Grandmudders and Grandmothers

BTW, did anyone catch sportscenter last night or today? They showed the start of the marathon from here! I was in the front row all the way to the right of the screen in my normal fisher kit with the blue and grey helmet. Pretty cool? How many people can actually say they were on Sportscenter?



Today was the xc event at Snowshoe. I was quite a bit whooped up from the marathon, but I was looking forward to the race. It rained pretty much all morning so the course conditions were going to be horrid. I went and got a new pair of treads from the kenda guys so I would have some better traction. My grams was a huge help today feeding me for the race, she has been having a good time and has been taking care of me. If she didnt come I'd probably be sleeping in a tent and pissed that I was soaked. I have to thank her soo much for helping me out it's huge to have a support system in place. Thanks Grammy!

I was out warming up and stupidly got a 3rd row starting position. I shoulda been in the first or second row, but oh well. I wound up making some spots up on the first technical descent and taking tons of spots on the long nasty descents. I pretty much cleaned all the descents except on the 3rd lap. Right as I was about to transition off the descent I caught a root and did a perfect face plant right into a large mud puddle. Had to be pretty funny for the 2 guys that were watching the section. I got up spitting up mud and water and laughing. I took a ton of spills out there as there was tons of running and loads of mud, I think my bike weighed about 40 lbs by the time I finished. At least nothing broke off this time around :)

The first lap was good wet mud, but the sun came out and started to dry everything out. Making the mud about 6 inches to a foot deep and sticky as peanut butter. I managed to ride a majority of everything and run where necessary. I flowed much better in the singletrack today than yesterday and I still climbed pretty dang good. I pretty much stayed in the same position for most of the race and the 3rd lap I caught 2 riders in front of me, I launched a nice little attack on the riser on the road section, but that freaking hurt pretty bad. I was oh so close to 11th and 12th as I could actually see them coming into the climb by silver creek resort. Where the hell they went I'm not sure as they finished 3 minutes ahead of me and I was busting ass up that climb.

I managed to come in for a nice 13th place position out of 40 riders. I'm pumped about that and looking forward to racing Mt. Snow with some fresh legs to see how I come out. My time was 3:07, first place was 2:43...thats pretty freaking fast!?

It'd be cool to stick around to see the pro mens and womens race but we gotta get back before hand. I guess I'll catch up with the 2 chicks I helped out by putting their bikes together for them later. They had a nice long story about their tragic adventure. Zephanie and Heather, came from Utah and pretty much everything went wrong for them. I hope they do well and will cheer them on in Vermont.