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Muckified

After what seems like weeks of riding in rain and wind every day, I was looking forward to the local CCCX mountain bike race scheduled for Sunday, as Sunday's forecast was sunny and lovely and oh-so-nice. But as luck would have it, the race got rescheduled for Saturday. Saturday's forecast = more rain, more wind, more misery. It turns out those meteorologists know what they are talking about once in awhile. Ft Ord is usually the best place around for getting some mountain biking during the rainy winter months because the sandy soil drains so well. In fact, Ft Ord is at it's best in the winter as everything is generally remains rideable, as opposed to the summer months when huge sandpits make the trails better suited for cyclocross than riding. Unfortunately we've had so much rain over the last week or two that even the Ft Ord trails were a muddy, mucky mess, and the rain was still falling.  This was going to be epic.

There's that old adage that goes something like "showing up is half the battle." Well yesterday that was the whole battle.  I was the only entrant in the women's pro/expert field. Luckily my old training buddy Sue finally decided to cat up and raced in the expert 35+ category, so we got to race together. She was also the only entrant in her category, so we both won! Don't think that made it easy though! Sue and I love to push each other silly, so we drilled it on the course. She's a ridiculously strong climber, so every time I would get a little gap on the downhill or flat parts, she'd be right back on my rear wheel on every climb. We battled together for the better part of 3 laps and then somehow I got a gap on her.

This photo of rain drops and mud splatters from Tim Westmore pretty much sums up the day.

By the 4th lap the rain was pouring and my rear derailleur was no longer cooperating. The drivetrain wasn't liking all the wet sand. I was left with only the front chainrings, and even then I still had some chain suck issues. I was relieved when I came through the start/finish line at the end of the 4th lap and they told me I was done. We were supposed to do 5, but in those conditions, 4 laps was good enough for me. I haven't done my 'cross races in conditions like that, much less a mountain bike race. Two hours of good hard racing in less-than-ideal conditions...mission accomplished.

The best part of tearing up a drive train in mucky muck conditions is that I have a brand new drive train that will be ready and waiting for me up at Bike Station Aptos this week! Yippie!

Here are a few photos of that Terry took after the race (and after he decided to unlock my car holding all my dry clothes 20 minutes after I'd finished!). You can see that it was a little mucky.

Muddy bike and Wellie's Wellies.

Sometimes I disgust myself.

Lovin' Sue's boots!

Lonely podium (but I'll take it!).

And hats off to teammate Ron Riley for another win! He's 76 years old! So impressive.

Up next...Boggs 8-Hour next Saturday.

 

Watching a Mountain Bike Race

Seasoned Welliver Photography readers would assume that Terry is the author of this post given the title. But this time its me, Beth, writing about watching a bike race. Yes, I was supposed to be racing, but a few weeks back I was recovering from something horribly nasty that decided to live in my throat, nose, head, and anywhere else something gross can live (dare I say thrive?) for the better part of 2 weeks. Icky! So instead of racing the season opener, I went to cheer on my new Bike Station Aptos teammates at the local CCCX mountain bike race at Ft Ord. I had 3 teammates in the race. They did 5 laps. Total race time was about 2 hours. That means I stood along the trail to cheer and snap a few photos 15 times over the course of 2 hours. In other words, I had a lot of free time while waiting for them to come streaking by each time. The experience made me deeply appreciate Terry's dedication and patience while I race my bikes! Below are a few of the images I captured during my "down time".

It was a beautiful day for a race...

I was a little surprised to find a few early season wildflowers (amongst the annual bumper crop of Ft Ord Poison Oak).

And of course weather nerd couldn't help admire some pretty clouds now and again...

This is proof that I really was at a bike race. Go Courtney!

The race was at Ft Ord's old Fam Camp...complete with old playground relics sprinkled here and there.

Actual race photos of people actually racing their bikes can be found here. Note: taking race photos is super hard. I also gained a greater appreciation for Terry as well as all those other phenomenal race photographers we have floating around NorCal. Y'all have serious talent as photographers.

Next weekend I get to go race my mountain bike on those trails. Yeehaw!

CCCX #5

Oh my. It was hard, it was fast, it was full of suffering. I'd been doing a fairly good job of keeping my fabulously scary 'cross suffer face hidden far away until the end of today's race. Then it came screaming back in full force on the final sprint. But we'll save that bit for the ending... Today was the NorCal district championship for the A's and the master's, but for us B's it was just a regular old CCCX race. But that definitely didn't stop the fast girls from showing up! Lindsay Collins had missed a few races but was back for this one along with the usual suspects - Niki B and Melanie. Right from the gun, or whistle I guess, Lindsay shot up the hill with the rest of us giving chase for the whole first lap. Then on the 2nd lap Lindsay had a little gap on the rest of us when we came around a corner...first we saw the cloud of dust and then there she was picking her bike up. I didn't get to see her after the race but I know she got back on and finished well, so hopefully she's okay!

So now the battle has whittled down to Mel and I. I got a little gap but then nearly killed myself when I tried to start running before unclipping heading up the run-up, so she caught me. That's the reason for the smile in this picture...I was laughing at my retardedness and at the spectator that gave me a "whoa Beth!" as I struggled to keep my feet and wheels on the dirt.

Mel got ahead of me starting up the long climb to the finish line going into the last lap and since she's a much stronger climber than me, she got a little gap. I had to fly down the back side to catch back up and get on her wheel again. We were neck and neck headed toward the last run-up. I was able to duck in close to the tree on the run-up and cut to the inside of her and get my bike down on the singletrack just head of her's. So I now had the lead going into the last bit of the course, but knew that the big ol' hill was just a few twists and turns of the course away.

Here's where I turned scary. I knew I had to crush it up this hill to hold Mel off...as in sprint like its a points race on the track but up the hill. So I stood up. I stomped and pulled as hard as I could on my pedals. And I made the scariest suffering face ever! Its really hard to be panting like a dog and gritting your teeth and hoping that your heart isn't going to explode out of your chest all at the same time. But it worked and I held her off for the win! Terry actually fired off about 10 frames of this suffering beast, but I'll protect the innocent and only post one on here.

It was so much fun to race today against great competition. The mental strategery (that's right, I just used the word "strategery" in my bloggy) of being in a race with challenging terrain and fast competitors made it interesting to say the least. And last but not least, requisite podium shot (Terry apologizes for the lighting but not much he could do with that bright Cali sun):

Hats off to Jasmin Parsins...she's a high schooler at Foothills High School in Pleasanton who is hanging in strong with the B's this year and grabbed that 5th place podium spot today. She along with fellow high schooler and B racer Lainey Aldridge from Harbor High are going to be ones to watch in the future I'm sure!

Double Race Reportage

Wow what a weekend. Between the two of us it went something like this: Saturday:

Terry plays soccer game in Monterey (1-0 win); Beth goes to the Ride the World Cup Fundraiser at Hellyer (just watching and eating yummy goodies); Terry coaches U-12 soccer game in Sunnyvale (tied 2-2); Beth picks up Terry in Sunnyvale and then off to Sierra Point for night 'cross race (B win); get home at 11:30; go to bed.

Sunday:

Beth goes to CCCX #4 (B win again); Terry plays soccer game (5-1 win); Chipotle; homework; and hopefully sleep here in a few minutes.

So here's the quick and dirty on the race reporting before I fall asleep...

Saturday night I raced my first-ever BASP series race up in San Francisco. It was also my first-ever night. Really the only reason that I went all the way up to SF to race is because this was a night race and I thought it would be cool...and it definitely was! We raced around what really seemed more like a BMX track with all the bumpiness and short, steep pop-up hills next to the marina at Sierra Point. They brought in a ton of flood lights to light it up almost like day time. The laps were really short and pretty much all power. I got a great start off the line (the track pays off again!) and bunny-hopped the first curb in the lead and held it for the rest of the race. But the race was certainly not without incident! Coming around to finish the first lap someone had a huge husky on a leash next to the course and was trying to drag the dog off the edge of the road, but the dog didn't want to go. So I'm flying up the pavement with Niki B right behind me when the leash snaps! The dog is now loose and doesn't know where to go, so I do my best evasive maneuver and slid to the side, narrowly avoid a pile-up with the very large dog...poor Niki behind me had to lock the brakes up to avoid collision. Dang! Then with about 4 laps to go I was cruising around the course, settling in to the pace I wanted to maintain the rest of the way. There was a 180-degree turn from asphalt to dirt that was getting a littler looser each lap. Well, I came in a little faster than normal I guess and started to slide out. I was able to get my left foot out in time for a quick dab, but not before I smacked my knee on the end of my handle bar. OUCH! For a few pedal strokes I was thinking, damn this really hurts, but I knew it was just a bruise so I bit my lip and kept on going. Afterwards I finally took a look at it and realized I'd smacked it hard enough to actually get a nice little cut and a big ass bruise right on my knee-cap. It didn't affect me too much during the race. So that was the excitement of the race. It was really fun and I felt so good riding...I would get these little surges of energy and somehow pull a little more power out of my legs. I was really surprised to have won; I was really nervous before the race with so many fast looking girls lined up...there were 12 or 13 there I think. It really helped that we had a great Bella cheering section there helping us along. And that the weather was so nice! Here's the requisite podium shot:

Today was the 4th installment of the local CCCX series held on the Happy Trails behind the DoD Center. I loooove that single track in there - its fast and swoopy and racing on it is so much fun. Unfortunately I think a lot of folks didn't come out to race today after racing up in the city the night before so the fields were really small. There were only four of us in the B's, maybe six A's, and not many more than that in the Master's women's categories. And fellow Bella Michelle Perez was the lone C racer - another win for her keeps her in the series lead! And Amy Abele picked up a second place finish in the Master's race despite a little spill on the course. As for me, I was excited to be at a 'cross race but wasn't feeling too keen on racing. I didn't feel tired but I certainly didn't feel zippy. Rod decided to line us all up together at the start rather than starting us in waves by category since all the fields were so small, so I got to line up and start right with the A's. I was thinking, hey, this is a great opportunity to see if I can hang with the A's...and the answer to that was a resounding NO! I lined up behind Bev Chaney knowing that with her mountain biking background she'd get clipped in and off the line fast and she didn't let me down! But then we started up the first climb and I yo-yo'd of the back a bit and that was pretty much the last I saw of the A's with the exception of a few glimpses here and there. That's a level I'm not ready for quite yet! So I was basically solo for the rest of the race, rather uneventful until the start of the final lap. There was a tricky transition from a fast pavement section into a slightly off-camper singletrack that was super hardpacked with a nice layer of slippery sandy/pebbley non-sense on top. I'd ridden it the first three laps without incident. On the last lap I just wanted to ride nice and conservatively, so I slowed down for the transition...and slid right out. Somehow I re-smacked my knee that I'd smacked the night before I something and smacked my hip on the ground. Ouch. I popped back up mainly because I'm always really embarrassed when I crash and hopped back on, all the while very concerned as to whether or not I'd ripped a hole in my brand new skinsuit. Then just up the trail was a barrier section...getting off and trying to run made the knee hurt a lot, but I got back on and kept going...pedalling helped loosen it up and the rest of the lap went down without incident, though I'm sure at a much slower pace. And I crossed the finish line to find that my skinsuit was not torn...phew! So I won and got a nice fat box of CalGiant strawberries! Yummy yummy!

Enough rambling for now...it was a lovely though quite tiring weekend. Now its time for bed.