Recap: Going to try and do this on my cell phone so it might suck a bit.
I wasn't super keen on driving to Vernon so Creek wasn't on my radar. But I borked my knee before Lewis and wanted to get a little more racing in this season. The day opened up family-wise so might as well take advantage.
They recommended on the bikereg page to get there at least an hour early. Andy
@goodvibe took the same advice and we found ourselves getting off the lift with an hour to spare. Andy's goal was to ride the trails up there, mine was to
have ridden them! Slight difference in focus there. Anyway, off we went into the course.
Andy is stronger than me especially climbing but I can sorta keep up so no biggie. I have no idea how much warm up time I really need so I'll just tag along till we find a turn off. However I don't know my way around so about four miles in I realize I'm getting a little tired and not sure how to bail. We finally find a cut off and hit the start with a few minutes to spare. I'm nice and warmed up but a bit concerned about what's left in the tank at race pace.
We start, I'm kinda in the back but work my way up and hit the ST maybe 6th and feeling pretty good. The pre ride is now paying off, I'm taking solid lines and making up time. I get hung up behind a couple guys and by the time I get past the lead group is gone. Soon after I'm riding all alone; the lead group is (as it turns out) riding roughly the same pace as me and I've broken free of the rest of the pack.
As I start lap two I realize I'm bad tired. All that foreshadowing about the pre ride! The course is technical and fairly demanding and I'm riding stiff and sloppy. This sucks, frankly and I hate it. Same thing happened the third lap of Mooch but it didn't matter so much then as I was just a tourist in the endurance class. Anyway. The leaders of the classes that started behind us are now coming by, including Andy who catches me PUSHING up a hill. Embarrassing! I catch up to a duo who are having a private battle but pretty soon they gap me on a hill. Not happy. Adding to my problems is my cranks have worked loose so now I'm taking it easy on the bike and just trying to finish.
The middle of the course has some good downhill thankfully and I feel better. Still trying to figure out how to keep my bottles cold enough (ice has melted) so I'm fantasizing about cold, wet beverages. Gatorade, soda, beer, anything. I'm not ready to quit but I'm really beyond having fun here. The last part of the course has some tough tech and steep little climbs but at least I know it's almost over. A dude in my class comes by and I'm pissed at myself that I've got nothing for him. I push up the last obstacle, jump back on and another rider jokingly says "cmon old guy lets go!" and we sprint to the line. He won but it was fun. I ignore everything else, upend the water cooler and drain ten gallons dry (this could be an exaggeration).
Ultimately I finish 7th, which wasn't so bad. My first lap was a competitive 42-ish but the second was 48, a six minute ugly-ass drop in performance. So the moral of the story is my warm-up should probably be somewhere between 5 minutes and most of the course...
Once I was sort of rehydrated (I'm still thirsty as of right now!) and John Nicholson fixed my cranks, Andy and I rode down and got his squishy bike for a few bonus laps of free DH runs. I'd brought my armor so I got a few looks riding a 100mm XC bike in full gear. Utah gave me a classic WTF? look. I have to say body armor and a full face definitely enhance your confidence! Andy kept laughing at me. Oh, I cramped brutally in the parking lot, my leg simply locked up. Holy hell that hurt!
Every one of these cat2 races have taught me something new. I don't know what my progression will be from here but it's been fun and challenging. Racing might not be for everyone but riding around in the woods with a bunch of other lunatics has been good times so far.
PS, like
@goodvibe said the USA license was never mentioned, it even said specifically on the reg page that you didn't need one to race unless you were going for the state champ. I also happened to have just enough cash in my pocket.
