Not my Day...

This is what I woke up to this morning....

I generally am not one to quit I would soon rather run the rest of a race barefoot in the mud than DNF, however today was the exception at the Haw Ridge XC race. We arrived in the am and everything was fine minus a few sprinkles. Then right before we started all hell broke loose and images of DSG and thoughts of "what the hell am I doing?" started going through my head. I went with my geared bike since I decided I wouldn't be able to compete on the single speed and the mud actually wasn't too bad.

Little mud but nothing too bad.

The race went off and immediately I was spit out the back of a small but elite pack. Of all the crazies that showed up I was the slowest to start. I passed on guy after we started a short climb in the woods and it a bit before I could see the next group of two. The roots were very slick and after watching Caleb eat a mouthful of dirt on a large root on East shore I decided that one would be cross practice with a dismount each lap. After the first climb up ridge I was able to pull up to Caleb and Begalski and rode with them till I was able to slip by on a very steep pitch on rainbow where some dabbing happen up front. After I got past them I decided I wasn't going to gain anything on the descents so I pushed it as hard as possible on the hills.

After the first lap I felt I had a decent gap and I started to settle into race pace. As I rode on a new section of roller coaster I felt my ride get very plush. I looked down and knew I had pinch flatted so I punched it as long as I could till I felt a root make contact with my rim. Muddy hands and anaerobic head made the change difficult and I fumbled with the valve screw I stupidly left in the tube. As I was finishing up about 3-4min later Caleb and another guy came blazing by and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. I finally got the wheel mounted and my trash cleaned up and back into my pack and put out a solid enough effort to catch the guy chasing Caleb before we got back on middle road. Everything was going well.

As I entered East shore again I dropped down to the flat section before the ridge climb. I had seen what I thought was Caleb going up the ridge and I was going to blow a gasket on the climb to try to make the catch. Pffffffffffffffff! was all I heard. I had no other tubes and upon closer inspection I found the bottom of a broken bud light bottle on the side of the trail had seriously assaulted my sidewall. I gave it a good chuck into the Clinch to forever rest at the bottom of the radioactive sludge with everything else. In a few million years when aliens come they might find it. Anyways I walked out and even though it was a bummer to be done I had lots of fun in the rain. After a good wash and quick cleaning out of the headset and repacking it with grease, the bike seems to have fared well minus the rear tire. Anyways hats off to the great Caleeeb for enduring the race of attrition to assert his XC dominance. I knew those ride across the country legs would be strong. Now to find some new tires....

Bruised but not broken...

The offending new orifice in my rear tire...Courtesy of Anheiser-Busch .

At least I didn't do this....