Bake Shop

I can't say I didn't get my way for no rain for on Sunday, although that's about the only thing it didn't do. What an interesting day for a race. Stacie, Kiersten and I left home around 8:30 on Sunday morning and headed up to the farm where Stacie and Kiersten would hang out with Grandpa and Grandma. After dropping them off I continued on towards Waverly keeping my eye on the outside temp wondering if it'd make the 50 degree prediction. It didn't get above 42 the whole drive so I knew I was in for a chilly race.

I finally arrived at Camp Ingawanis and registered for the race. Walking around outside I realized I didn't pack the right clothing for this race. Things I'd wish I'd brought....my warmer gloves, my tights and my thicker socks. I decided to make a faux paus and wear my skibbies under my bike shorts for the extra layer of warmth. Not the most comfortable thing but it kept my lower regions warmer...for some reason spandex has NO wind blocking ability. I also should mention that during the time I was getting ready we had two quick snow showers come thru. Everyone had this really nice perplexed look on their faces as they watched it snow on May 1st.

After getting layered up and getting my "one size fits all" gloves to fit under my race gloves I was ready. I went back and forth about 5 times on whether or not I should wear my jacket. Finally with about 45 secs until we started I shed the coat and threw it by Jacob's. I figured I'd feel warmer once I got the blood going. The race was a 9 mile course that we would be doing twice. Word was that there were two water crossings that were spanned by some very rickety bridges. Racers were discussing whether or not to walk them or trudge thru the water. More about my "choice" later.

The start was my usual start, I thought I had gotten up with a faster pack but again I found I was too far back and being held up by slower riders. Finally we got a group that was going at a better speed but this didn't last long as the lead guy biffed a tree right in front of me and I had to lock up the brakes to avoid hitting him. Once he went down I remounted and started running by myself chasing down riders in front of me. It was shortly after this that the snow really started flying. My arm warmers were now white and I had to take off my sunglasses so I could see. One section took us thru a horse pasture and I was flying down this hill trying to avoid the piles of poo.

The first water crossing was early in the course and I was in for a surprise when I got there. There was a line of about 5 guys waiting to trudge thru the knee deep river. The so called "bridge" was already knocked over, it was just 3 or 4 2x8's laying on a very unstrurdy base. Needless to say the bridge was out and the only way across was in the water. I hit the water and wow was it cold. I learned very quickly not to splash a lot and avoid getting anything wet that didn't need to be. Shortly after this I came up Jacob alongside the trail and he had flatted already. This was the last I saw of him till the end of the race. I passed a few more guys as I worked my way up thru the field and for the last 3 miles of so I stayed with a couple other guys who were riding about my pace.
We were down to two guys when we started lap two and the guy that was in front of me dropped back on the first section of doubletrack and I just kept the hammer down and made up some time in this easy section. It's weird but I found you can actually rest more when you're moving fast and just spinning. Once you get the speed up you can just pedal at an easy rate in a high gear and keep trucking. From this point I just kept hammering and everytime I saw somebody within reach I made a goal to pass them. As usual I made my move during the climbs and that proved to work the best for me.

I saw one more guy in front of me with a few miles to go and I wanted to try and pass one more person. I just started to push up my pace when I clipped a tree and got stopped. Luckily I was able to grab the tree and save myself from falling but it killed my chances of catching the guy in front of me. I think he saw me coming and picked up his pace too. In the end I finished 29 out of a field of 44. I was pretty happy with my finish considering the race conditions we were thrown. There were two river crossings (the other bridge was out too) that totaled for 4 crossings. I don't think I could have handled another lap because my feet were really numb when I finished and I was having trouble clipping in because I couldn't feel my pedals.

Here's a picture one water crossing from last years race. This year the water was up to the river bank.