[David Crawford]

National Enduro This past Weekend

I think you will enjoy this at my expense.

I had one of those weekends the best and the worst can happen and the end result is people are good.

Thanks for all your support. This past weekend I entered a National Enduro named "the Sand Goblin Enduro" in Roselawn, Indiana. Not too far from the Naked City.

The Enduro was a well planned out off-road Enduro course. While I had fun, It did come with many challenging sections. The bike was ready, I was getting ready and the mood was right for a good day at the track.

No crashes accept for the one where I'm sitting on a cooler in my trailer. I was getting ready to put all the gear on to protect my self against serious injury. Then the cooler sled out from under me and I fall on my rear ET. The floor hurt worse than the beating I was about to take at the starting line. I'm laughing because I had not even started running the event. The guy across the way is laughing and "he said I saw that" Needless to say I thought that was the worst thing that would happen to me all day. I passed him 10 out of 10 stages. So my success and self esteem was high.

The four other riders were half and half experience high ranked riders in the state of Indiana. Only one of us knew what we were doing. Thank goodness for the Digital Enduro Meter the experienced guy had. When the flag drops your own your own no matter what the team thinks. The Timex watch I had wrapped around my padded cross bar said to other riders he knows what he is doing. And the roll chart I spent 3 hours on the night before were what I counted on.

The race target is 24 miles an hour. No faster no slower. Too fast your penalized extra points and too slow your penalized a few extra points.

My average speed was 23 miles an hour, 20 points short of a top 10 position, Consider trying to ride a motorcycle off-road while doing math in your head. Meanwhile I was challenged by the tight trails and sand dunes. The course consisted of 10 stages alternating from the grass track start to wood bridges. Negotiating tight branch covered 36" in trail widths. Say nothing of the 3 and 4 foot diameter logs purposely downed to goof with the best riders physique. Oh yea the water crossing designed to drowned the novice rider and the High speed open sections. You ask why we do this stuff.

We covered 69 miles in just inside of 3 hours. We were the 7th stage to start. Every stage we had to start at 7 minutes behind the riders in front of us. My score was less than desired, however I learned a lot about the latest events. An enduro is a race against time not other riders. While we get a route sheet with specified turns and odometer readings the trick is to be to the next stage to start. The next stage exactly the time you’re supposed too. The top speed of my bike was 86 miles. The only reason was I would fall behind in the tight sections, and then play catch-up during the transition zones. Each hour you need to be at certain stop points. Enjoy the photos. Especially the tight technical sections see in the pictures. "Tight and technical"

The best part of the day was known you finished a National Enduro with some of the best riders from a 500 mile radius in the Midwest. While Jeff Fredette a National AA rider had hosted the event, he was at the check points encouraging the riders on and giving away end of the day concession prizes donated by the people in the flyer.

A special Thank you to my family and friends new and old who assisted me this weekend while the Chevrolet Transmission I left on Int. 65 south at 6:30 PM Sunday after the race. Remember don't laugh at someone else’s expense. You never know when it will happen to you.

Byron & Gayle Singer Big thank you and I took a chance and hopefully

Sandi (Betty Boop) thanks "counted on a good friend again"

David Crawford

District 15 AMA

[crfsonly]

great story david...thanks for sharing it!

ken