I guess this is as official as it gets. I know people were clamoring about how everyone did, and honestly, I wouldn’t expect results up anytime soon. That would take way too much effort, and probably a lot more sober people than were hanging out at the finish line.

The race was a dusty clusterf@#$* of about 300 people, 23 miles, and 5000 feet of climbing. It was an incredible course, with 3 laps of pain. The first was a rumored 9 miles, with the following 2 being around 7 apiece. We all set off for a run and snapped up our bikes for the first lap. As expected, there were some motivated folks out front who probably got around the mess of people, but the rest of us mere mortals suffered our way up what turned into a giant shopping-mall-esque hike-a-bike.

I settled into a nice rhythm after the first lap, and just enjoyed the sweet singletrack that made up the next two. I won’t bore you with the details. I passed some people, I got passed by some people. I cramped up, I pushed through it, and I even sprinted for the finish (where I cramped up again, and coasted in while number 100 took the sprint handily).

I can tell you that Carl Decker took the race, and Rachel Lloyd took it for the women. As you probably saw, Raney took 15th, and I got 101st. Other than that, you’ll have to take a look at everyone’s sweet bottle openers to see where they came in. The first 5 finishers got titanium bottle openers, the next 10 (ending with number 15) got stainless, and everyone else got the sweet black anodized ones. There were also red ones for the first 50 or so DNFs.

It was a great time, and you can bet that I’ll be on my game for registering for 2009 in Durango.

I’ve got a couple more pics up here and there’s one that I’ll point out front and center.

A bit of explanation. 12 pairs of tighty-whities were handed out at the beginning of the race. The deal was that you get an undisclosed prize at the end of the race if you ride the whole thing in the undies, and nothing else on the bottom. The pairs were snapped up quick, and although I didn’t get pics of everyone, I will point out that this particular gent is part of the Durango crew who will be hosting SSWC09.

Let that be a warning to all of you.

See you next year.