The 2nd Bedford MTX Race

Finally caught a break so I could write this post for you!  I had two assignments due this week that turned out to be very time consuming.  Sorry for the teaser posts!  As you know the 2nd MTX race was last Sunday, and as it turned out it was probably the most fun I've had in the 3 years that I have participated in this series.  While the snow/mud races were fun last year, this particular race just seemed to suit me for some reason.  I took Punkin' - the orange 29er for this race.  

The course started off in the reverse direction as the previous race, so of course that meant we got to go down the hill that I had previously walked.  This meant I could actually get off to a faster start - of all the things related to mountainbiking, I've never been terribly afraid of going down hill fast.  Well the catch with this was the little steep uphill at the bottom of the big hill.  During my pre-ride, I noticed that this little booger was slick.  I MEAN SLICK - like black ice slick.  I managed to get up and over it on my pre-ride somehow.  After this we went through a soggy section of grass and over a barrier then crossed a small bridge.  After the bridge, it was time to roll.  Fairly flat grass section to another bridge to some single track followed by more grass (thanks Kenny!).  This race included the Deer Trail.  Kenny not only puts in sections of grass, but he loves to include this trail.  I think I've finally conquered it now!  In previous years the thing was so wet and slick with mud that I usually wound up walking up it.  Somewhere along the way, I discovered I could ride up it which I did on all 5 of my laps this past week.

The first grassy section was a blast on the first few laps - I even used my big chain ring on the first lap.  The uphill, slick was my nemesis this time.  I might have successfully ridden up it twice during the race.  At least twice I had troubles and the one lap was horrendous as I spun out at the top, ended up falling over about the time to see this guy from Lynchburg closing fast.  I thought I was going to be the first ever MTX casualty.  Fortunately this guy is super nice and stopped quickly!  Thanks Barry!  

A friend of mine managed to capture this incident in pictures, but hasn't had time to post them yet.  I promise if he does, I'll post them.  =)  I can tell that I'm gaining confidence about being on the mountainbike again.  I'm really pysched about it too.  My first lap (1.3 miles) was 9:52 which was fast for me made me so proud.   Of course, my subsequent laps were slower and that one lap was a disaster after I slopped around in the mud.  HAHAHA.  


I think I'm 8th or 9th in the standings right now with 9 laps completed for the series, but I will miss the night race on the 26th so that I can go to the regular season finale for the Lady Vols.  The MTX series concludes March 6th and I will be there.  Hopefully with fresh enough legs to get in some good laps - I'm running the Explore Your Limits 5k on the 5th.  YIKES!