12 hours of Cranky Monkey-Part 2

Boy I shouldn't have waited so long to finish this .
I'll do my best to remember everything.

Lap 2.
I felt alot better on the 2nd lap.
I knew I didn't have to try to mash up every hill. There were alot of people out there walking stuff. I also realized my strength would be in the descents and straight aways.

About halfway through the lap I get another rider in front of me who's locking up on the descents. I'm getting a little ticked off, this guy is ruining my best shot of getting a half way decent time. The final straw came on a steep , bumpy, downhill with a good sized ascent right after. I rode this thing during my pre ride with no brakes. It was un-nerving, but I did make it.
I easily hit 25mph during the pre-ride.
The guy in front is riding the brakes and taking it slow. I'm pissed. As soon as we start up the hill I've gotta get off and walk but he can ride up.
You skinny S.O.B.
I catch back up to him and start riding his wheel hoping he'll take the hint and let me pass.
Then on another rooty decent, he's holding the brakes and endos on something.
It looked pretty bad but he said he was Ok.
So bam, I took off.

Evan with the hold up from the endo'r I'm feeling good about this lap.
Thinking that I might actually come in under an hour or pretty damn close.
Right after thinking that I downshift on a turn try to crank up a good sized hill in mid shift.
I knew it was going to happen evan before it did.
My chain broke.

It was really the sram power link that snapped. I was thankfull for that anyways. I could just pull out my new power link and put the chain togather without pulling out the chaintool.
Easier said than done in "Race" mode. I had a connex connector instead of sram as replacement. I'd never used the connex before and it drove me crazy. I couldn't get the damn thing to snap togather. I'm leaning over the bike, sweat going everywhere, watching racers pass by (including the guy who I'd watched endo) and just getting more frustrated by the second.
I finally realized that my sub hour lap was shot.
This calmed me down and with a few more minutes of fighting I got the chain back togather.
Finished the lap with my worst time for the day. 1:14.

Lap 3 .
This was a dog.
The 1st half wasn't too bad. By the 2nd half though I was tired and cramps were trying to take over the legs.
Finally on an ascent that I was mashing up the quad got a full blown cramp.
I should have just down shifted and spun but it felt easier mashing.
I cut the pace back a bit nursing the quad thats ready to re cramp at the slightest form of exertion.
I figure I've got another lap after this so I don't need to fry myself.
The only thing good on this lap was no one in front of me on the decent I mentioned in lap 2. With the momentum that gave me I was able to clear the ascent that came right after.

I finish the lap, hand off to Brad and Eric tells me to go relax, that was my last lap.
??????
What are talking about?
I'm supposed to get 4.
He trys to explain it to me but in my post lap state of mind I couldn't get it.
Finally sitting in the pit 10 minutes later I get it. Unless Brad can pull a fast lap and Eric comes in under an hour , I'm done.
Eric is our fastest rider but asking him to do a sub hour on his 4th lap is too much.

I find out though that we're in running for 3rd or maybe evan 2nd.
We spend a few minutes trying to figure the logistics, if we do this and the other team does that we'll get this place.

In the end Eric came in at 7:14 PM.
14 minutes past the cutoff for me to go back out but he still did one helluva lap. Quicker than any of mine or Brads laps. Eric's lap also got us into 2nd place. He passed the rider for the team we were trying to beat.

The bad part about actually getting on the podium is having to stick around to recieve your medal. Nah, not really.

All 3 of us were totally psyched up.
I totally enjoyed and couldn't help thinking that this would probly be the only time I ever podium for a race.

It turned out to be a great time and I will be entering more races although that's probly it for my "beginner" career. Hopefully I can improve enough to maybe get a medal as in the clydesdale class.
...........
Maybe in the masters-clyde class?