was probably the last thing Marshall wanted to hear after sweating for 6:30:51.861 as my support at the 2009 Cowbell Challenge Marathon. This race was HOT! Literally, with the heat index around 115 degrees. I couldn’t have finished this race without him. Luckily for me I was able to talk him into sticking to the plan and going with me on Friday night (he almost bailed…fucker). The 2009 Cowbell Challenge Marathon started with a 6 mile road ride from the center of Davidson, NC to the course at Fisher Farm Park. Though I thought it was awesome that many local families were out cheering us on with Cowbell’s of their own, I was thinking…”they must really hate us silly single speeders to make us ride on this silly road for six miles.” I do understand though that it was because the community wanted to be involved. From the road, we hit the greenway and the first big climb. When we hit the climb the geared riders that had just passed me immediately got off of their bikes. Wooo Hooo! “Rider” I don’t think I saw many of those folks again. It was really awesome to get to the first climb and be able to ride it specially when the gearys were walkin’. I rode every climb every lap (6) thanks to my 33x20 Kick-Ass gearing. The single track was really great! Super twisty technical with some skinnys and whoopdeedoos as well as a few steep, muddy down into muddy uphill, slide, got it’s! A few wooden bridges, rock gardens, and really techy spots. Then there were the really hot field spins and the even hotter than hell Kudzu climb. That kudzu climb lasted about 20 seconds but I swear it was 10 degrees hotter and really put the hurting on at the end of every lap.