Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Castlewood Conquered

Sunday Sara made her racing return at Castlewood. In prep she road the trail friday before the rains and late Saturday morning so she felt pretty good about the mountain biking portion. It was supposed to be a 2 mile canoe, 8 mile mountain bike and 3.5 mile run. Unfortunately the 1.5" of rain we had dropped on us and the large amount of rain dumped up north caused the Meramec River to rise so much that they canceled the canoe leg. Instead we got to start with a 1.3 mile run. I was glad they did that to string out the racers, but the thought of additional running was not welcomed. They also kept the split start so you only had 60 people at a time starting with about a 15 minute wait for the second group to take off.

So we start the run. Of course the true runners take off and I'm just cruising along the river trail. Of course Sara is ahead of me, but only by a about 10-20 yards. Finally I make it to my bike, change shoes, grab some water, and get on my bike and start hammering by some mountain bike freds. Did you notice I forgot something? Because I did. I got 30 seconds down the paved trail from the boat ramp towards the front of the park when I realized I forgot to put on my helmet. OH SNAP!!! So I whip a cookie, start hammering the opposite direction the freds are traveling, wave to Sara and go grab my helmet. Now, not only did I lose a minute I have to pass new freds and then set about to repass the freds I passed once. Joy. Now I know how Matt Keevan fees passing my slow ass at the start of a Sport and SS race. The first part of the mtn bike is open fields as we made our way to Grotpeter. Sweet, plenty of open area to pass people. Then I hit the single track and make my way around 2 more climbing Grotpeter before the 180 left at the roots. From there I stumple up the water bars and get passed by one rider on a big wheeled shifty bike. I blame all my lack of climbing form on small wheels and gears, but i needed the tall gears for this race so I made due. Get to Reis Rd and start coming down Love. I catch 2 riders, at the top and I get by them due to their nice gesture to move over for me. Then I caught the big wheeled guy who passed me earlier. He and I are now stuck be hind a guy on platforms. That guy finally washed out around a corner and we both pass him. Then at the downed tree at the bottom of Love I cyclocross pass Mr Big Wheel. Then it occurs to me...I still haven't caught Sara. She must be flying! At this point I think that she will beat me at the running and the biking. Cross the road and make a left on the trail and I finally see Sara. It is on now. Pop out on the road at Lone Wolf and go hard back to the transition area. I dropped Mr. Big Wheel and Sara, but not by much.

Ah, now the fun part. 3.5 miles of running the river trail and then up Lone Wolf and back to the beach. My only goal was not to walk up Lone Wolf. Well when I get there all I see is people walking. I then see two people I know ahead and want to get by them. So what if one was much older than me and the other guy hasn't slept in weeks due to having triplet girls at home? Easy pickings! I'm slowly running up Lone Wolf and I here Sara yelling at me to hurry up and get moving. What a motivator! Make it to the top and I can think about is I'm finally done climbing, don't fall on the way down, and I wishing I had a bike to ride down this trail about now. Get to the bottom and back to the road and I start to realize I'm on the home stretch. Thank god. Finished. Sara runs in 20 secs behind me. For this race they take racer 1 time and add it to racer 2 time and the result is the total time for the team. We won the Co-Ed division by 10 minutes. Sara was 12th overall finisher and we both beat the 2nd member of the 2nd place male division. Afterwards we are in standing around and Sara put it best, "You only won because of me." Damn skippy I won because of her.

2 comments:

Ted C. MacRae said...

what a team! congrats

Boz said...

cool report and great effort! sounds like you both had fun and enjoy competing with and against each other. All good stuff.