First Enduro on 18 GP300

[Wimpy525]

Back story:
The last enduro that I raced was in 2014, previously had ridden all the enduros each year from 2010-2013. I was burnt out on racing, our series has about 17 enduros on the schedule and keeps you pretty busy. With work, racing, and home I was done. So I started helping my club out with putting on the enduro, trail riding, etc. I know all the local single track so I was the go-to guy for a trail ride. I started gaining a substantial amount of weight and didn't want to ride anymore, by last summer it was dam right painful to ride, not enjoyable. Something had to change.
So in June, I went on a diet, which I don't like to call it that its more of a lifestyle change. I told myself when I lost 50lbs I could put a deposit down on a 19, at the time did not know which flavor. By September I had lost 50lbs and started really researching bikes. Well, I found a leftover GP300, made the arrangements and took her home.
With the loss of 50lbs and a new ride, there is no better motivation to keep working on this. I started riding with a new group that's faster than me, rides very technical single track and beats the hell out of me every ride. I keep improving and bike setup gets better and better.
So I have lost a total of 85lbs at this point. There was a race about 4 hours north of me and I just happened to need to be there for work the Friday before the race. I figure what the hell enter it, you have studded tires, a well set up bike whats the worse thing that can happen?
So this is supposed to be a snow run however, mother nature had other plans no snow just lots of ice. They run Brand X rules so this was new to me, I am used to traditional timekeepers. I was assigned to row one, not really the best place to be. Where there wasn't ice there where rocks and studs don't work well on the rocks. There are three guys on my minute, one ASSR that was very quick! I chased him into the first section, tried to keep him in sight for most of it but fell and he got away I ended up dropping a 3. The second section of the day I got lost, arrowing was a bit week and being on 1 no tracks to follow. Probably lost 2 or 3 minutes there, but got my head together and just focused on finishing. The last section of the day was long and decided that I was just on a trail ride. Figured finishing would be good enough.
So at the end of the day, I felt good, I rode well, was able to keep my head together and ended up winning my class B-Senior (40-50), finished 2nd overall B-class and 17th overall.
This is certainly a confidence builder! With 17 enduros in my local series, I will be busy and with thoughts of running another series with 7 events who know what will happen..... Stay tuned
Thanks to MetFin Shotblast Systems, GasGasPartsguy.com, Ridersupplies.com