It's Over!

The things I worried about the most never happened. When I checked the radar Saturday morning it looked like it was flooding in South Georgia, I almost started calling around to send out a cancel message. We loaded up and headed to the ATV start anyway only to find it dry and dusty. After collecting some of the t-shirts the cyclists had ordered we went over to the MTB start and began setting up.

We had 130 ATVs registered and ended up with 30 cyclists. I should have had a riders meeting for the MTBs to go over the arrows, and I meant to include instructions in every body's bag but I only had 11 pre registered on Thursday so I didn't expect to need to be so detailed. I just went around to the groups that had gathered and told them which arrows to follow. I however neglected to tell the late arrivals and the one lady in the port o let about the arrows so guess which group got together and followed the wrong color.

There are so many stories to tell about this ride; Big Jim missing the first arrow, Bob Marley's group getting lost within the first 3 miles, SteveA etal following the orange ATV arrows and riding a freshly harrowed fire break for a mile, WB flatting, Mr. Silk and the Ice Berg doing 2 laps while most of us did one, Mickey and the honey buns, the lady who thought WB and LWB were both my sons because we were wearing BC kits, the same lady referring to Cowboy as "that country talking dude", WB, LWB, and Bob Marley getting lost within earshot of the finish, his call telling me "seriously dude I'm having a meltdown here, get me out", and that's just the stuff I saw or heard.

So for just a 28 mile trail ride it turned out to be an adventure. I think most everybody enjoyed it. We raised over $12,000.00 for Shands and nobody got hurt. I learned a few things which if I do this again I'll do different. I enjoy this type of event much more than a race format, even though many of us had little races going on at one time or another.

I was a little disappointed in the MTB turnout. I had hoped for 40. I think the weather had something to do with it. It turned out to be very popular with the ATV crowd as we had 130 vehicles and 150 people. That will be the problem in the future with doing MTBs as slots are limited to under 200 and as the popularity of the event increases the MTB side may get pushed out. We're just not that big of a recreational user which isn't a bad thing.

I want to thank my sponsors and everybody who came to ride. Cyclists are much more low key and appreciative than the moto folks were when I promoted events for them. Thanks to my lovely wife T who signed riders up and did the poker drawing for me. She stayed all day and even helped serve the food to the ATV crowd.

So for my first MTB event I will claim this one a success! I got to ride and had a great time even though I had to stop and answer my phone every now and then. Oh, and I lost the drag race to the finish to SteveA by a wheel. But the beers and food at the finish were excellent. All in all another perfect day.