The Palmer Park 50 was nearly 3 weeks ago. I raced it as training for the Ring the Peak Race.

Heavy rains a few days before washed out some of the trails on the planned course so the course was shortened to 5 miles which meant 10 laps. The course had a nice mix of fast smooth sections and rocky technical sections. The advantage of doing short laps was being able to take better lines through corners and technical sections as the race went on. The downside of that many laps was by about lap 6 I was zoned out.

There was a decent turn out for a late season race. About half the racers where doing the 50 miler and half doing the 25 mile option. Russell Finsterwald won the 50 miler in 03:42:32 on his 20th birthday. Complete results are here.

I made a stupid mistake early on lap 2 on a smooth gravel section that sent me over the bars. Although I bloodied my knee, mildly bruised a couple ribs and had a couple painful fingers and shoulder, it didn’t affect my riding very much. A couple days later though, I was feeling it plenty.

By lap 9 I was getting some pretty bad cramps whenever I tried putting much power into the pedals. It wasn’t surprising since I hadn’t done any long rides after the Leadville 100.

Sand Creek Sports had moved the start back an hour but wasn’t able to change the cut-off time for starting the final lap. I missed the time to start my 10th lap. I should have been able to make it through another lap but with the way I felt on the 9th one I wasn’t terrible disappointed to not head out again.

Since I signed up for the Clydesdale class and no one else did, I won my category just by riding until I was told to stop.

Sand Creek Sports is planning on putting on the Palmer Park 50 again in 2012 on Sunday, September 16th and will again have a post race Pig Roast.

Below are some great shots of me from About the Shot. You can see the rest of their Palmer Park 50 photos here.

[View with PicLens]

Update 9/16/11: Didn’t sign up for the Palmer Park 50 by deadline but now want to do it? Email Andy Bohlmann (andy@sandcreeksports.com) TODAY and let him know your name, category, age, and the distance you would like to race – 25 or 50 miles. You won’t get the pig roast but can still race. Race course is likely to have some changes because of the rain the last couple days.

Update 9/7/11: A 25 mile option has been added for those that don’t want to race 50 miles or do it was a team.

Sand Creek Sports is putting on one more mountain bike race this year in Palmer Park. It will be 6 laps of an 8.9 mile course for a little over 50 miles. It will be great final preparation for 24 Hour Mountain Bike Nationals two weeks later on many of the same trails. For me it’ll serve as my final long training ride before the Ring the Peak 100(ish)k race.

Some riders didn’t want to race the complete 50 miles so two person teams have been added. One person to race at a time.

The racing starts at 8 AM and the $45 entry fee includes a pig roast post race. Additional meal tickets can be purchased for $13. Entry deadline is Wednesday September 14th since the pig(s) for the pig roast have to be shipped from Iowa. See the Sand Creek Sports site for entry details.

The course is in the same area as the May race. The course map is here. Below is a great video of the course although I believe there have been some minor changes to the course since the video was created.

Related Link

• Sand Creek Series Palmer Park Race Photos May 2011
• Bears at Palmer Park Mountain Bike Race

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