Eight inches. That's how much rain Stowe has received in the past week. To put that in perspective, if it were snow, it'd be somewhere around six and a half feet. In a week.
Like so many other racers, I watched all week. I watched as area trails slowly closed down. I watched as we kept getting promising reports from Trapps. I watched as the course was cut short from two 12.5 mile laps to two 7.5 mile laps the day before the race. And cutting out Kimmers.
I was getting worried.
We had decided to make a weekend of it. Cori, Harry and I took Friday off and headed up to Stowe. We spent the weekend eating great food, drinking great beer and hanging around with great friends.
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| Paton family ride down the Stowe Rec Path |
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| Santa Cruz demo day at Cotton Brook |
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| Max falling in love with full suspension. Notice the air under the tires. |
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| The burger the fine folks from Santa Cruz grilled me. |
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| Mini golf at the Sun and Ski Inn |
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| Bingham Falls was RAGING! |
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| Rainbows were a dime a dozen. |
I grabbed my number and went out for a short warm up and reconnoiter. The mile and a quarter I did was a mixed bag. The grassy areas that were wet were really tough to push through, but the single track had some promise.
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| Sporting my brandy new DAS jersey. Must be pre-race - you can still see it. |
After a quick racer meeting, we were queuing up and heading out. Elites, experts, sports, novice and clydesdales. All within ten minutes of each other.
Potter and Beaupre heading out
Sporty Start
Beriau Start
Max beating a bunch of grown ups off the line
The first two miles were a pretty steady climb. Some fire road and a super section of switchbacky, gradual climbing. Then another mile of singletrack descent before hitting the real climb. Some singletrack that was in mostly good shape, although some of the corners were REALLY muddy. We were already spread out by this point, so most of the dabs I had through here (although not all) were my own doing.
The killer was when you started climbing the wide grassy trail. I climbed this trail last year while up at Stowe when it was dry and it was brutal. Had I not seen them for myself, I would not even begin to fathom how muddy the conditions were. I did my best to push up it, but in the end, wound up pushing up it. This particular climb, all told, was about 500' in 1.5 miles.
Once we peaked, we hit an equally grassy, wet downhill. It was so wet I wouldn't have been surprised to see a fish swim by. It was actually hard to gain speed, even downhill. But whatever speed I did get was great for flinging mud all over me. I quickly gave into this mud flinging and eventually came out on some harder pack double track. Well, mostly harder pack. It was peppered with crazy mud bogs. It was here I learned to stay with the flowing water. While obviously deeper, it was much more likely to have a firm base. The stuff to the sides of the flowing water was just wheel-sucking, foot-mucking, mother-loving mud.
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| One of the drier sections |
A grueling, wet climb back to the Trapp's and lap one was done. I would be lying if I said I didn't think about dropping out part way up that climb on lap one, but I headed back out for round two.
The ascents were a little tougher. The descents a little less fun. The mud a little deeper. The head game a little tougher. I walked up more of the grassy singletrack, but didn't lose all that much time to the guy grinding up it in front of me.
On the way back down my front tire started doing its own thing in the mud. Its thing, as it turns out is sliding sideways and then sliding out from under me. I was down. The good news is mud is really soft. Back up, turn the handlebars back around and start heading down. There was a corner onto the hardpack just in front of me and it was here I realized front brakes were a think I used to have. The super awesome downhill was going to be super interesting.
Before I got there though, I had to get through the mud pits. I was very happy with my performance through here. Somehow ground it out and got by a rider who was sloshing through like some sort of hiker.
As we hit the downhill after though he passed me. And then another guy. Rear brakes only really took me out of my comfort zone. I did still make it down just a few seconds slower than my first lap time and without dying. So there's that.
On the final climb I managed to pass a couple more riders. I think one was in my age division.
Total time for me was 1:55:20, placing me a very mediocre 9th out of 14 finishers. It was a tough place to end, but it was a tough race. Today I can honestly say that just finishing was an accomplishment in itself.
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| Little bit muddy. |
In friend news, Karen Potter won the elite female race. John Beaupre won the master expert division. Max won the novice junior.
Other than myself in Sport vet II, Colin Johannen took third. I'm growing more and more impressed. And John Robertson opened a can of whoop ass on me, taking 6th and besting my time by about five minutes. Brian Spring finished the race (just finishing was an accomplishment in itself).
Chris Beriau, apparently the only one with a shred of intelligence, did the smart thing and dropped out part way through.
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| Little bit cleaner. |
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| Whole lotta muddy. |
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| Congrats to Colin Johannen, taking third in Sport Vet II! |
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| Looking fairly familiar. |
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| Potter podium picture? Perchance pedestrian? |
Here's the Strava track.
Still deciding whether I'll make the Moody park race next week. It's a long haul from New Fairfield, CT, where I'll be for most of the long weekend. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading.
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