The Good, the Bad and the Muddy
This past weekend we had the 6th MBAA race in Payson. Which for those of you that do not know Arizona, the Flatland (Phoenix) is at 1,100 elevation and Payson/Mogollon Rim is at 8,000,000 (ok added a couple extra zeros but it might as well be that high, oxygen please.....).
This is the first race this year my wife and I decided to camp at. So we went up Friday night found a great camp site. During the wee hours of the morning our dogs decided to wake us up because a herd of Elk came through our camp site (this area is a very remote/unimproved camping area). Oh well up and out of bed and time to get ready for the day’s race.
Got to the registration area early and handed out the rest of the Evomo stickers and post cards. Talking to all about the great casual wear that Evomo designs, sporting all of my E-ware (Hat, Shirt, Sherpa). Once all of the stickers and cards were gone I went back to the truck and caught up with my racing buddies. I was telling them about the sweet Titec equipment I pimped my ride out with. Along with the very comfortable Ergon grips, have really improved my handling of the bike over all kind of terrain.
On to the race the weather was cold (about 57 at race time) and windy (us flatlanders have been riding in 80+ weather now for at least the last 3 months so this 57 is REALLY cold). We had to complete 2 long and 1 short lap approx 26miles. Because of work I wasn't able to pre-ride the course, in talking with my buddies there are some large mud areas and a couple of water crossings to go through. At the start of the race I got off to a bad start, I had
a rock stuck on my cleat so I couldn’t clip in right away. Got going finally and I am in 8th
pot in my group. Had a tough time getting heat into my legs so for most of the race it was like pushing large tree stumps. Made a couple of good passes and went through a couple of huge mud bogs. Coming up on a ridge and getting ready to make another pass and I got a flat. After the repair I was back in 8th spot, not back to grinding the gears again. Things were going good; I have gotten back to 6th position. On the last lap, which was a short lap got another flat right at the beginning of the lap. Got it fixed (luckily I always carry 2 tubes with me). Up and going again, then with about 4 miles left in the race going down a hill into a mud bog, I heard a shot gun sound. It was my rear tire that blew out (big hole in the side wall) and I came to a rolling stop in a mud bog. Luckily I was able to unclip before I fell into the mud. However at this point I was already so muddy I don’t think it would have matter much. Good thing this happened on the last lap so I can at least finish the race. So I hiked-a-bike to the finish line, one of the other guys in my group had technical difficulties after the first lap so the didn’t finish so that put me into 7th place. After the race I weight my bike, typically it weighs 28.5 (after installing the light Titec equipment). But with all of the mud on the bike it weighted just over 36 pounds, I looked like the monster from the deep.
Well even though I had a rough race with several technical difficulties, I forged through and finished the race.
Think about it:
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?