Lovely day for a tractor pull

Saturday - Guy's 'Cross

Chris Harshman and I made the trek up to PA from EC for some racing. We had a feeling that there would be mud, but the quantity and ferociousness of that mud far exceeded our expectations.

It was a lot of this on Saturday. By most estimates we were running about a third of every lap.
Ouch.


photo by Dennis Smith

Each lap there was more running than the last as the course deteriorated. It was hard. Where you could ride you had to put out a lot of power just to keep moving. Even on the slightly downhill sections it felt like you were going uphill.

I knew this race would be more mental than anything so I tried to psyche myself up to not get discouraged with the conditions and to just keep grinding and pushing to the line. I figured many guys would get frustrated and crack and I was determined to stay positive.

I don't really remember much about the race except for the running and passing guys that had cracked. I got a smooth bike change from Dieter and Lisa with a lap and a half to go that allowed me to finish strongly in 11th place, my best MAC B finish ever. Harshman was just in front of me in 10th. We were both happy with the race.

Our bikes were not. It quite a bit of dunking and scrubbing over in the pond and creek to get them sort of clean. We cleaned up the drivetrains a bit more over at the hotel. Suzy was the MVP of the day. She hand washed our muddy clothes in the bathtub. All of the grass, mud, and hay clogged the tub. I'm sure the hotel was happy about that. 8-)

Highlight of the race was E-Town trying to give Mayhew a high-five mid-slop, mid-race.

Morgan has gotten better every week and he is FLYING now and riding the mud like a pro. I swear he was floating over some unridable sections. He was in the lead until a flat bumped him back to 6th.

Here's Morgan - focused & making freight train noises as he passes me

photo by Dennis Smith

Most of the C3/ADG/Joe's team plus Harshman went out for a pasta dinner to celebrate the day and fuel up for Sunday. Sleep came easily, though the morning arrive too soon.