Good Grief Charlie Brown!

Last Sunday was such a comedy of errors that it was almost funny, but not quite.  I came away laughing at myself, but also feeling pissed that I was such a slacker.  Woke up to around 10 inches of fresh snow in the yard and knew the race would be epic.  For some reason I was not all wound up for it.  Usually I'm physically shaking as I get ready to race. Needing to unleash all the pent up energy from a week of daily day to day.  Today my head was not in it.  The mental is so much of racing.  You have to have the need to crush it, the taste for blood. If that component is missing, results will not come.

The start was brutal.  A long sprint for the pinch, while getting sprayed hard by fifteen wheels, like a hose in the face at 9:45AM and 30 degrees F.  Sweet!  Vision is severely impaired so I sit up a bit to try and see wear we are going and that's all it takes, I'm in 23rd.  The going is tough and passing involves a roll of the dice into the 8 inches of snow on either side of the 10 inch strip of compacted snow that comprises the course.  I sit in for the first lap and watch the lead group ride away.

When we get to the pavement at the start/finish line I maxed out up the hill to get on the front of a group of about 8 or so.  I hit the mud with a few second gap on the group and then immediately stuff my front wheel into a 6 inch sapling that shouldn't have been an issue.  Stacked it hard and the whole group that I just passed laughs as they go by.  I straighten my brake lever and jump back on with my helmet riding down my neck and my shades all jacked up.

Other highlights include losing it on an off-camber section resulting in a firm embrace with a stout bush; getting wrapped up in CAUTION course tape and eventually breaking said tape with my protruding adams apple; a run in with another off camber section resulting in a quick swim in a dry ditch; and basically just a lot of dangerous riding.

Good Grief Charlie Brown!