Day 173 - Welcome to the Mudfest

Today was suppose to be my return to mountain biking racing. Ridehard and I drove down to Brownsville to race. As we got closer to Brownsville we noticed water puddles on the road. We began to worry. When we pulled into the dirt parking lot in Brownsville and it was muddy. It had rained in the early morning and it looked like a mess. We decided to race since we had gotten up so early and made the one hour drive.

The race started out ok for the first mile as we rode the perimeter loop. It was slippery and tough sledding, but rideable. I was nearly at my max heart rate trying to plod through the mud in 2nd gear. The turns were treacherous. I nearly went down on one turn and lost two places. I made it into the switchback section and that's where the race turned into a mudfest. I got 20 yards into the section when my bike came to a dead stop. Mud stuck in the front tire and fork, rear deraileur, front deraileur, rear tire and chain stay. I tried to poke the mud out with a stick, but it was impossible. We had done less than a mile and had another five to go. I thought about continuing, but the situation didn't look good. My Michelin Dry 2's sucked at shedding mud. My Anthem's small rear tire clearance also didn't help. It was hopeless. I threw in the towel and sloshed my way through the mud back to the start/finish line. My race was over, before it really began.

I stuck around and drowned my disappointment with a couple of frosties. Because of the mud the race directors decided to shorten the race to 1 lap. To my surprise, quite a few riders, including beginners, women, and kids finished the race! My helmet goes off to them because the only way to complete a lap was to port your bicycle for a good part of the 6-mile lap. It was inspiring. It was easy to give up, but they didn't. Congratulations to them. They all deserved medals for finishing in such harsh conditions. For me, my return will have to wait another month until December.