Friday – Off To The Race with High Hopes

Well – I finally made it to the start – this is turning out to be quite a disaster. I got picked up this morning – absolutely fine – and we drove to that monument which I thought was fine. I had a track on my map – to take me to the start so off I went. It turned out to be a really steep climb and I finally reached the start of the Arizona Trail at 10 past 7. I was now totally confused as there was no one there and I had not seen anyone as I rode down the trail towards the start. No tyre tracks – very confusing! My Garmin wasn’t picking up anything and then when it eventually did it said I was near a course and then kept recalculating and recalculating. So I rode further along the Pass before realizing I had gone completely the wrong side as I pulled out the written cues. This is when I realized the start is not at the start of the actual trail but somewhere else completely. It is at the actual border there in the Park. My fault!! So I rode down having trouble with my Garmin as I don’t seem to be able to turn off the “recalculate” and because I was “off” the trail it spent all its time “recalculating” which was not a help to me trying to follow it.

I finally found the road I needed to be on and eventually reached the start – just an hour and a half late!! Perfect – just what I needed – a two hour workout before I had even started. And I really need to figure out how to reset this Garmin. – this is going to kill my battery.

As well as this I have had to pump up my back tyre once and my front tyre once – so all in all a great start – oh yes – one more disaster at this stage – my Go Pro. SD card error every time I switch it on. Well – I guess I had better get started!! Still looking forward to the race despite being an hour and a half behind everyone already!