Race day number two in the, now-infamous, "Three in one week-end" race week-end was even muddier than day one.
I loaded up the 'baru with the newly assembled roof rack, complete with clashing red bike tray (my car is a maroony-red color). I borrowed my friend Chapell's singlespeed (remarkably exactly my size) and placed it in the trunk and put the Felt F1X on top
The second day of racing brought very similar (mud, rain, wind) conditions, only this time there was no relief inside buildings, the first race was 15 minutes longer (1 hr. total), and the mud was deeper and pervaded the entire course. The terms "stuck in the mud" "peanut butter" and "OMGWTF" come to mind when describing how hard it was to churn through the terrain. The competition was stiffer, and I ended up somewhere in the middle of the pack almost instantly (thanks to the fact that I didn't get a call-up... boo!).
No matter, because it was delightful playing in the mud with my bike. I've learned not to be afraid to ride someone's wheel through a pancake-y mud puddle... though I come out the other side nicely peppered. And, I managed not to wreck in the mud, only by the slimmest of coincidences. At one point in the course, you crest a tiny rise and the course proceeds along an off-camber section at the bottom of which is a fence. The mud was so slick, that it was only a matter of pedal strokes before you actually slid down the embankment and came shoulder to chain-link with the fence and were forced to dismount, shoulder the bike, and run this section. Well, a fast guy was passing me at this exact moment, and he being heavier than I, slid faster down, his front wheel catching my rear wheel, sending my bike onto the ground and me flying at the chain-link fence. I thought I was going to face-plant in the mud. But before that could happen, his arms impossibly shot out, encircling my waist and holding me suspended in the air above my bike. We stood entangled so for a moment before “thanks” and “good jobs” were exchanged and then we were off and running up the mud slope. Thank you, nice guy... That was that race.
Within ten minutes of finishing, I needed to have a wardrobe change, a bicycle change, fix my broken mountain biking shoe (a bolt that held the strap on had gone missing during the mud-fest… thank god for duck tape ☺), down a Cola Clif Shot (caffeine required!!!)and line-up for pre-race instructions. I jumped into a giant puddle for a “bath”, grabbed my borrowed singlespeed bike, and took off for the car. I needed to strip off my muddied PacPower speed suit and put on a pink dress and matching boa. This was standard race attire for the SSCXWC (don't question it). Imagine 250 men and women in recycled Halloween costumes, riding singlespeed bikes around not-your-average-muddy-cross course. There was a bacon hand-up, where spectators offered popcorn and bacon to the riders. A ride through a “thunderdome”, in which people in swings above the riders used foam clubs to try and knock us off our bikes. The course, in addition to the barriers and run-ups, had a shortcut purported to cut 40 seconds off your ride. To take the short cut, I would dismount, hand a guard a dollar, and run through a school bus front to back, slap a "stripper" on the butt, and exit, remounting my translocated bike.
I musn't forget to metion the three "Borat" riders, one of which I got to "draft" off of for a half lap. That was nice. There was also a section were an enebriated fan ran out in front of me with beer in hand and pants falling down, yelling "follow me, follow me, I'll show you the line" before slipping and face-planting in the mud... I almost fell off my bike laughing.
The actual race part was a little confusing. It was hard to tell men from women between the mud, the costumes, and the mayhem. The men got a slight (3-second) lead on us to get to their bikes (so we wouldn't get trampled? I forgot to mention that at the start, bikes are layed in a field and we have to run and find them before hitting the course). And I hit a bottle-neck at the first set of barriers. A few laps in, I realized I was sort of surrounded by other three or four women racers and we started to have fun with it. Passing and re-passing as each of us found good lines through the mud and turns. I had no idea how I finished (very sure it wasn't first), but that really wasn't the idea of the race. The idea: Awesomeness and Fan-funking-tastic-time.... see the write-up/video on Wend Magazine for a full description of what I am talking about.
Wrap-up: Thanks for the cowbell, the bacon, the jiffy-pop, the beer hand-up, the drunkin' mooning, the crash-save, fantastic friends for coming to watch and cheer (you know who you are!!!), the mud, my first time ever riding a SS (on a borrowed bike no less...props Chapell), my team (I forgot to mention the role that my teammates had in helping me make the wardrobe change... many hands, and strange looks). In the end I was 12th in the Crusade, 3rd in the SSCXWC, and cameod (heckled) in cyclocross magazine....
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