Muddy River Rock and Roll

Another hot day, though not quite as bad as last year where it was bad enough to consider calling it off. Still, temps were in upper 80's/low 90's.

Got squeezed in at the start, falling back to about 10th or so before the singletrack. My podium chances were dead already, as I got stuck behind a string of riders. Finally, we popped out of the singletrack and I passed as many as I could before the next section, moving up into about 5th. The only thing hotter than the temperature was the pace being set by the lead guys. I was able to keep pushing along at this tempo most of Lap 1. I nailed the descent into the quarry, but was thrown off at the bottom when the course was re-routed directly to the drop, skipping the last rocky switchback. I hit the brakes and started left and made it through the rocks to the climb. Super technical, steep twisty, rooty/rocky climb. I rode this section about 6 times last week to get it down and I still screwed it up. Had to run the bike all the way up, which sent my heart rate through the roof.

Lap 2 I started my usual fade, only today it was worse. I decided to ditch my CamelBack before the race and just go with a bottle. Big mistake. I was getting super dehydrated and starting to bonk. Adding to the good times was my chain, which kept getting stuck when I tried to get into the big ring. This caused me to get passed by about 4 guys, who I never saw again. Trying to make up for lost time, I never really recovered and felt the bonk getting worse. Somehow, I managed to clear the entire climb out of the quarry, but it took a huge toll. Rolling through the start/finish for Lap 3, I felt like crap. I saw Tom coming up and we spent most of the lap leapfrogging each other. I kept yelling at him to get up to the faster group, he did the same for me. I thought for sure he had the better chance, but in the end we finished 9th and 10th, with me about 8 seconds in front. I'm sure he could have come around, but maybe it was just good karma being repaid from the Dirt Spanker, where he got me by about the same margin. It's all about the team points anyway.

Next race I'm rocking the CamelBack and that's that. It's the only thing I can think of as to why I'm not doing as well as I should be. Oh well. We had a sweet spread of burgers, brats, salads and cookies waiting for us afterwards. Gary's Heiniken mini-keg was quite popular as well, although I don't know how the hell you can drink beer in the hot sun after a race. It took me until 10:00pm to get fully rehydrated, and I haven't had a beer since February.

(Thanks for taking photos, Dana).