On the cannon...right. Wait. What?

I always ask the same questions of myself after a race.
1 how'd you do?
2 was it fun?
3 would you do it again?
So this past weekend was a southern mountainbike blow out. We drove down to Birmingham to see the outlaws and do some riding. More on Saturday later. Everybody wants the Stoney Lonesome report.

If you've ever been to a restraunt on opening night, sometimes your steak isn't right. If the staff is awesome and evrything else is done well you know they'll get it sorted.

Tracy McKay, promoter of the event nailed 99% of what needed to happen.
Staff was amazing. Helpful, pleasant and just what you need.
The race started LeMans style. I'm sure I was the only one laughing as we walked away from our bikes and down a steep muddy hill. Thank you karma for the fast payback from short track.

The next thing is a cannon firing over our heads and we took off running. I'm loving this. I use my meager crossin skills and mount the bike and am in 8th or 9th place overall. Its a small race, there's only a handful of experts so I'm past the first corner prolly 5th in the sports.
Then we hit the creek crossing. Straight down we jump into thigh high water. Straight up climbing to get out the other side. Crazy shit, but that's what makes a race. Character, we'll call it.
The awesome start was followed by some climbs that had me dismounting and running the SS29er. No worries, it was all in the plan.
Problem was, the course marking was dodgy at best. Wrong turns and reclimbing the same hills made for a lot of confused riders stopping mid race and asking each other where we were.
I re crossed the creek after doing 10miles of the 8 mile first lap and bailed. I had no idea how I'd gotten back and folks were calling it.
This has potential to be a really cool and really fast race.
Hats off to Tracy for recognizing this and getting it together for the next edition.
So my questions, right?
Howd I do? Good start, no finish.
Was it fun? Hell yes it was. It was a day racing my mountain bike w all manner of ridiculocity around me. I'm good with that.
Would I put this back on the calender? If I lived closer I'd definitely do it. I won't commit to anything on next years schedule but the folks that ran this deserve to get another shot.
More on the weekend later, including evil-jack riding singletrack for the first time. Let's just say there were tears and there was determination. Good comes from days like this. It was amazing to see him get the hang of it. Maybe he'll teach me....