail







The man..., Andy aka Rut came through looking fresh as well. :bang:


More pics....,

 

More pics from Aid Station 2(Holy Jim lot)



Counting Coup tandem!


James aka TBlazen


ThinkFast refueling before turning up towards WHT




WS members Lobos and Eron


Timmay!


With her 2nd VQ, Heather's an old VQ vet now. 3rd times a charm?


Monica finished her 1st VQ!


Kelly! aka Aviatrix. Great job out there today!


WS Member and WHT/Trabuco sweep Regina


Only 4 miles to go as this rider heads out to the finish, but the road seems to never end


Roxanne aka ridinroxy. Congrats Rox! :clap:


OMR aka Bond, James Bond


Your timing team


WS Member Calvin M aka Superman. He once did the VQ on bike, finished, then put on his sneakers and ran the VQ backwards. If you don't believe me, here is the results of that in 2010: http://www.warriorssociety.org/events/2010_vq_results.php


Some of your support crew getting some well deserved grub


WS member Jim who is the Hospitality Director


Finally, Sherry hands Doug aka Abui the "Last Survivor" award for his accomplishment.


Good job on another VQ finish Doug


Great job out there by all the riders, volunteers and families. It was great to see everyone having fun and cheering. I love Pow Wow time and hoping many of you 1st timers and VQ/CC veterans got everything you expected from this year's experience.

Come hell or high water, you can bet you'll see me out there next year. :bang:

 

This was my third CC. After my first one, I thought I'd set a personal goal to be in the top 10. I'm still not sure why I set this goal back then, but I finally achieved it today. It took a lot of hard work! I was really focused on this goal for some reason and it feels really good to finally reach it. After seeing how many fast guys were doing CC this year at the start, I didn't think I had a chance. I didn't have any mechanicals nor crashes this year (a first!), and I ended up finishing 6th in 4:08. It was a memorable day! I hope everyone else had a great ride!

 

Well done, everyone!



Counting Coup #6 done! Yep, 6 years in a row. And as always, great job everyone! I am sooooo glad to be part of this event! I chatted a lot during race. I did very little training last month so I didn't care about my finish time. However, I enjoyed being out there, every minute.

See you all again next year!

 

WOW is all I can say. My goal for my first VQ: beat the 12:45 WHT cutoff. I had been fighting a cold or flu or something (low-grade fever, etc) since Tuesday. I had been sleeping as much as I could, taking zinc, Vit C, Vit D, eating like a teenage boy and hadn't done a damn thing since Monday. I still didn't know how I would feel Saturday morning. Nervous as can be I almost started crying when they released everyone from the gate. Took it real slow up Blackstar. I'm like a locomotive, it takes me 8 miles to warm up :lol: I think I did B* in like 75 min. Then it was ON! Chased Rox and her fine arse up the first hill after the ball. WooHoo. I've never felt so good. made it down MW in a PR of 2:30 or something. Kay and Dawn and my friend Michelle blanketed me in support, fed me banana, checked my bike, swapped my water. Such great ladies. Started rolling MS and AJ, and Ted and the G2 gang gave me some encouraging screams I don't even remember MS, but at some point Mario (aka: Carbonlegs) came blasting up and cheered me on as he went by. I know I still felt good as I rolled in to the cutoff zone there. Yelled at XCShane and kept going. He yelled the obligatory "Go BIATCH!" (thanks Shane Hit the peak at 10:30am. I couldn't believe how good I felt. Time for some DH: Wheeeeeeeee. Got to UHJ. Me: do I really have to? Warriors: Well...you can walk? UHJ was like a sand pit. I knew I was tired so I walked if it seemed sketchy at all. That was quite a bit of it. I was walking when I hit that photographer so he didn't even bother. LHJ was awesome and the hikers were all super considerate and cool about giving the bikers the trail. I was sure to convey my gratitude and appreciation to every single one of them. Had one stupid fall on LHJ and a log punched me in the shoulder, but I checked myself and nothing more than scrapes and bruises. Whew!! Rolled into LHJ aid station and Gene and the warriors took care of me. Didn't want to linger so off I went. Should have had a banana there, cuz I started feeling the fatigue after that. biked/HAB my way up to the WHT cutoff with 30 minutes to spare. YES!!!! I'm gonna make it!!! The guy checked me in and I took one step onto WHT and slipped and fell #-o. All well, like an hour later I came up to the top of WHT. A little girl yells: IT'S A LADY! Oh good; I still at least look like a girl. All jokes aside, that was seriously special. I hope she knows a girl can do ANYTHING she puts her mind to. That burger and the people up there were SO cool! I thought it was 4 miles to Trabuco. I was happy to learn it was 2.5. Took it REAL easy on Trabuco cuz I knew I was seriously tired and I didn't want to injure myself. I hate that shale section with all the exposure. Fell once out of fatigue but landed in a soft bush. Rolling down the wash I felt good so I figured FINISH STRONG and started pedaling and passing guys yelling at them to hurry up. LOL. Saw Gene and he yelled and I yelled: VICTORY CRY!!! Rolled in to the finish, saw my whole family, and started bawling. I rolled into H20chicks arms and felt all the glory of all the blood, sweat, and tears culminate in that moment. WOW. It was AMAZING. Thanks warriors, angels, and all those out there making it possible for us crazies to do this. It takes an army to put this on, and it doesn't fall lightly on those of us who venture out there. Kudos to all -Kel PS-I hope my write-up is on par with Varaxis (love your books man)

 

Best write-up Kelly!! I could totally visualize your story while reading it. I didn't realize the magnitude of the Pow Wow until I felt Kay's warm, solid hug; I almost lost it feeling the love!! Thanks Kay...

Kelly, I'm so proud of you and stoked you did it and didn't fall victim to the excuses you could have used. I thought of many myself, even was tempted to stop at 4C to have a beer and call it a day. We pushed on...cheers woman!! Now, let's go have some fun, silly rides...I miss those and you!!

 

So was all the hoopla worth it?

or was it just another boring ride in the Santa Ana's?

 

YES!! I understand the hoopla now; I helped a few guys get past blocks, couldn't shake one guy from 4C's on so I decided to help him NOT bonk (I could tell by his breathing he was hurting but was determined not to let a girl beat him) and gave him some pointers to get through it. But the biggest and most memorable experience was the way Kelly described rolling into H2oChick's arms - I never felt so honored, humbled and loved at that moment.

The Santa Ana's are a beautiful ride for a long mountain bike stroll, I want to get back to the fun of techy Oaks, STT/Luge, Aliso etc etc etc :wave:

 

First thanks to the many volunteers who made the event so special, supported and challenging.

Great weather at the start! Not cold, not icy, not muddy, just perfect.
I started optimistic about making it through. I even had a wild hope of under 9 hours if everything held up.

The pedaling went well. The fog on my glasses became a nuisance so I didn't get a long view of which main divide hill was coming up.
I made Aid #1 at 8:25, grabbed some packets with the help of Kevin (xhuskr) and went on. I got to Four Corners at 10:00 felt good about the making the CC cutoff but faced more work for the VQ cutoff. Next on the list was the Peak at 10:56 which gave me 1:04 for the Holy Jim cutoff.

After the peak I began to see the hikers. Odd that they liked to walk on the dirt that I wanted to ride. All sorts of people, from casual walkers to hikers in their uniforms. I skidded into Aid #2 at 11:54. Kevin and Gene were anxious that I didn't waste time. "You have about 50 minutes!". I even had a push from someone - thanks. I was thinking that I've done that stretch in 30 minutes, what could go wrong? #-o

As soon as I hit the gate it started - cramps! My nemesis was back. I was moving at a crawl. The faster racers were flying down the hill. It was a great mix of me trying to ride and get out of the way. To someone who said "That was close" - you don't know how close.

The WS monitor said "You made it by 3 minutes." Something in his tone said "are you sure you want to go on?" I went a few feet around a corner and sat down to recover. Right away a fresh-looking rider in a WS shirt showed up. I said you must be the sweep. "Right" said Regina. She spotted a zip bag on the ground. "This must be yours". "Not mine" I said. She recognized the capsules as Endurolytes. I was desperate so took two and started my hike. It was a series of hike and rest.

Regina was cheerful and supportive the whole way. I couldn't use her as an excuse to turn back. At times I cramped down to my ankle and climbed on a numb foot. About half-way Calvin showed up. Now I had two sweeps. I took more Endurolytes. As we neared the top I walked a little faster and eventually rode the last 100 yards to the top. There were a few hamburgers left so I had one. It was time to celebrate. The cramps were well suppressed so I made it over to the top of Trabuco without any trouble. Then it was all DH to the finish (10:08?). Without the hour+ wasted? .. well there's always next year.

Again thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement and welcome at the top of WHT.

 

That was me

Nice job on your 4th VQ Doug!

 

Rox, everyone who says that they won't do it again is right, they never do it again...for the first 6 months after the event. Then a nagging starts from somewhere in the back of your brain and you make your way up Blackstar. It sucks, that first time back on the climb, but it doesn't suck as much as you remember it sucking on the day of the CC. After a while you start to think that you can do better, beat your time, gain another feather, enjoy the comradarie and fun of a group hallucinatory torture session. By then, the sign up opens for the next CC/VQ and you think, what the heck, I'll try to get a ticket and if I'm in, I'll do it. And you get in. Enter into the never-ending abuse cycle...

Or, you could volunteer.

 

Haha, I agree Wrecker: Roxy, there is something addictive about suffering through the Pow Wow. After a number of VQs, I decided to try CC on the singlespeed. During training, I wondered what I got myself into. During the event, same thing. I thought this could be my last PowWow and Id be happy. Then, seeing all the people come to the finish inspired me. From the pros doing VQ in 5 Hours to others digging deep and finishing CC and VQ hours later. Now I'm already thinking VQ on the SS! Will be interesting to see if you change your mind Roxy.

Thanks to Warriors Society and all the fabulous volunteers for such a great event!

 

Wow do you know how fast he was going to make it there in 90 minutes?? So awesome and he is 52 years YOUNG!