"Never hope more than you work." Rita Mae Brown
This past Sunday, the second race in the EFTA race series, the Bear Brook Blast-Off, took place.....but it almost didn't happen. At 4:30 on Friday afternoon, after all the arrowing (in the rain), was completed, Kelly, the race director, got a call from the State Trails Bureau saying that they were pulling her special use permit because of the wet trail conditions. This created a temporary crisis to say the least, but it was resolved without incident. BUT....I commend the Trails Bureau for taking action! Bear Brook State Park is becoming more popular and is in danger of being loved to death. I literally ran into Jen Codispotti from the trails bureau in the park this morning while I was finishing up the arrow removal. I explained my concerns over the situation and in the future we will have 2 distinct courses....one if it's wet and one if it's dry. This is a tenuous situation for mountain bikers.....if we can't respect the trails....they are going to kick us off of the state land....
And that would be unfortunate. The Blast-Off had over 300 riders and benefited a good cause....Medical Missions for Children. It seemed that everyone enjoyed the course (I was having my doubts about the length during my second lap) and the rain held off until John and I went back out to remove some arrows. And riders were respectful of the trails. We only had to remove about a dozen Gu wrappers from the trail and I'll continue to believe they just fell out of the back of the rider's jersey. (The same cannot be said for the blown tube I found on the Little Bear Trail! At least that rider left it near an arrow to help me find it!)
The GT tent was full, as Peter DeSantis, Harold Green, and I were sharing the same tent. We had lots of visitors, helped by the fact that we had some extra chairs, Peter brought some watermelon, and the results were delayed because of protests.
As for my personal performance.....I definitely cashed in on my "home course advantage" card! Not wanting to go out too quickly at the start, I found myself caged in on the first piece of singletrack, but managed to pull myself into what I thought was the front of the pack. So wasn't I surprised when I caught a glimpse of a woman in front of me. She was MUCH stronger than me on the open trails, but I was able to reel her in on the singletrack. We were joking afterwards that I wasn't unable to sneak up on her because my bike had this awful annoying squeak the entire race! She'd pull ahead on the flats only to be summonsed again by the squeak.....something akin to a horror movie scene! I was pleased with my time (2:20) and my finish (first over-all....even beat the elite women!) But then again.....it was my course.....
Only one expert rider was able to break the 2 hour mark....and just barely....1:59. I guess the course was a little more challenging than last year? But then I didn't race the course last year.
I'm already starting to think about the course for next year. Those that know me realize that for me variety is the spice of life.....so look for changes in next year's course.
Holly and I are off to CT and PA for a week of mountain biking next week. I've been in e-mail contact with Jeremy from SAMBA and he's offered to send us to the sweet singletrack in PA and even possibly lead us on a few rides. I'm meeting up with some old friends from a bike trip in UT to ride this weekend in CT. Hope the weather holds and we can sample the best PA has to offer!
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