Rained out

I was more than optimistic this week about racing at Mt Morris. I had a chance to pre-ride the course last weekend and it was a blast, dry! The Hee Haw section was my favorite. Don and his crew really did an awesome job to make this course and I was sure it was going to be a great event! As the week progressed, I sat at my computer at work to check the weather in Wautoma through out the week. Every day the forecast upped the anty for rain from 20% to 30% and it appeared the stakes were high for another mud fest. The big question was when would it hit?

I raced around Friday looking for the perfect tires and spent a good day back and forth searching for them. Finally got them, not the ones I really wanted but they would do. Now I could relax. We headed up to the race course to set up camp a bit late. I was going to go up early and set up a bit and then pre-ride but Captain had to work and no one else was available to give him a ride up. We pulled in about 6:30 PM and many racers had already established their camps. We drove around trying to find a spot that was not too low for when it rains. Captain started to set up and let me get in a quick pre-ride. He is so good to me! I did a quick lap about 37 minutes and felt ready to race. Camp was pretty much set up when I got back thanks Greg and Angie who helped Captain. By now the time was late and we were hungry. I was ready to make our tasty pasta and chicken and started to pull out all my stuff until I learned I forgot the pans to cook it in, UGH! All I had was the coffee pot and I was NOT going to cook noodles in it. Everyone else headed up to the chalet for the pasta dinner so we decided to join in. We sat down and were greeted right away by our waiter. We were eager to order the pasta and he sadly told us they were all out. As we quickly scaled the menu the only thing that sounded good by now is the fish fry, burgers were definitely out. The fish was great, we had the perch and the potato salad was home made and it was not gobbed with mayo. We were OK with this and had to make the best of it. The atmosphere was fun and exciting because all the other WORS racers were hanging out too.

Saturday morning, the air was warm and I think there was a bit of sun that peeked out for a bit. We were pleasantly greeted by the camping NAZI at 7:30 AM when she rolled in on her 4-wheeler asking for money for camping. Captain and I were sleeping until we heard her motor vechile right next to our tent. Thanks to Jo for setting her straight and telling her that everyone is STILL SLEEPING and paid for some of us so she would go away. I was about to get up anyway and was ready for some coffee. The morning was great, good friends, a good cup of joe what more could you ask for. Everyone did there own breakfast thing which was great! I had my usual steel cut oats with fresh blueberries that I cooked up in the frying pan :-) I now sat and thought how I was going to plan my next few meals before I race at 3:30PM instead of 11:20AM. I just figured I would eat the same things I do before I ride a usual MTB ride and I think it would work.

We started to prepare for the day and Captain found out that the owners have a garage with an air compressor so I could change my tire for the MUDS since the sky was darkening and my wonderful brother-in-law called Greg to tell him the Rain was on it's way. We grabbed the stans and the tires and headed up for Captain to change them for me. I know, I just learned how to change a tire with stans but before a race is quite nerving and I have a difficult time getting the tire off the rim need I say more. Well it was pretty funny, I was holding the tire for Captain while he was adding more air pressure to seat the bead on the rim and all of a sudden POP so loud I thought my ear fell off. The tire popped right off the rim and stans crap everywhere. I think a few others were laughing too. Finally he got the tires on good, no leaks and I was off to practice. What a difference 1.95 from 2.0, it does not seem like much but they felt so skinny to me. I did a section in the grass and some single track, my favorite hee haw section and was impressed with the way they handled on the corners but I did not like the feel of the nobbies on the grass, it felt like I was dragging and I was not looking forward to that at all.

11:00AM and the Elite's were starting to get ready. The Alterra gang set up the easy up on the last hill climb and it was a perfect birds eye view of the course. I knew I had time to kill before I race so I headed up to join the gang to watch the elite race. The rain had just started when I was taking pictures at the start and I thought to myself those lucky dogs get to race at the usual Sport time today and are pretty lucky to get a dry fun course while it lasts. I really enjoy taking pictures of everyone and had fun watching the details of the entire race through the camera. The rain continued during the elite race but the course did not look bad from where we were standing and I heard that the single track was still in good shape a bit greasy in sections. The crowd got thicker in the Alterra easy-up and I was getting intoxicated by the beer breath standing there trying to take pictures. I wanted to have a cold one but I would be racing soon and had to hold off. Don had just announced they are delaying the COMP start due to the rain. Once Comp started and I am not sure if it was there first or second lap, but when I saw a chain of excellent riders having to walk some sections of the single track and it was more then a hand full, I decided that I was not going to do another push my bike in the mud thing. It got uglier and uglier as the race went on and I knew the other women were going to be tough ass today and race it and I felt like a wuss but I just could not deal with the mud, I wanted the nice dry beautiful technical course not more MUD. That's the life of MTB racing, I know but when do you have enough of this?

I headed back to camp to change my only pair of shoes that were soaked with a pair of flip flops. Mikey was down there recovering form his race and said some shit to me and told me to go suck it up and race. At this time the rain was a bit of a drizzle and I thought, WTF and had ten minutes to change and get to the start. I darted into my tent to change into my kit and just as I put my socks on and was clamping on the bike shoes, IT STARTED TO POUR AGAIN, HARDER. That was it, I ripped off the kit, kicked the shoes off and put on some more warm and dry clothes and took Captain's tennis shoes that were 3 sizes too big and headed up to the alterra tent to drink with the rest of them. I should know myself by now that once I make my mind up, that's it! END OF STORY