Yesterday was the Summer Sizzler, the forth XC race in the MASS series. The course was a super fast five mile loop with lots of rolling hills, burmed corners and no real climbing to speak of. A perfect course for a single speed, or better yet to run in your big chainring.
After a couple of warm up laps and helping a friend get some medical attention my race started at 12:30. Which is the same time the sun decided to go on strike and it started to rain.
With only a 100 meters and a quick short climb till the hole shot into the singletrack things started fast. With a little luck I made it into the woods first, but I had an angry mob breathing down my neck. After 3-4 minutes it was down to two of us, then I was alone....dude had a mechanical, day over.
About the same time the rain got HEAVY.....thunder, lightning the whole nine yards. Toward the end of my first lap lightning struck in the trees close by......I'm glad I was alone because even thou I could hardly breathe I made a sound/scream/cry like a ten year old girl. Yeah, something to be proud of I know. But the lightning hit was so close that you could smell the "burning" of what ever it hit....was pretty cool...in a scary way.
Coming in after the first lap they were telling everyone "last lap, last lap.....only a two lap race now." The plan was for us to do three laps, but with the "events" taking place the race promoter made the right call in both getting us off the course and out of the weather.
The course got nasty real fast, what was nice fast turns 30 minutes earlier were now a slimy mess. Thanks to Faticus for the "pep talk" mid way thru the lap, even thou to took me a second to know who it was it the amount of mud in my eyes and his sporty new do.
So with mother nature on my side I stayed out front for the win...maybe I should do a rain dance at the start of each race from now on?
5 comments:
Travis,
Nice job on the win! Sucks you guys got rained out on a lap.
Nice pics of Kim on the stretcher - based on the second pic it seems she felt that was unnecessary.
-matt
Yes, funny photo of her on the board.
It is kinda spooky getting that close to a lightning strike. My closest, not sure of the distance, but the smell of burnt electronics was overwhelming. Also, slight tingle in the air.
Congrats on the muddy win.
Later.
Did you have that static hair look at the end? Well done on the win
Man, what a report. Broken hands, lightening, rain, Fatmarc, AND a win!
Nice.
Nice win. All of us probably would have made a similar noise in that situation.
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