What a hoot! It’s always an awesome day when you get to ride a dirt bike at John Zink Ranch. Due to the possibility of extremely hot days, the normal six test sections were shortened to five for Sunday’s race. The 58 total miles we did cover were still enough to have racers dropping out from crashes or “lack of fun”. The shit eating grin I ended the day with explained the good times I had!
Test one was the most technical on the day. The trail lured racers into a false sense of hope for the first few miles. Then it dumped us into a twisty, rutty, rocky section that had us aching due to the swelling arm pump. Test two through five felt same-same as the day wore on. Some had faster sections than others, while some were a bit more in the woods with grabby trees and hateful rocks.
The fast sections at the Zink Ranch Enduro are terrifying. You can go as fast as you are comfortable going, but you also have to be wary. The mowed sections of the track are sacred ground, because if you cross the threshold into the overgrown grass, you risk a snipe attack by the unseen rocks of Northern Oklahoma. There were many stories in the pits of racers having close calls, and others that pinballed across the great plains.
The tree sections of Zink Ranch are some of the coolest around. The trails are laid out in such a fun and flowy way. The crazy part is the rocky sections that seem to grow out of nowhere. You’ll be zipping along and then BAM, your front tire is flung across the woods and you’re dangling off the back end of the bike. The rocks at Zink Ranch are the most pristine square edge rocks known to man. There is no right way to charge into them, you just pinch your knees, drop your heels, and pray.
I was chasing dehydration all day. My guess to this is because of the heat the day prior, I didn’t stay on top of water and electrolyte consumption to make up for the extra heat and sweating. Once I noticed my pee getting darker and darker after each test section, I began consuming a lot more from my hydration bladder than I normally do between tests. I was able to stabilize my depletion by the end of the day, but you never want to be chasing hydration or nutrition.
For those wondering why our pee gets darker as we get dehydrated, it’s because our kidneys try to save as much water as they can when enough water isn’t coming into the body. This reabsorption causes urine to get darker because there is less water being removed from the body. So yes, your pee color can be an indicator of your body being under-hydrated.
I had another good day of riding. I attacked well in test one and two, lolly gagged a bit in test three and four, but found another edge in test five. I think it’s interesting how I am typically slower in test one. I need to take Josh Toth’s advice to treat test one like it’s test three or four on the day. I finished 59th Overall and 4th in the A 40+ Class against some FAST old dudes. It’s worth saying again, it’s inspiring how fast the 40/45/50 A age group classes are.
We only have a few more BJEC and TSCEC races left. Swing by the Seat Time Châtel and say hi!
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