(anecdotes by Paul Barry)
The Rez Dog Racing team took a bite out of the 12 hours of mesa Verde this year with two teams representing the pack.
In the 4 man team category were Chuck, Alan, Chad and Peter.
The duo geezer category had Bob and Jack ‘geezing’ away.
The event actually started the day before for the dogs with a pre-ride of the course followed by a re-fuelling dinner in Mancos.
Heated discussions ensued with whom to start the first lap being the topic of the evening.
Chad was out first the next morning at 7am sharp, everyone’s first lap went off without a hitch.
They all started to get settled into the rhythm of racing and resting.
The duo geezers were ticking away nicely too and the team camp was coming together with bike stands and tarps set up for shade.
While checking out the standings a mistake was noted which caused a bit of a flutter. The race organizers showed the leading team putting in sub-one hour laps.
Rex Dog Racing’s four man team was averaging one hour twenty minute laps so how could this be? “There was no way that those guys could go so fast” said Peter. The mistake was corrected and the dogs were holding a position just outside the top ten.
Big Bob came in after his lap and we noticed his saddle was damaged.
“It looks like he bonked and took a big bite out of it” according to Chuck.
It didn’t look that tasty to me. Jack had a worried look on his face as he went out for his lap, hoping his saddle would make it back in one piece.
Crunch time came when 7 laps were down and the eighth was in progress, people were looking at their watches trying to figure out what times were needed in order to get the 9th lap in. Cutoff for the start of the last lap was at 6pm.
Mean while Bob took a look at his saddle and said “let’s switch this out for the full suspension, I’m doing two laps”.
Ok tough guy, here you go.
The pressure was on. Out went Chuck on his second lap. He returned with a blistering 1:17.
“Alright Alan, 1:20 average is what we need”. He looked like a steam train as he headed off down the trail.
The clock was ticking, it seemed to speed up too and 6 pm was approaching fast.
Bob came in and went right back out, hardcore if you ask me. Jack had a look of relief on his face.
Tic tock, tic tock. The clock got to 6 pm way too quickly and the train must have run out of steam because the 9th lap wasn’t to be. There was instant relief on Chad’s face as he cracked a cold one.
So we waited for Bob. In he came looking like the warrior that he is. Blood flowing from a couple of dings, he still had a smile on his face.
“I think it was a tree branch”. That tree must have come off second best.
The award for the toughest dog of the day definitely goes to Bob.
He did 4 laps, ate half his saddle without mustard or ketchup and put the hurt on a tree.
Both teams finished with respectable results (unofficial) at the end of the day. The 4 man team took 10th with 8 laps and the duo geezers took 7th with 7 laps.
Overall a good time was had by all, the weather was great, the bikes held up well and the legs were hammering non stop.
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