Well traveled down to Norther NJ in the downpour Saturday morning to meet up with my partner from NYC. At the event site it had stopped raining, but was
extremely foggy at 7am. Luckily for us, during the race brief the fog started to lift and the sun was actually starting to peak out from behind the clouds.
The race was going to start on the mtn bike, so they had everyone take off their front tires and line the bikes up 50yds from the start line. We then had to
race to our bikes and get the front tire to get on the course. This was necessary b/c it was on wet, muddy singletrack. My partner isn't much of a mtn
biker as I found out from the start. She ended up pushing her bike quite a bit in the first 2 miles of "riding" until we got to better trails. By
this time we were already passed by the majority of racers, so it was going to be a long day for us. We found the first couple of check points easily and
actually kept catching up to people who were wandering around looking for them. After about 7.5 miles and CP 4 we found a trail that about 7 teams were
standing around looking for and managed to get on it without them noticing. Unfortunatley, it was uphill and washed out. I took our bikes and carried them up
to the top of the hill and we were able to ride on and off until we got to the last CP before the kayak section. At this point the other teams started to
catch up and pass us. And as expected, the trail downhill to the TA was washed out and I even had a hard time riding while my partner walked it down.
At the TA we got on the water and we had a pretty good pace going, except that we were the last people on the lake. After completing the course we found out that there were still 3 teams lost behind us. Now was the fun part, we had a little hill to climb on the bikes and then nice
rolling road back to the park. I had brought a tow rope and had been wanting to use it earlier, but b/c of the singletrack it would have been to dangerous. Now that we were on the road, I hooked her up and we went flying. At one point I looked down at my speedometer on the flats and we were going 22 mph and passing a couple of road cyclists. We made it back to the park and got another 2 CP's and more singletrack. We eventually got back to the TA to start the hiking section and found a bunch of teams already finished. We had 1:30 to finish the race so we headed out, with her on the bungee and me pulling like a true Clydesdale, including the spit flying. We got the first CP fine and on the way to the next CP she wanted to stick to a trail instead of taking a gas line down the mountain, I agreed and late would regret it. The trail turned out to go straight up the mtn and straight down, where the gas line bypassed the mtn and was actually shorter. By the time we reached the CP, my legs were toast and we only had 20 minutes to get back. We decided to just head back and not get the last 2 CP's. So I refused to go back up the mtn and we took the gas line. This is where she realized that would have been a far better choice. I'm not sure where we placed, but it wasn't last. It turned out to be a beautiful for racing and I was glad to just be able to get out and run the course. It was a great workout and now off to the Shoreline Sharks 1/2 Marathon.
At the TA we got on the water and we had a pretty good pace going, except that we were the last people on the lake. After completing the course we found out that there were still 3 teams lost behind us. Now was the fun part, we had a little hill to climb on the bikes and then nice
rolling road back to the park. I had brought a tow rope and had been wanting to use it earlier, but b/c of the singletrack it would have been to dangerous. Now that we were on the road, I hooked her up and we went flying. At one point I looked down at my speedometer on the flats and we were going 22 mph and passing a couple of road cyclists. We made it back to the park and got another 2 CP's and more singletrack. We eventually got back to the TA to start the hiking section and found a bunch of teams already finished. We had 1:30 to finish the race so we headed out, with her on the bungee and me pulling like a true Clydesdale, including the spit flying. We got the first CP fine and on the way to the next CP she wanted to stick to a trail instead of taking a gas line down the mountain, I agreed and late would regret it. The trail turned out to go straight up the mtn and straight down, where the gas line bypassed the mtn and was actually shorter. By the time we reached the CP, my legs were toast and we only had 20 minutes to get back. We decided to just head back and not get the last 2 CP's. So I refused to go back up the mtn and we took the gas line. This is where she realized that would have been a far better choice. I'm not sure where we placed, but it wasn't last. It turned out to be a beautiful for racing and I was glad to just be able to get out and run the course. It was a great workout and now off to the Shoreline Sharks 1/2 Marathon.
