Faded Dreams of Glory

So in the last 2 months or so I've gotten myself a DH bike. Going back to some old roots one might say. I've saddled myself up an Ironpony Sunday, with some 2010 boxxers.
Now I know all you jeyboi's are thinking "Boxxers???, you don't wear boxers under your Lycra." You'd be wrong on 2 points, 1 - DHers dont wear Lycra anymore, it's actually against the rules, and 2 - Boxxers are a suspension fork.
Lots of suspension travel front and rear, and a nice hefty weight of 39.5 pounds. Yet it still pedals pretty darn well.
But I digress, Jono B has been organising some "timed" Dh rides with a small select group. Called SuperDark, obviously been run at night in the dark, in a super D format. I turned up to one on the hill that shall not be named, 2 weeks ago, and whupped ass, well sorta. I missed a card stop cos I didn't see it. But still got 2nd even with a 1 minute time penalty. Even rode the Uphiller Sunday back to the top for another sifty run.
Last week, on the same night as the Werewolf hunt up Belmont, a small group of merry men gathered once more. We actually met at the same place as the werewolfers in Cornish St. They took off before us, cowed by our ............ok, so Caleb was really late and we had to wait.
Up the stream we went, Caleb decided we should take a shortcut on the way up. This involved carrying our bikes up a nigh on vertical rocky track. This sucked greatly, cheers big guy. At the top of that track, there was more hill, and then more hill, and still more hill. Eventually we got to halfway. And after that there was more hill.
Finally the top of Belmont trig was reached, and an order was sorted. Jono headed off first, as he was the bottom timer. I was 4th off, and nearly pedalled into a hole in the first 10 meters. I was really unsure of where I was going to be honest, but having spotted a few lines on the way up, made sure I hit them, which helped in the flow of things. Passed young Sarah in the wood switchbacks, and was getting the swap on at times, back out in the open and the faster stuff was a bit of a struggle. I wasn't sure of the traction levels, unsure of whether or not the track turned at the end of some of the straight bits, how tight it did and what way. So I was quite cautious in the faster bits. Coming thru baked beans bend was fun as hell, but seeing as I had only been down there once before and that was a few years before, was essentially running blind. Caught and passed weasel the dog and his owner, and took off down the stream bed. Bloody wet feet tho. Coming thru the next junction and I saw the 1st riders lights head of me, but my front wheel was a bit washy. Great front tire was going down, and it's still a long way to go to the end. Ah well, sit down and pedal on the low seated DH bike, still got a good pace on, but can't really stand to sprint, can't attack corners cos the front lets go, but ah well. Still pedal hard, walk the bridge with the steps cos it's well too flat to want to ride them by now.
From memory I did a 18:34, about a min up on second place. Pretty happy with that, spesh with the flat front tire and all.
And when I got home, I found I had a rear flat as well. Double tube fail.