Camp Hilbert #2 - updated

I feel like I am living Ground Hog Day. Every time I race it rains at least the day/evening/morning/during and Camp Hilbert was no exception. We actually lucked out with the weather since it didn't rain during the race, much, and the course was not excessively muddy. The promoter said the trails were perfect yesterday but, of course, it rained over night.

I was looking forward to this race because the last time I rode here I won my category without knowing it until I saw it in the results posted on the web. This time I was determined, if I had a good race, to know where I finished before I left. The race promoters were understanding enough to allow me to pick a prize today for my win in March. They were also smart enough to reroute the course in some areas that had standing water during the last race and they removed a section of trail making the course about a quarter mile shorter. Fact is, during the first race I crashed and head butted a tree in that section so that was good news. One more Kudo for the promoter, they had the results ready as soon as the last racer crossed the finish line for the morning session. Quite impressive!!

Today's race was pretty good from a number of vantage points. There were about twenty-five beginner men/beginner vet men 35+ lined up at the start. We were the fifth group to be sent off so, since there were two minute intervals between groups, we knew our time would be clock time minus ten. While waiting for the start, one guy came up to me and asked me where the beginner vet 35+ men were staging. I pointed at my feet. He said "good, I'll just hang with you." Not two minutes later, a guy came up to me and said, "I'm deaf and can't hear what he (starter, promoter) is saying, can you tell me where the beginner vet men 35+ are staging. Again, I pointed at my feet. I think he said "Good, I'll just stay with you." Popular guy I guess. Anyway, soon it was our turn and at the start I had a little difficulty clipping my right foot in so I didn't get to contend for the hole shot which was fine by me because my strategy is to attack the climbs and maintain a steady tempo both laps picking people off as I go. Hey, it worked well the first race. So I must have been tenth entering the single track and found the pace to be fairly fast but not too painful.

One guy who was following me asked to pass after about five minutes so I let him go by. There was one spot where there was a short steep rise of maybe three feet that had a big root at the top across 4/5th's of it. It was open on the left so everyone went there. First lap, a guy whose wheel I was on went up it, lost it, came to a complete stop with his foot down right in my way. I shot even farther left and bailed out and had to stop. Second lap, a similar thing happened except this time it was a sport woman and she had an enduro guy in front of her with me on her wheel. He lost it in front of her, put his foot down. She stopped right in my way but farther left than the guy before so I had two choices, completely bail/brake and walk up or try to go over the root. I decided let's go for it! I went for it, got my front wheel over threw my weight, doodads, and everything else I had forward but could not get my back wheel to join us. At this point I yelled "Shit!!!!" and bailed hard, decleated, and jumped backwards forgetting that there is a three foot drop off in that direction. I landed in the mud at the bottom spun around, ran up, grabbed my bike and started running, hopped on, clipped in and kept going. The sport woman apologized but it wasn't her fault. I just yelled because I knew I faced a good amount of risk of injury and wasn't blaming anyone. I touched my foot down one other time and that was because I almost missed one of the re-routes.

Somewhere close to the end of my first lap I came up on a guy who was running, pushing his bike. I recognized him as the first guy who came up to me at the start and asked me where we were staging. I saw him again at the finish waiting for the awards ceremony. It turns out he had hit a branch and broken his derailleur hanger so he finished the first lap on foot and borrowed a bike for the second lap. His name is Morgan Quinn and he raced at Twisted Tire a few weeks ago in the slop and beat me by a couple minutes. He also raced at the National Duathlon festival in the off-road category and did real well so chances are he would have finished ahead of me in this race if he didn't have the mechanical. I think the second guy who asked me about staging finished fourth, just ~1:20 behind me. Not bad for a deaf guy. Also, he beat me by about the same amount two weeks ago at Greenbrier.

So, the final score for me was two laps completed, three complete stops; two foot touch downs and one decleater that worked out well. I did bang my knee fairly well on the decleater and it hurts to touch so I just won't touch it. Its just a contusion after all. I finished in 1:15:39 which was eleven minutes better than my time in race#1. My lap splits were 37:49 for lap #1 and 37:50 for lap #2 so I'll have to work harder to make sure I don't go slower on the second lap next time. Granted, this course was one-half a mile shorter but still quite an improvement. I finished second in my category and third overall in all the beginners. I got to choose some more schwag and actually was there for the podium presentation. Cool!! I probably looked like a geek holding my water bottle but I was thirsty. The guy that got first this time was second to me in race #1. So it will be an all out dog fight in race #3 for the jersey for the series winner in our category. Good fun!! Great race!!!