Stoney Creek Marathon XC

Yesterday was the 60-mile Cross Country race at Stoney Creek.

It poured Friday night, so it was a mudfest yesterday. Good news was, it was not as hot as it was last year and the sun was not blaring down as it was last year, so cramping was not a major problem this year like it was last year. I was also able to stay more hydrated this year, as I had water bottle help from Kelly Bartlett- thanks a lot Kelly.

So, from the start, we got to the race at 9:45- at the race started at 10 am. Everyone was lining up while I was still getting dressed. It was a little nerve-wrecking, but I was able to get to line in time with zero warm-up.

The first 4 laps of the race, the guy that beat me at Brighton and I rode together the whole time (with the exception of fifteen minutes that I had to chase after sliding out in some mud). The fifth lap is when it got exciting. Up to this point, I had been riding in the big ring the whole time because when it is nasty out, I get really bad chainsuck in the middle ring. In the beginning of the fifth lap, I decided to give the middle ring a try, because my legs were so tired from pushing hard gears all day. Chainsuck immediately. I had to get off the bike in order to pull the chain out and switch it into the big ring. By the time I got back on the bike, my arch rival was gone. For almost the whole lap, he was about 45 seconds ahead of me, but I kept pushing. Near the end of the lap, I saw him on the side of the trail stretching...he cramped bad. So from that point on, it was just up to me to ride strong without making any mistakes and without cramping. I ended up winning by a little over three minutes. Awesome.

Perhaps even more exciting than winning was a bottle toss from Kelly after the first lap. She didn't see me coming, so when she finally saw me, she instictually just threw the bottle up the air. I suck at catching anything, so I was pretty nervous about that, but I reached over the bars and caught the bottle with my left hand while I was riding probably 10 mph. It was awesome. Thanks again Kelly for coming out and handing off bottles. Without the bottle hand-offs, I may have ended up like my opponent.

So it was an epic battle with my archrival, and I came out on top for my fourth win of the year. With an epic bottle toss (and catch), it turned out the be a great day.