Camping and cycling in Korea

Yuppers, that's me in my glory. I'm a picture of vitality I tell you!
Last weekend we went to central Korea and camped, rode some insanely cool trails, drank some adult beverages and tried to stay dry.

Dirt
We pushed our scooters up, and up, and up rarely stopping to do anything other than clean the blue air out of our ears that Suzanne was spouting. Girrrrrrrl was mad about the pushing. I was a little poopy-pants too until we finally hit some horizonal dirt singletrack.

When all of our groups convened we pointed our sleds down. Someone took off and practically disappeared over this cliff. I inched up behind to look over and see him wrastling a tree. At that point the spectators looked to me to be the next victim. I reluctantly dropped in down the rutted and twisty trail. Peer pressure. The rut caught the rear tire while I worked the front of the bike. The result was this kick-ass sideways skid with a change-up mid-skid for about 40-50 feet total, the first half of which was full of fear then a calm overcame me as I realized that the hill was so steep my upside hand was merely a foot or two from the ground. Totally terrorized I yelled back up the hill, "it's cool, come on down, the water's fine!".

We all met at the bottom and returned to camp. Some previously not grumpy people were now grumpy and visa-verse. Look at us sitting on the concrete. in the picture to the right. We are contemplating life after the descent.

Back at camp we regrouped and headed out for a second loop that saw us ride up a nice fire road to the top of our original push up. As we headed into the singetrack the rain came and it was getting serious. The loose rocks were a bit more stable with the moisture and provided a great ride down,. The final 1k was a freaking blast with swooping diving singltrack. Just lovely!
The party
Set up tents, beer, Jerry's Biafran stew, beer, Jeagermeister, chips, try to stay dry, sleep. Good times.
The next day
Not happy inside. Nobody rode and nobody was sad for that. We had pressed our luck the day before.

Race number two in South Korea

A few months back I sent some family and friends updates on a race I did in Asan. Well, the monsoon season has ended and racing is back in full swing. I traveled 90 minutes to a place called dongduchong, North of Seoul. There was no lack of pageantry as the banners for the race started appearing about 5 miles before the city limit sign. The race started in a stadium on a hillside which provided a nice venue. Off we went! We started on the track and passed under the tracking system sensor.

Let the cussing begin!
I cussed at the singletrack in the first 1/3 of the 35km race. The trail and road was so steep the front wheel bobbed. The trails were new and not built with any shred of respect for the soil or vegetation. That stuff (trail dirt) will be at the bottom of the valley and unrideable after the freeze/thaw or a few rains. However, I will admit that that many of the downhills were fun even though unsustainable. Sort of like; you should not eat fried chicken but I just ate some and loved it! I was pretty frustrated and even stopped on one climb to clean my diaper/poopy pants. At one point in the beginning of the race my friend Nat and I realized that walking was significantly faster...and so I walked. (note: I never saw Nat walk, for he is far too burly for such things.) Truth be told, this race was Korean racing at it's best and I need to adapt. All races here involve brutal paved climbs followed by unrideable singletrack climbs often followed by dirt road descents. Yes, adapting is what I'll do. I just need to lose that last 55 pounds I've been trying to lose. Anyone have any good diet advise?

Hey, I smell BBQ!
I got to witness two pretty spectacular crashes. The first was in a long sweeper turn on a gravel fire road. The racer in front of me danced across the rocks with his itsy-bitsy tires until his elbow and hip hit the ground, just about the time the cheese grater concrete started. I figured I would put him out of his misery and try to roll him a little further down the concrete by pushing him with my front tire. Sing along kids "the wheel and the Korean go round and round, round and round, round and round..." The second crash was a rider "pie-ting nay-chia" after some spectators egged him on. Koreans are enthusiastic about mountain biking and that they get to do it in nature. They see it as them against nature, thus they are fighting nature. In their excitement in cheering for racers it always comes off as "pie-ting nay-chia". This is also fun to yell when you see a drunk guy peeing in an alley or whever the mood strikes. It's like yelling "FREEBIRD, DUDE!". Anyway, he attacked on a downhill paved section into a 179.9 degree turn. Bless his little heart if he didn't eat eat shit like a big boy. Off into the ditch he went, cleats up, man down. The eggers moseyed away unamused and so did I in the big ring.

You want WHAT, no drama!??
Not stopping to help the two crashers emptied my Karma box. I flatted with a sliced front sidewall. WTF!? Korean racing seldom seems to provide tire-slicing opportunities but I suppose I seized the day and took my turn. I stopped to add more air in hopes that the tubeless system would heal. Nope. I pulled the tire and inserted a tube then made sure to lose my skewer nut. Paul stood by and watched and while I made all of this happen WITHOUT any outside assist. Secrete message here! Actually, Paul had a nicer pump and helped me find my blasted skewer nut. In the meanwhile Nat rolled by, offered assist, then carried on. The only solace about the flat was that it really motivated me to hammer the last 6 miles. It probably cost me 8-10 minutes, some of which was spent looking dopier than normal and doing nothing, but it made the end fun. The ending single-track may have been the best of all with rock and roots but unfortunately, my Korean buddies leading the way. Nat was just in front of me but made a brilliant pass of our two Korean buddies, effectively ending my chances of nipping him at the line. Good job!

I initially thought my finish time was in the 2:20 zone but I forgot about my tire flat that did not register on my watch. I cannot imagine I was in the top 50% of this race either. I had hoped for top 25% but it just was not in the cards. In reality, I may have been over estimating my abilities even for a perfect day. When the race took off, I easily glided to the front 25% of the field but then did my best to act like a rolling brick midway up the first climb. I never saw most of my class field again except for my friend Nat. I suppose we will know as soon as the results are posted.

Estimated total time: 2:30:00
Avg speed: 13.8 kmh (8.56 mph!)
distance: ~33 km (20.46 miles) Was supposed to be 35km
Max speed: 62.3 kph (38.6 mph)
Elevation gain: 7,500,184,596,952,584 feet