Iron Furnace 50/25k - Wawayanda - May 5

So I made good on the callout by @KenS during the podcast with @Norm and @seanrunnette and made the trip. Good seeing you guys. Had an awesome time yesterday. I admittedly have never ridden anywhere north of 6 mile, so I didn't know what to expect. It had a little of everything I like in a race course.

Got to chat with a few other members of this board, including some I only know from screen names. @jShort @pooriggy @UtahJoe Pretty sure I got a wave from @jimvreeland as he passed me in his car leaving as I was starting my 2nd lap.

Yesterday should be a very good practice ride for what to expect at French Creek next weekend.
 
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The mess left the day after...........nodda thing! great cleanup by Black Bear Cycle.

mess.jpg
 
Kaleidopete said:
The mess left the day after...........nodda thing! great cleanup by Black Bear Cycle.
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I've never been in a race before with so much trash on the trails. Gu packets, etc. Do MASS races get a lot of triathletes or something? 😉
 
Thanks for a great race and the photos. Are the results posted anywhere?

I also agree that there were a lot of wrappers left on the trail. Not cool folks.
 
Santapez said:
I've never been in a race before with so much trash on the trails. Gu packets, etc. Do MASS races get a lot of triathletes or something? 😉
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Dislike....I didn't ride the race trails today, just the staging area. I think the trail markers still have to come down so there is more clean up to be done.
 
Santapez said:
I've never been in a race before with so much trash on the trails. Gu packets, etc. Do MASS races get a lot of triathletes or something? 😉
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This is disappointing to hear. The course arrows will be removed tomorrow and we will remove any trash. However, MTB racing is pack-in/pack-out!!
 
onetracker said:
This is disappointing to hear. The course arrows will be removed tomorrow and we will remove any trash. However, MTB racing is pack-in/pack-out!!
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I didn’t notice an inordinate amount. Lots of bottles but that’s certainly not intentional.
 
I spent nearly 3 hours staring at the trail (cuz I'm a gluttonous moron) and counted only 6 dropped water bottles, 11 empty gel packets, 1 CO2 cartridge. I picked up 7 of the empty packets and I figured the bottles and CO2 would be claimed be some dehydrated suffering fool.
I was actually impressed with the lack of litter and truthfully expecting to see numerous abandoned tubes considering the rocks.
 
ryderX said:
I spent nearly 3 hours staring at the trail (cuz I'm a gluttonous moron) and counted only 6 dropped water bottles, 11 empty gel packets, 1 CO2 cartridge. I picked up 7 of the empty packets and I figured the bottles and CO2 would be claimed be some dehydrated suffering fool.
I was actually impressed with the lack of litter and truthfully expecting to see numerous abandoned tubes considering the rocks.
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I commented that I saw a lot of trash, because I saw a lot of trash. 🙂 It was way more than I usually saw, and a lot of it was halfway through the course in one section where it flattened out w/ fire road I assumed most people took their shot at nutrition. I'm a slow guy doing the 50k so I'm moving slowly and also after all the trash is dropped so I see it.

I joke about the triathletes, but I like to think 99% of the trash is accidental. Especially in race mode it's easy to try to put that clif bar wrapper in a jersey pocket and miss, or the trash comes out while grabbing a bar later, etc.
 
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My back still hurts.

As an Allaire local, I always hear people ragging on it that its not real mountain biking. I always shrug it off and think you just aren't pedaling fast enough. This spring I headed north for the first time and raced Ringwood, Mooch and now IF. I guess I can now understand where people were coming from a bit better.

Needless to say the course was not built for me or my strengths, but I wanted to do it to see a new park and get some learning laps in. The course was awesome and I had a lot of fun, well I had fun some of the time. Looking forward to next year and will hopefully be a bit more prepared for the beating. Thanks to Black Bear Cycling for putting on a great event.
 
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