Running Scared

So today I raced the Baie Saint Paul Canada Cup. It was a real mud race - I'd actually call it a running race.

I had first call up again which was kind of cool, and then hung out in the rain for a while until the gun went off. I had a good start and got into the singletrack 1st, with Marty Lazarski on my wheel. It was technical muddy rocky singletrack right off the bat, and we were able to ride it and everyone else ran it so we got a gap immediately. Marty and I pushed pretty hard right then and got a 10 sec gap. Marty led for a bit and then I passed him back halfway up the singletrack climb. By the top I had at least 5sec on Marty, and rode the descent fairly well and came through the lap with about a 20sec lead.

On the second lap it was getting harder to ride - all the 350 or so riders on the race course were just churning the mud into pig slop, in some places it was 6inch deep peanut butter thickness mud, and in other areas it was thin soupy mud that was hub deep. As the race went on the course got more and more destroyed and it got slower. I was being stubborn and riding as much as possible but I was actually just spinning a lot. There was a lot of trail where I would grab the trees on either side of the trail and pull myself forward.

Catherine running through some sloppy mud.

So eventually when I heard the split times and the chasers were getting closer I knew I had to pick it up. So for lap 3-4-5 I ended up running a ridiculous amount. Now anyone who knows me knows I don't like running, but I had to get'er done and just ran. I was able to stay out front for the whole race and hold on for the win.

Very excited about it and now it is 2 for 2. Catherine wore out her brake pads pretty early on and didn't have the best race to finish 3rd - still a respectable result though.

My mom and I at the end- muddy and happy.

Last weekend I raced Tremblant - it was a great race as well. I had a good start and entered the single 2nd wheel. There was a big group of us and we rode together for the first lap and then Kris Sneddon took the lead and I hopped on his wheel, and Cam joined us. I had good climbing legs and got into the singletrack first and with my Xprezo Sub 5 full suspension I was able to open up a good gap on the downhill. I soft pedaled the pavement at the bottom though, as I didn't want to work too hard yet, and then attacked when I got into the singletrack and on the final climb I was able to open up my gap and then open it up even more on the downhill. This time I pedaled really hard across the open road section and held my gap and grew it until the finish - coming in for the win!

So what was really cool about this race is that Catherine also won, so that meant we were both the Canada Cup leaders, so we got up on the podium together with our red leaders jerseys. At this point Ricky yelled KISS, we want a KISS so Catherine obliged and gave me a quick one right on the podium!