Tree Farm Relay

Saturday July 25 was the 4th Annual Tree Farm Relay at Lakeshore Park in Novi, MI presented by Team Tree Farm, Dark Horse Racing and the Michigan Mountain Biking Association. The race is an MMBA MetroSouth Chapter Benefit Race featuring a roughly 10 mile loop comprised primarily of the mountain bike trail at Lakeshore Park, with some fast two-track sections thrown in for fun.

Each team is comprised of four members, with each member in the Sport Division completing one lap, and each team member in the Advanced Division competing two laps. This year there were 59 teams in 6 Divisions, Sport Mens, Womens and Coed, and Advanced Mens, Womens and Coed (although no teams registered for the Advanced Women's Division). 31 Teams just happened to be in the Sport Men's Division, which is the division my team was in. Needless to say it was pretty competitive. My team, "!SeiknurDekopS" finished a respectable 9th out of the 31 teams.

Truth be told though, this race really isn't about winning for myself and my teammates, being part of the group who puts the race on every year. Our primary focus is to make sure that all the racers and spectators who come out each year have a fun day hanging out and riding bikes.

In its short 4 year history, the race has continually grown from meager beginnings of roughly 18 teams the first year, to 37 teams in its second year, to 42 teams last year, and to 59 teams this year. A major success by most any standards.

The weather didn't necessarily cooperate throughout the day, but after postponing the start of the Advanced Division for 30 minutes (the Advanced race was supposed to start at 9, while the Sport race was scheduled to start at 11 to allow the races to finish more closely), most of the rain had passed by the time the gun went off. Amazingly, after the early morning showers the rain stayed away for the rest of the day, with the exception of an absolute downpour in the middle of the afternoon, which just happened to coincide perfectly with my lap. So I was soaked and my bike got a little trashed but it was worth it. While having a race in wet/muddy/rainy conditions is not ideal for a mountain bike trail, we (the organizers of this race) also maintain the trail year round, so we will be the ones out there repairing the damage. Surprisingly, word from the trail the day after the race is that there was relatively minor damage except for a couple of sections which we had been holding off repairing till after the race anyway. So we really lucked out there!

It is definately a personal victory when things go well and we are all very proud to be a part of making it happen. Congrats to my fellow !SeiknurDekopS teammates Pat Audet, Jeff Shotwell and Frank Bean, as well as to the rival SpokeDrunkies team comprised of Dave Cox, Jon Banas, Scott Silvers and Adam Claar. The teams were evenly matched this year, with the SpokeDrunkies edging out a 2 minute victory over !SieknurDekopS. Next year things will be different :)

Here are my pics from the day.



Here is a short video clip of the start of the Sport wave. Keep an eye on the guy in the gray who is first down the hill. Hilarious!