I felt a little better come Sunday and showed up for the second day of racing. Cross the Farm is always tough as the farm we race on, Hungry Gnome Farms, is located mostly on a big hill. You can count on multiple climbs up that big hill per lap. It is usually a climbers race and you definitely need clear lungs and good legs to get up those hills quick enough to battle up front.
I had the first and last races of the day, starting early in the morning with Singlespeed. The course started with a small climb in the grass, followed by a short descent. A few ditch crossings took us into the woods for a long, steep and muddy climb. It had rained in the days leading up to the race and it was super slick in all the wooded parts of the loop. The next descent was a deep mess of churned grass. We then descended the full hill and took in a set of barriers as climbing began again. The climb went back into the woods for a giant log crossing that forced a dismount, followed by a run-up with some gravel ledges. After re-mounting, more climbing awaited before an off-camber, switchback descent in mud took us back to the bottom of the hill. A few more mud sections awaited before the finish line. It was a really tough loop, especially on a SS.
Finishing the SS race
photo by Tammy Richardson
The Singlespeed race was about just trying to turn over the pedals for me. My gear was WAY too big for this course and I ran about as much as I rode. Most of the other riders did the same. I was last off the line, but picked off riders during the first running section. In the uphill sections where I did have the legs to turn the gear over, the mud was too deep to get traction on. I didn't feel too bad other than a little coughing the first lap, but I struggled on this course with my SS bike. Putting the big gear aside, it is still tough going as my steel frame is so dang heavy! Surprisingly, there were eight other people that didn't use their brain this morning and signed up for SS. I ended up 6th out of the nine, which means three other guys ran slower than I did. It was a really tough 30 minutes. I really just beat those guys by having a steady running pace.
Masters
Rick Harmon
Rick
Paul Carter
Paul goes over the big log before the run-up.
Paul on the run-up
After sitting around all day, it was time to hit the course again for the Pro/1/2/3 race and another hour of tough climbing. We had a good-sized field for a local race with 12 starters. I had one good lap and then started to feel the sickness. I couldn't stop coughing and had to back off just to be able to breathe. I drifted back in the group to 11th and ran the rest of the race there. I felt like death out there. Every time I put any effort into the pedals I would go into a coughing fit. Then I began to get weak in the second half of the race. I felt like a wandering cow on the farm, creeping around well behind the herd of other racers. I ended up 11th on the day. It really is amazing that I still beat someone, which means somebody was having a worse day than me. The course had dried out a little by this point in the afternoon, but still had some nasty sections. The first muddy descent got as churned up as any National-level course I have been on which was good for practice because you typically don't see that kind of mud on local courses. I am getting adjusted to the bike, but still working out some kinks. My right shifter came loose during the race and was just swiveling around the last 30 minutes. That made the switchback descent a little interesting, but it wasn't bad enough to go get my SS out of the pits!
Me during the Pro/1/2/3 race.
photo by Marsha Williams
photo by Marsha Williams
By the Pro/1/2/3 race, this muddy downhill was looking like a Nationals or World Cup course. Only for 50 feet though. Can't imagine an entire course looking like that.
photo by Marsha Williams
The coughing and weak feeling would hang with me for the next three weeks. I was off the bike for most of the rest of November, with the exception of a few days on the mountain bike for our annual Tour de Turkey ride at home. I ended up skipping the State Championship CX as I was just starting to feel better and didn't want to make things worse like I did at Cross the Farm.
Thanksgiving had a bit of a black cloud hanging over our neighborhood this year as my neighbor and friend in middle and high school, Chad, passed away the day after Thanksgiving. He had been into drugs several times during and since high school, but had cleaned himself up since having two daughters to take care of. He lost his way again recently and ended up back on drugs. This time he got into heroin. His family found out and they had a discussion at Thanksgiving dinner about him starting rehab the next week. He took one more dose of heroin Friday night and it was laced with fentanyl. His brother found him overdosed and called 911, but Chad couldn't be revived and passed away. Three other people in our area also overdosed that same night from the same fentanyl-laced heroin. The county police were able to trace down the dealer through Chad's phone and set up a meeting with Chad's brother, where he lured the dealer back to our neighborhood for what he thought was another heroin sale. Instead, the cops were waiting and arrested those involved. It's sad to see some hardcore drugs being sold and used just two houses down from where I live, but I was glad to see our neighbors and the police working hard to make sure the dealers were caught and at least one drug pipeline shut down.
I took my Epic to MOAB Bikes to get my suspension rebuilt by Specialized so I will be ready to go when the season arrives. Both my fork and rear shock needed a rebuild after a hard year of racing. Rick Harmon also went through my whole bike and serviced my brakes and replaced my headset, which apparently was packing part of some of the race courses inside the bearings. I also dropped off my Pearl Izumi mountain bike shoes to be warrantied. I have been racing on broken shoes since the Acworth GSC race. Both shoes had a big crack horizontally across the carbon sole just behind the cleat. They were still better than my spare pair of shoes, so I finished the year on them, but the cracks were getting bigger and barely made it through the recent cross races. Pearl has a lifetime warranty so I have no doubt they will help me replace them. Hopefully, we can get it done quickly and I can have some good shoes before the year is out.
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