St. Joe XC race report....

Well, where do I begin. I've finally found the time to update this thing. Last Sunday was the first mt. bike race of the season. I had been pretty excited about it since it is where my roots began and what I really do enjoy. The problem is the road took over and haven't done much off road racing over the last few years. Well, this year my focus is really on road races and mt. bike races and limiting the amount of crits I do.

Last Thursday was a big day for me. I got my PRP shot for my groin and then I strolled over to Ballwin cycles to pick up my new Chris King front wheel. Anyways, I was pretty excited about that, but my leg wasn't feeling that great after the shot. I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to race on Sunday. If you've never had it done, I would recommend it. I had a pulled groin and it was sore from the shot for two days. By Sunday it wasn't even a problem.

Now for the other dilemma I had, "how were the course conditions with all the rain we'd had the previous week?" I really, and I really didn't want to race in muddy terrible conditions and I didn't want to waste a vacation day for that. I asked a few people, got a few responses, but nothing concrete to go on. I had some time on Saturday so me and Jess headed down so I could preride the course and Jess could go for a walk. As I'm riding the trail, I'm thinking to myself "this trail isn't that difficult and there's definitely not that much climbing." I ended up doing it in 57 minutes, thinking that wasn't bad. Booooooy was I wrong!!!!

Sunday strolls around, I'm late as usual. I arrive at the parking lot at 10am for a 10:30 start, dress, put bike together, gather up gels, and head to go register. As I'm registering he mentions were going a little later then expected. No big deal, in fact great for me. So I'm warming up and decide it's getting close. I turn around only to find out the expert field is all lined up and getting ready to roll. As usual, limited warm-up. I really gotta learn to warm up better. I know where I stand in a race so I fall into the back of the line. Race starts and I'm hammering, I'm around 10th or so into the singletrack. Not a bad start for me. I hung with that group for about four or five miles before falling off the pace. I'm really getting warm with my vest on so at the picnic area where I had set my water bottles I took it off and saw my buddy Matt Keevan, I say hello and him and Jess get me back on my bike and away I go. First lap 52 minutes, I'm pleased with that.

Now for the second lap, not much to report, I'm just cruising along at my own pace looking back every once in a while to make sure nobody is coming up on me. I must've passed several other riders from different classes. I also noticed several unfortuneate expert riders either on the side of the trail or walking their bike. I'm just glad that's not me. I'm not sure how long it took me, I forgot to set my splits.

Third lap, I really start to slow down. The course is taking it's toll on me. I think to myself that this is not the same course I rode the day before. I don't remember there being this much climbing. A couple times I could feel the onset of cramping in my legs so I do my best to combat that. I ran about 41 psi in my tires to account for the soft sections, but a lot was already dried out and my back was starting to feel the pain. I thought about stopping and letting pressure out, but didn't want to jinx myself and just toughed it out. Now I'm just thinking to myself, "now after this I get to go to work for 14 hours!!!" I pass maybe one or two expert riders trying to make it through and also get passed in the last mile by a guy who I had seen repairing his bike. I come to find out that he broke his chain and had caught back up with me.

I finish the race with a time of 2:51:08. I'm just glad to finish. I ended up in 10th place, out of 13 finishers. The winner finished in 2:18, insane. This race was kind of bittersweet. I thought my times would be better, but then again, I hadn't ridden my mt. bike but twice over the last four months. That includes my preride the day before. All in all it was a success. It was a good gauge of my fitness which I'm happy with, and I have to mix in a few more mt. bike rides into my training. Up next is Lost Valley.