Mollie and Michaela do Boggs 8 hour, March 28, 2009!

We had signed up for the Boggs 8 hour mountain bike race about 6 months ago…and had all kinds of great plans to train and be at our best (or better). A couple sinus infections, a bout of bronchitis, freshly diagnosed asthma, an impromptu trip to New Zealand and, oh yeah, we’re in our last semester of graduate school, all got in the way of Levi-esque performances, yet we had a blast and even podiumed!!!

March 28th came around and we were psyched. I (Mollie) was even so jazzed to get to Boggs, and high on the oatmeal that Michaela had been feeding me like a little driving baby, that I missed a stop sign…well not the sign, just the stop part.


We only bottomed out once in the old volvo on the drive in to the start line, so I declared success!

We've created a race diary so we can keep all of our friends and family up to date on all of our mediocre performances:

Lap 1: Mollie: Fun fun fun! Got used to the altitude by the end of lap one! Michaela tried to tell me jokes on the walkie talkie lap one but I had not turned the volume up high enough, so she stood in the parking lot telling knock knock jokes to the spectators. As I was riding the thought that kept crossing my mind was how stupid I would feel if I wrecked and seriously injured myself on a walkie talkie. 58’52”

Lap 2: Michaela: After a strong lap adrenaline was pumping but it was not meet with complimentary music. As Michaela came around the corner she heard Jack Johnson singing Bubble Toes over the event sound system and almost got off her bike to walk across the finish line to coordinate her heart rate with the beat of the music. 1:13’17”

Lap 3: Mollie: Excuses: Lost chain 3 times, crashed (damn pine needles), worst cramps of my life, stopped to help when some dickwad in a plain white sleeveless jersey and black spandex elbowed a woman off her bike in the first single track section…Total blast! 59’46”

Lap 4: Michaela: Michaela was in the midst of a conversation back at the car when Mollie returned. Somewhere near mile 1 of this lap Michaela lost about 80% of her front brake. Her confidence to descend was even further compromised. As Michaela was "bombing" down the fireroad she happened to miss a singletrack section. Luckily there were some 8 yearolds out on a walk to inform her that she had missed a turn. The sent her well wishes saying "have a safe ride." 1:19’52”

Lap 5: Mollie: This was a hard one. No excuses (thanks to Adam from SBC removing a link from my chain). And I was ready to be done…sent Michaela off to do her 3rd. I drank about 32 ounces of Kombucha we had brewed from Yerba Mate and felt like a new woman. I couldn’t wait for Michaela to get back so I could get another one in! 1:02’08”

Lap 6: Michaela: After Adam "fixed" Michaela's brakes, she was excited to head out for her third lap. She meet Me at the transition area and told me that I would have enough time for a 4th lap. I responded "take your time". As you can see Michaela did just that. One mile into the lap, a very aggressive male racer who was riding like he was sponsored went high (to the left) to pass her but it was too steep so he slipped down and took her out. She braked so hard in an effort to miss the encounter that she again lost my 80% of my front break again. 1:21’43”

Lap 7: Mollie: As mentioned, totally fueled by Mate Kombucha!!! Most fun lap of all, by far!!! This lap I passed quite a few people, especially those who were walking! Had a major rookie move falling over on the hydration people who were passing out Gatorade at mile 6, who proceeded to pour all kinds of sticky stuff on me. Got passed by some guys on singlespeeds going way too fast for hour 8 and some 12 year olds making me wish I was a pre-pubescent male with all those budding hormones. Had a nice long talk with a guy whose wheel I rode for the last single-track climb…nice guy…I thought about posting a missed encounter on craigslist…1:00’10”

Overall finish: 7 laps, 7 hours 55 minutes. PSYCHED to be third…out of 5…that’s right in the middle…average folks! Maybe next year we will train! We enjoyed some brew and called it a day!

What to do Sunday? Mollie spent Sunday coughing up all of the bronchitis remnants, napping and then got to have her first encounter with a dh bike. Woah, fun! Michaela spent Sunday eating Pizza with 80 year olds. For real!