Anyway, it has been pouring in our fair city for days on end with a few scattered sunny breaks but not enough to dry out anything especially areas with grass and dirt... I got to the venue early, checked in, paid my money, and went for a quick one lap ride to check it out. It was ugly, I wanted my money back... OK, not really, but I wasn't looking forward to it especially when there were going to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 130 beginners and 120 cat C riders going before us not to mention the 30 or so minutes of other people warming up before the first race even started.
I hung out with a couple of friends from Camas, they get there early too and get their tent and other 'tailgate' supplies set up. It never ceases to amaze me the turn out we get at one of these events. If you do not get there early, you stand the chance of parking a few miles away but getting there early is fun anyway if you like to people watch. There are some interesting characters to say the least. I think I saw a picture of a guy wearing a pink spiderman outfit and of course there is always the ever-present boy scout.
Anywho, at 9:50am, the C's go, all 120 or so of them and two minutes later, 35 heavy weights go. I know I bitch about this all the time but if you are BARELY cresting 200 and do not have some sort of paunch, I don't think you should be considered a clydesdale. The top 10 guys, most of them are between 200 and 210 and after they race in our cat, they go and do the B race as well. OK, off the soap box now.
I didn't go very hard off the start, like I said, I hadn't trained for a couple weeks.... ok, maybe a couple months off from REAL training. I got into a groove and fell in behind most of the folks that started in front of me. There were a couple of interesting bits along the first straight away, one went alongside a steep hill then back up on the road, on the grass, made for some falls (not me, at least on that one), then a 180 down a short hill, onto another road with loose gravel. Again, lots of falls, but not me :)
Another section of road, up a grassy hill, back down the grassy hill, then came the tough part. An open section of grass that wound its way for about 100-120m and it was completely muddy. there wasn't a dry section anywhere, even if you went half a foot off the course, your wheels sunk in. My legs were burning. I ended up running part of it on the first lap and remounting, riding through a big puddle, and then dismounting again to run the rest of that section. By the time i got back clipped in to my pedals, it was time to jump off again to go over this concrete barrier. For me, it was a tough step up and a long way down.
It was much easier to remount after that barrier as there was a slight downhill after it. My cleats were completely full of mud but somehow, I managed to get clipped in and out for the whole race. OK, there was another grassy section which was not as bad as the first, which led to the next set of barriers and a run up through the infamous windmill. This was the toughest section for me, even more than the muddy grass area because I had to cross the barriers carrying my bike up hill. I had a bit of difficulty going over the barriers with my left leg and my right leg was starting to weaken too.
This area had the most spectators as there was not only the four barriers to run across but also there was a slick section on the side of the hill along the grass. I managed to ride that section all four laps. Some guy with a drum and a cymbal was doing his thing each time someone biffed it. Fun times!
Another 200m dirt road section, up a short hill and then down the hill only to come back up, on grass again, VERY slick. I rode the first two laps, walked down the third due to the number of people on it, and rode the last lap but fell down when some young rider pre riding the course cut me off. I bent my shifter but it is fixable, it only rotated on the bars.
After that run up, I remounted and rode through the area where the windmill was again with lots of fans because? You guessed it, a curvy downhill on grass, perfect for falls and hilarity. Then, back through the start finish for another fun lap. As the race wore on, I believe my HR Average would have been in the 180's should I have worn my HRM but I specifically chose not to utilize this wonderful piece of feedback as it wouldn't have mattered anyway, I was having trouble focusing on the track let alone the thingy on my wrist.
The flat grass/mud section was getting worse and i wont bore you with the details of each lap but lets just say, I was ready to pack it in on my fourth lap. Actually, had I known they weren't going to give me my last lap in the results, I would have packed it in. I ran the entire section on the last two laps and instead of remounting on the last lap, I ran through the mud puddle . I twisted my ankle a few times (I normally wear an ankle brace for running) but when I saw a couple guys running because their bikes were in some state of broken-ness, I figured I could still make it out of last place.
I crossed the finish line and talked to a couple of people that have joined my triathlon team for 2009 and then went to the truck, got cleaned up (sort of) and went back to the expo area for my $3 bottomless pint glass of beer. It was PBR but after that race, that's all I wanted. I wanted to stick around for the single speed race as it was the main event of the day, but had to get home to the kids. I missed out, they had a bubble machine and other fun costumed riders (I still dont get it, but Im getting used to it).
I swore after yesterday, I would train for the next race in a couple weeks but today, i did not fulfill that wish but I can justify it by saying today is normally a rest day.....
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