The Longest Miles

Well just shy of a year later and all I can say is I must be suffering from short term memory loss in my old age. Back to the Snake I went thinking oh yea I can do this in 4 1/2 hours this year....NOT! Anyway ride day arrives and we started off groups of 3 the first 5 miles weren't too bad the creek, the mud, and a few minor climbs and I was hanging pretty well with the group I started with and some single speeders(I was smart this year and let the women start ahead of me so they wouldn't have to pass me!). Anyway my limited lactate threshold kicked in and I was starting to feel the pain around mile 7 and the granny gear was barely helping, so I rode the next 5 miles of uphill reaching the first mile long stretch of downhill on the gravel road which allowed for a quick breather before the next climb. The following 4 miles after that took some time, I enjoyed that last mile of downhill right before the midway point, getting ready for that big climb on the start of the second half.
So I am sitting there at half-way point thinking maybe I should pack up and catch a four wheeled ride back when Grant, Mark and Jake all arrive. Not bad since they started 24min behind me and caught me already, somehow that provided me with the motivation needed to decide to gut it out and finish what I started. So away we go I was able to hang in there for awhile until once again my lack of conditioning kicked in and I started lagging behind again. the second half had some more interesting features, the root wall, which was a conveniently placed 3 1/2 foot vertical wall of roots right at the bottom of a fairly flowing downhill, the 500yrd mud slick located conveniently after a creek crossing going uphill of course, the dead fall downhill, where the was a large tree right in the middle of some technical downhill section which required a dismount crossing. This was also where I ate it pretty good when I managed to get a little left of the trail and almost plowed down a couple of saplings. Then of course the icing on the cake the 2 miles of rock garden or as I like to refer to as the hike from hell, while there is some ridable area throughout it has many more dismount points than any other trail I have ever been on. This is the section where you definitely can reflect on why you got started in mountain biking to begin with as well as questioning your sanity for putting yourself through so much suffering not to mention paying for it. Anyway I saw the towers as I approached the 32 mile point signaling the end of the torture and a pleasant 2 mile downhill split between a gravel and paved road to the finish line.
Now if my calculations are correct we have 2-3 miles of downhill in the first 17 miles and then about 4 miles of downhill in the second 17 most of which is in steep sections one mile or more at a time so once again my question remains Who was the sick individual that developed a 34 mile trail with 27 miles of climbing? And why do I keep riding it?? If nothing else it should me where I need to start focusing my training and getting my latctate threshold up as well as working on my power looks like I might be doing alot of interval training. Well with that I am looking forward to Thomson Day this Saturday and in light of 6hrs of trail time I had on Saturday and the 4hrs I plan on doing next Saturday I will stick with some light road rides this week, however if your out at Thomson Day on Saturday I will See You on the Trail!