LowCel 

The day started off like my typical race day, up at 7:00 am and made some oatmeal. Eat up, relax a little then fix three scrambled eggs. The eggs will be eaten two hours before the race. This seems to work for me.

I took a look outside, what was I thinking? The creeks were up, my yard was flooded, it was cold. Would have been a perfect day to just stay on the couch, drink some hot chocolate and watch a few movies. Oh well, I'm to stubborn for that, I'm going racin'!

I checked all the bolts on my bike, sprayed it down with pam one more time then loaded it up. Checked to make sure I had everything then headed up the road to Parkersburg WV for the first WVMBA race of the year. This is my first mountain bike race of the year as well and it is going to be nasty!

I get to the race, register, then talked to some friends for a while. It was amazing how muddy and cold this place was. It was around 35 degrees and the ground was saturated from three days of rain. After I relaxed and caught up with friends for a while I jump on the trainer to get warmed up for the noon start. Once I'm about 15 - 20 minutes into my warm up I find out that the course has been changed and that the start has been delayed. Great, grumble, grumble.......

I get off of the trainer and relax for a little while longer. About half hour later I get back on the trainer for about 15 minutes. I think I'm ready, however my toes and fingers are already going numb. That's not good!

I head over to the racers meeting, find out everything we need to know about the course then head over to the start line. I was able to get a spot on the front row which was my goal. This way I can at least be up front once during the day.

The pro / experts take off. Then the junior experts, women's experts and single speeds take off. We (men's sport) are next. We're off.......

The pace started off pretty hard and I was setting around fifth place when we hit the gravel turn where I lost traction and almost came off of the bike. I was able to save it and kept going. I was now around seventh place. I kept going and passing one person then another and another. A minute later I was in the lead. I was able to get about a minute or so lead on second place by the time we hit the singletrack. Awesome! Unfortunately I suspected the lead was only temporary since I've only been on the mountain bike three times this year and none of that was in nasty mud like this.

The only downside so far is that I found out that I am basically riding a three speed. I caught a stick in my derailleur on Tuesday bending the derailleur hanger. I straightened it up as much as I could and thought I would be fine. Apparently I was wrong. There were only three gears in the back that I could ride in. This proved to be a bit of a challenge but I got used to it. Up front I stayed in my middle ring just about the whole race. I never went to the granny, there was no use. If I would have gone to granny I would have just spun out anyway. I did go to the big ring a couple of times, but not for very long.

I was immediately impressed with my bike set up, especially the tires. Those Schwalbe Nobby Nics are the best tire I have ever been on in conditions like this. I actually felt like I had some control, which on a day like this was very impressive. I ran them at 37 psi front, 39 psi rear and it felt perfect! I was able to go over roots and rocks that I normally would have just spun on or slid off. I could get used to this being in control stuff! I also want to give props to Optic Nerve glasses. As nasty as it was they never did fog up, awesome!

After about nine miles (of the 17) I was caught by the now first place sport rider. It wouldn't have been so bad but he was on a singlespeed! He was flying! I maintained second place for a few more miles but I was caught by another rider, actually three other riders. Bummer! About this time we were on a nasty downhill and the guy right in front of me went off course and almost crashed. Well, this distracted me just enough to cause me to follow his line, only I didn't "almost crash". I crashed! Over the bars, bummer! It wasn't bad though, I just jumped right back on the bike and took off, only lost about 15 seconds.

After that I traded positions with a few experts but nothing to exciting. I was basically in survival mode which I believe is where pretty much everyone was at this point. I suffered through the rest of the race and ended up finishing fifth place in the Men's sport 19 - 34 class. This was also an OMBC race which had me in the vet 31 - 40 class. I believe I probably had a top three (possibly first) place finish in this class. I'll find out for sure once it is posted.

The race ended up being 17.1 miles and according to a buddy of mine's GPS we did 3,337 feet of climbing. No wonder I'm hurting today.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone that was brave (or dumb) enough to come out and participate in this race. In my opinion, no matter how you finished it was a victory to just cross the finish line!

C Law

good write up. I was waiting to hear this morning how the mudfest went.

kmoses

Good to hear everyone made it out alive. Rain or cold, the rocky sands at big bear and coopers will make for less muddy times in the races to come. Cold, wet, and muddy is no way to race. Hot, sweaty, and in total agony - NOW THAT'S RACIN'!

LowCel 

Here are a couple of pictures from the race courtesy of IPlayOutside.

dminor 

Great report. Sounds like it was brutal! Good job - - that's quite an age-spread on that class.

salsa

mom was wrong about your prize. i had to get other prizes for people so i figured i would give you the pick.

prize1- adidas 3s climate ss training t-shirt ,size M, blue with three white stripes on the shoulders.

prize2- a camelbak rogue 70oz has 4 big pockets, its white blue and grey has a life time warranty

so pick which one you want

salsa

good race! I will never start a race that hard again.

LowCel 

You grabbed the prizes and were doing me a favor. You pick what you want and I'll be happy with the other one.

I think someone may have told you that you might want to drop back off of the front line at the start. It hurts up there. Regardless, you had a great race. I just now ran into Josh while I was over at Doctor Steve's having my knees worked on and getting a foot bath. He was hurting pretty bad last night as well. Apparently he started way too hard to.

salsa

i feel good my legs dont hurt but, that was a stupid thing to do. i hit that drop off you told me about everbody was like oooooooowwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

erhan

Sounds like it was a vey tough race. Congratulations.

Gravity Worx

I think both of you had a great start to the season in spite of inclimate weather.
Great job guys.

outdoornut

Great write up LowCel. I was wonderin' how ya did in the slop. Even though
I only ran as sweep, I had a good time. I'm surprised I didn't find someone with
their bicycle lost in that mud somewhere. I still don't think I have all the mud out
of places I didn't think it could get Congrates.... Oh, Scott24 got 3rd 14 and
under, I pretty proud of him.

Thanks for sharing your report. Congrates to Salsa as well and anyone who even
rode that day.

mtnbiker66

Thats the huckster coming out in ya.

Nubes

thats awesome you finished 5th, you nailed it when you said you were in survival mode! I know I was....I'm from Cincy and drove out for the race, this was my first year at Mountwood and it wont be the last!....I'm in the same class as you sport senior, I think I was holding around 7-8th for most of the race then I started cramping about 3 miles from the end and got passed by around 5 or 6 guys so I had to settle for 12th...I'm 32 and havent raced since 98-99 but I'm not that dissapointed with my finish considering the conditions, I've been racking up a lot of miles on my road bike tha last few years and could still lose around 10lbs, I doubt I will find my fitness from when I used to race, but if I can get close I will be happy!

LowCel 

Great job Nubes, 12th place in a race like that is still a great accomplishment!

Oh, kind of a coincidence but the team I race for is from Cincinnati. 7 Hills Racing.

Nubes

LowCel, one of the guys that went out with us rides for 7 hills I believe, Hunter Boshell...He had a 7 hills jersey on?

LowCel 

Yup, know him. He was nice enough to bring me my arm warmers that his wife (or girlfriend) held for me during a race last year.