Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Ohio/Pittsburgh Cross weekend






Friday night Steve, JohnnyBrison and I went to Ohio to Duane's house to for the Cross race on Saturday. Steve did a great job and had a great race finishing 3rd in the "C" race. As soon as his race ended the skies let loose a downpour that lasted my whole race. Soon after starting the rain made everything super slick. After raining for a while the course became ride-able again and didn't even get muddy and slippery. There was one lightning bolt 25 minutes into the race and it was over that fast. I ended up finishing 10th but I felt good and think I could have done better if it had gone on.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to Pittsburgh for the Month of Mud race. A slight miscalculation had us arriving there about 4.5 hours before our race. There were 6 of us. Henry, Mike, Richy, Ray, Steve and I. I was told it had been raining there for 2 days prior to the race so the course instantly turned to mud when the first pre-riding began. The course got further ripped up during the elite race. Our race began in a slight drizzle the stopped just after the race start but the damage was already done. The course was all but unrideable. It was more like stopping at each corner and then seeing how fast you could spring to the next one. I think everyone in the race managed to have a spectacular crash at some point. I ended up finishing 8th on the day through a battle of attrition and being a superior runner.

Overall it was a great weekend. I got lots of bruises and scratches and my shoulder is killing me. I can't wait for Ironcross weekend to do it all over again. I have an MRI on Friday to check my shoulder the I landed on while warming up for Saturday's race but assuming it comes back OK I'll be back asap.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Labor Day weekend, 7springs 24 hour race, and I'm working


Once again it's a beautiful Labor Day weekend and the 7springs race is going on and of course I'm working all weekend. The only time I was able to make it to this race it was raining and 40* (as seen above). Last year I had the weekend off and I went to the State ITT race instead (that was dumb of me)