Another Labor Day has come and gone along with another Dakota Five-0. My dream goal for the race was a 5 hour finish and after my last pre-ride I felt that it was maybe, just _maybe_ achievable. Race day though I went out a little too hot for not being warmed up and then let my pace slack a bit too much through the middle part of the course. I ended up finishing in an acceptable, but by no means impressive, 5 hours and 58 minutes, my fastest finish to date. Although I was not totally satisfied with my performance, it was yet another absolutely stellar event. The aid stations were very well supplied as always, the volunteers were extremely gracious and eager to help and the course was groomed to perfection. The best part about this event is the camaraderie, you feel like you are rolling out with hundreds of your closest friends on an epic mission of suffering and attrition to conquer the fifty mile loop. That feeling was in full force this year and everyone I spoke to had a great day.
The lack of recent updates to this site is due to a couple of factors, the first being that I have been using my spare time to travel and ride instead of sit in front of a computer. Now that the Laramie Enduro, Leadville MTB 100 and the Dakota Five-0 are behind me, with any luck I should find the time to get the Victoria Lake loops added to the site and do a massive re-vamp of the Storm Mountain trail information in the next month or so.
The other thing that has been keeping me busy was the creation of a new Dakota Five-0 race map. I have never done anything like this before and the investment in terms of hours was fairly significant, so I am hopeful that the riders and their crews found it useful and that any errors were not overly egregious.
Log: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111986233
Mileage (car): 100mi
Mileage (bike): 47mi