Friday, December 7, 2012

Mud Run Cross PIR #2


You want mud?  I’ll give you mud… PIR #2.
I heard people say, “more running than riding”, and saw more than a few rear derailers ripped off their hangers.  And here I thought, good way to end the season, a lot of people aren’t going to get on a cross bike again for a few moths after this hell ride.  Soooo I decided to race Single speed (known from here on out as S.S.) for my last cross race of the season.  Luke Demoe was gracious enough to let me race his wonderful Steomper, because I am planning on buying one of my own.  It also worked out because I didn’t have to worry about destroying my bike… Because it wasn’t my BIKE! Ha score…  no… I would have felt bad if I broke the Steomper… anyway it was nice not to have to worry about mechanical parts getting so caked with mud that they freeze and get ripped apart when my massive legs rip though the peanut-buttery mud, well the three feet or so that I could actually ride.  Aaannyway, back to the race, or should I say, time to start the race.




Well let’s just say I started out with a 30 min test ride on the Steomper… not the best for a first time race on a new bike.  Anyway, the B’s started and we the S.S. waited for 3 minutes in the cold… finally we are off. The race started with a long strait stretch on cement, needless to say, on a S.S. we were all spinning our legs like humming birds flap there wings… we crank into a quick left turn onto slick muddy grass.  Drop into a dip and I’m looking at a 180 turn in 6 in deep mud sloped up hill, soooo… we all jump off and run.  I jump off the bike and go to pick it up and do one of those lifts where I almost throw it over my head… Luks Steomper must have been at least 5lbs less than mine… with this being the one race this year that we ran more than we road I feel lucky to have been able to carry 20% less weight.
Back to the race, off the bike run up the little stupid hill, jump back on the bike, and slowly trudge until we hit some cement.  I hit the puddles hoping to knock some of the mud off my tires and bike, just in time to hit another long strait section of mud.  I trudge through holding my cadence as high as I can until my legs won’t go anymore… jump off the bike, this time no hill just 4 inch deep mud, run until it looks less deep, and jump on again.  Repeat… repeat… come down a small hill (second lap) wipe out… I think I went one mph too fast… jump up and run… bike… run… bike… come around a corner and watch a dude wipe out in front of me I have just enough time to plant a foot and try to vault the guy and his bike… don’t make it… heal lands on his carbon deep dish wheel… apologies… untangle bike… notice break lever bent in… jumps some barriers… jump on the bike ride… repeat and finish…




Long story short, I gave it everything I had.  I cracked on the last lap.  Probably wouldn’t have been able to do another one on pace. Thanks again to Luke for letting me ride his S.S. Steomper. It kicked my ass; hopefully I’ll be in better shape next year while riding a Steomper of my own.
















Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Washington County Fair Complex Crusades #7.


Washington County Fair Complex Crusades #7.





            I Hate this race.  Last year it was the 1st race I was feeling good, ballsy, about myself racing cross.  I crashed 3 times, shouldering into a guy who was better at it then me, cornered too hard in some saw dust, tripped over a barrier, and finished 54th out of 60 something…  I hate this race…
            Well this year started out even worse.  We (Kaylee, Elise, 14 month old Mils and me) pull into the parking lot; unload our bikes, and some stuff.  I close the trunk, and Kaylee and I hear a weird popping sound… It was the bungee that held the bikes on, it got trapped against the back glass and the trunk lid, and cracked… thousands of spider webbing cracks…  @#&%! So I open the door and feel it, it seems solid, I say F it we will deal with it after the race. I close the door and walk around to the trunk, just as Elise is closing the last door, creating a height pressure in the car and POP… the very middle of the window pops out… did I mention that its raining… and its Sunday…  and we are in Hillsboro… and the only glass shop that answers after 10 calls tells me the earliest they can fix it is tomorrow morning… which we all work.  This sucks… I give the girls the choice… to race, and head home after dark with a crumbling window in the rain, or to head home now, 4 hour round trip for nothing.
            We race… Well I hang out with the Mils while I wait for my sister to get there to watch her while I race.  Mils just chills in the backpack like a good little Wee.
            I finally get on the bike, with 30 minutes till the race…  I do my best to warm up in time.  I get to the start line and we get staged only to find out that we are running late.  So we hang out and get cold in the rain and mud, waiting… then the single speeder go… so we wait… for 3 more minutes…
            And we’re off… a slight right into a 3 or 400m trudge though all different depths of mud and then a set of barriers.  I got stuck in the mud and dropped to 2nd to last place.  I do my best to fight back into it, but I don’t have the heart.  We careen around corners and though some barns.  Over grass and through a coral full of mud.  Over a wooden stair set and through a 30’ off camber mud run…  I was not into it…  Until… I saw Hayes Kenny… that’s right the second to last lap I ran into the back of that kid and caught him.  I raced him at Rainer, fighting tooth and nail, when we were both C’s. He beat me in the end there, I had beaten him at the Barton park race, but this was a new day.  I knew he would want to beat me too, so I started ridding hard.  I kept ahead of him until we came into the last lap.  He passed me in the long mud trudge.  I tried to keep up but he passed another guy I got stuck behind… by the time I was around the guy Hayes had a good gap on me.  I fought hard to catch up… I slowly caught up till I was on his ass… I knew we only had three more corners till we finished so I went for it… just before I made my move, he saw me… and pushed… I missed it; he edged me out around the corner.  I knew he was a better sprinter, so I was screwed, going into one corner after the other sprinting out of each one, he pulled just far enough away that he took it… got 18th and I got 20th… yeah he passed another guy at the finish for the win… or as far as I was concerned the win.  I got last he got 1st.  Maybe next year we will battle at the front of the B’s like we did in the C’s this year.  My hat goes off to you Hayes, hopefully for the last time.