5.15.11 - Gloucester Grind

After riding with people who are too fast for me in Harold Parker the week before the Grind, Colin assessed that I don't totally suck on a mountain bike and that I can somewhat hold my own when it requires little to no turning and rocks are involved. He suggested that the Gloucester Grind course might be well-suited to my, err, skillset? and told me to GET IN THE VAN and go to the race with him. So I did.

Lori joined us, with Claire and Will meeting us at the venue. Other B2C2 riders (Mike and Kevin) opted to drive lots more and go Winsted Woods instead. The trip to the Grind involved a quest for Panera Bread and a mini-race with Colin's near-empty gas tank to make it to the venue before the gas ran out ("I swear, guys. I've made it 30 miles with the light on before, we've already gone 9 and we only have 11 more to go! We've got this!") so we got there with just enough time to get our race #s, use the facilities (2 portapotties for a well-attended race sucks. Declaring one ladies-only when there are far fewer ladies is awesome!), get dressed, provide my teammates with socks (I brought 2 pairs of extra socks for warm pre- and post-race toes in case it was cold, Lori and Colin brought none. It ended up working out just fine), and meander to the start. That's cool, I never figured out how to warm up for a mountain bike race anyway other than riding in circles somewhere.

About ten ladies lined up for the Expert/Singlespeed start. They sent us on our way, and I was second wheel to a Luna Chix woman in the Veteran age group. As we hit the first greasy, sloggy, rooty mess of a trail I remembered that I had figured out last year a good way of warming up was trying to ride the first section of trails. I also remembered that I ride horribly when I'm nervous about a horde of people behind me. So, I started out the race by riding poorly and sliding out everywhere. Go me! During this mess, a singlespeed woman and a woman from my category passed me. I had another woman right on my wheel and decided I ought to pull myself together some and get her off of it. By this point, thanks to the genius that is unleashing all Sport, Expert and Elite fields at once, the leaders of the Mens Sport field began to pass us. Sadly, the leaders of the Mens Sport field often includes some very strong road riders who have all these WATTS but are still working on their handling. Trying to shake the woman off of my wheel usually resulted in my getting a bit of a gap, a Sport guy passing me, a Sport guy crashing in front of me, and my having to dismount and run a section, allowing the woman I was trying to politely ditch to come back up and hang out with me some more.

Once the Sport leaders came tearing past, the riders coming up from behind became more spaced out. I started riding better and having a blast. At one point the woman was right behind me, and next time I looked back she was gone and never to be seen again. The last mountain bike race I did (Winding Trails), I used up way too much energy being overgeared all of the time, so I was making an effort to be more conservative, spin more and shift appropriately. My formative riding years in Boston were on a track bike, and I started bike racing on the track. I love my big gear inches and have concluded that multiple gears might be too hard of a concept for me, but I'm working on it! In this case, I think I was going a little too easy. Towards the end of the 2nd lap of 3 Colin lapped me yelling about radness and stuff. By this point I was soaked from the rain that started at lap 2, had no visibility from wet, foggy glasses, and was covered in mud. I love being covered in mud and I was having an awesome time, so when Colin came by I was pretty excited. I tried to get on his wheel and told him that I wanted to hang out with him, and held it briefly through some good mudpit lines and over a sloppy bridge. Then my legs said, "OW" and I fell off of his wheel, but I was still really excited. It was at this point that I realized I had a ton of energy, was 2/3rds of the way done my bike race, and had a few people up the trail that I ought to be working on catching. So then I set about going harder.

whee! (image lifted from the EFTA website)

I didn't catch anyone in front of me in the last lap other than the broken remnants of some Sport men who had gone out too hard. I played in more mud, this made me more happy. I got cheered on by an awesome older dude spectating from his ATV at a mucky, sloppy rock garden for clearing it while I passed a bunch of guys running it. That was cool. I finished second in my category and Claire came in behind me for 3rd. That was cool too. Then we both got paid out (!!!) and that was really cool! Afterward, Colin cleaned himself up by splashing in shallow puddles, I stayed mostly covered in mud, Lori got herself and her bike super clean amid all the rain and muck somehow, and we packed up. We made it to a gas station on the last fumes of Colin's dying tank, and headed home after an awesome (soggy) day.

mud!