Saturday was the Peanut Butter Festival Mt. Bike Race. It was 15 miles through beautiful New Bethlehem, PA. It was a cool morning, only about 50*. It was sunny at first but the clouds rolled in and took care of that. It was actually very nice weather for the race because I knew although we would be cold standing at the start line it would be plenty warm by the time we were 5 minutes into the race. The race was going well and I was into the single track in about 12-15th place and sitting comfortably. I was just waiting for the more wide open spots that I knew were coming so I could pass. Then disaster struck. At first I was only wheezing a little, but then a whole lot. Full blown asthma attack and I was miles from my inhaler. I should have used it before the race but I had decided not to just so I could see if I could make it through the race without needing it. At that point I did the only thing I could do, I pushed through and kept moving along, even if it was at a much slower pace. After I was able to breathe again I eventually caught 2 or 3 of the people who had passed me but the rest were just too far ahead. I ended up finishing in 19th place. That was sort of discouraging but I did feel good that I improved my finish time from the previous year by 11 minutes and that was even with the asthma attacks.
On Sunday was the first of the 17th annual Month Of Mud race series. It was the cyclocross race at Mammoth park in Latrobe, PA. I figured I was still fatigued from the race on Saturday and cyclocross is possibly the most physically demanding of all bike racing so what better time to step up to race in the expert class. I started near the back of the pack and that is pretty much where I stayed. I passed a few riders and had a few others pass me but for the most part the first part of the course did not allow for much passing and by the time you could pass it was way to spread out for me to even try to catch anyone ahead of me. Of course the boys from Freddie Fu were flying and 2 of them lapped me on the fourth lap. It was amazing how smooth they were riding and at a completely different level than the rest of the field. I think the two of them finished minutes ahead of third place. It was a fun weekend of racing and I learned a few things. Mostly I learned that I need to do more intervals:-(
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