It was great to have a race at my local trail—Arrowhead
Park—for the first time since 2008. The
infamous 2009 Mother’s Day tornados destroyed the trails, and despite a lot of
work by volunteers not much progress was made until 2011 when a commercial crew
was hired to build several miles of new trail.
From there, the Ocmulgee Mountain Bike Assn (OMBA) did a bunch of our
own trail building and finishing work. A
recent couple of very sunny/hot weeks in conjunction with a big uptick in
riding made for some sandy spots but all in all the hard work paid off, and the
trails were ready to go for the race!
Saturday was a short track race for additional series
points. I really didn’t need the points,
but it never hurts to have a pad when in competition for the series
championship. In any case with the
course only 1.5 miles from home I felt somewhat obligated to race. It was probably 95 degrees at the 5 pm start
time, and with a 15 minute plus one lap format there would be no easing up to
rest/cool off. The course was
simple: up a paved road for about ½
mile, then down a snaking singletrack we call “Super D” and a short connector
through a weedy, short section for a total of just under one mile. All of the sport and expert classes were
started together, with no age differentiation.
Even so, there were probably only 20 or so folks on the start line. My strategy was to basically go “full gas”
the whole race-- hard as I could up the climb, and not crash on the descent…. I made it up the climb and into the singletrack
in third position, behind pro Ryan Woodall and his brother Regan. I was surprised to see my racing
Buddy/competitor, John Hightower, close behind on the third lap and that
probably played a part in me pushing just a little bit too hard on the
descent. As I accelerated out of a turn,
the front wheel washed out and I slammed into the dirt. It hurt, but I jumped right up and got going. John passed me on the next climb—I was still
reeling from the crash. Instead of
trying to catch going downhill (he’s fearless), I stayed close enough to reel
him in on the next climb, follow him on the descent again, and then on the
final (whistle) lap I gave it everything I had and passed him close to the
top. I was lucky to lap Mark Poore and
enter the singletrack with John behind Mark.
I was pleased to hold John off and take 1st in 40+ expert
(third overall). It was fun to have Jodi
and Lizzi cheering me on at the top of the hill and the finish.
Sunday, I rode to the race again. It was pretty cool to sleep as late as I
wanted and then have a leisurely ride to the venue as my warmup. Temps were already above 80 degrees at the
9:30 am start, and humid too. I guess
the heat scared a lot of competitors off, because turnout was slim. At least my class had nine, which was about
as many as the other three expert classes combined! The course was about six miles per lap, plus
a short initial lap to add a couple miles.
I decided to get to the front on the initial paved climb (part of the
short lap) so I could ride the entire trail at my pace—local knowledge. This worked well, except that my main rival
of the day, Tim Zimmerman, was right on my wheel so I was giving him that
advantage too in a way. I went as hard
as I could and after about 20 minutes we’d left the rest of the guys
behind. Tim passed me as I grabbed some
water and then slowly pulled away. It
was really great to have Jodi and Lizzi in attendance again, handing me water
bottles, giving me time splits and cheering me on. After two laps Tim had built a lead of over a
minute, but I refused to give up, and brought it to just under a minute by the
last (forth) full lap. OMBA was out in
force, not only with a neutral water stop, but also a mister to help cool the
racers down, and also scattered throughout the trail to help keep the racers
safe and cheer them on. I made a big
effort on the last lap to catch Tim, and approaching the last mile I was told
that he was only 15 seconds ahead! I
gave everything I had, but ended up coming up to the finish just as Tim rolled
through…maybe eight seconds behind. I
was happy with my ability to make my last lap my fastest (and not crash!) and
finish the race only five minutes slower than Ryan Woodall, the pro. Mountain bike races at Arrowhead are back!
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