That Old Time Feeling

Sometimes when you do a race you've done a bunch of times before, it gets boring.  Well, no matter how many times I do it, I don't think the MASS Festival and Stage Race Weekend in Marysville, PA will ever get old.  It is by far, one of my favorite races out there.  The course is not rocky, does not include long climbs, or epic views of stunning landscapes.  It's not blazingly smooth, fast singletrack with perfectly built corners.  It is a wholly different thing.  It is Marysville, and that's it.  And I love it.  I think this past weekend was the fifth or sixth time I've done the race, and it was definitely the best.  The stage race format was back for the first time in a while.  Friday night was the usual Night TimeTrial, Saturday was the main event, the 8 hour two or three person relay and solo race, Sunday was the solo short track and team off-road madison.  It was a fairly amazing weekend.  I of course raced solo; solo NTT, 8 hr solo, and solo STXC.

The NTT was, as always, fun.  I don't think I've ridden at night since about March, so it took me probably 15 minutes to "remember" how to do it.  But the race was over in 19:30, so that didn't amount to much.  I finished in  10th, about 2 minutes behind the leaders time.  I can live with that.  It was, though, only a warm up for the next day's adventure.

The solo race went really well.  I had a solid race for 8 hours; no cramping even though it was freaking hot out.  Strangely, I kept getting tired.  Not physically tired (well, that too), but sleepy tired, and I kept loosing concentration.  I had to hit that lovely Espresso Hammer Gel (it's caffeinated) about once an hour, then had to bring out the Coke (the soda...) to keep me going for the last two laps.  My last lap, I hit that point where I was having trouble riding clean, so I hit some more Espresso Hammer Gel, and made it home.  I finished 9 laps in 8:35, an effort good enough for 5th place, and the bottom step on the podium!  Pretty exciting.  Definite props to Hammer Nutrition for making the caffeinated gel.  It's a pretty good thing to have around.

Also powered by apple sauce

And cold water dumps

Rewarded by solid riding

Sunday was equally fun.  A standard short track, started by a very big gun.  Thirty minutes of pure pain, quite a nice change from the previous days fun.  I had another good race, fortunately.  On the second lap I got pooped out of the lead group, which included people lots of fast guys.  I had them in sight until I tried to make an inside pass on a tight corner and took an one of the women out.  It didn't affect anything, and she went on to finish 2nd in the women's race.  I went on and finished 6th in the men's race, so I did pretty well.  I'm really happy about my racing this weekend.  It may be some of the best I've ever done.

Short Track start

Rob went off early and held on for the win

Racing fast is good

Anyway, next up is the Long Pine Classic.  A race you should Register For!!!  Seriously... It's a lot of fun.  See you ALL there!