Friday, March 16, 2012

Mellow Johnnies Classic

So I came down to Texas to do a bike race and even though at first I was skeptical of the whole idea of traveling that far for a race, in the end it was worth it. The race was this Sunday and Zach and I drove 26 hours south down from Pennsylvania to Texas to take part in Mellow Johnny’s Classic MTB race just outside of Dripping Springs Texas. You may ask why the hell drive all the way down to Texas for a bike race? Well the bike race was an excuse to come down here and gave us a destination, and once we leave he we will continue to travel the gulf coast and slowly take a week to work back up to good ol’ Pennysltucky and see places I have never seen and visit places I would never normally go too so Win-Win!

Yesterday Zach and I got pre-ride the course and check it out, and it was an awesome
course! I have only ridden mountain bike on the east coast and as much as I love it, it was good to see some new type of terrain and trails types. On the east coast on the Appalachian mountain range I am use to mud and big old rock and technical trails. Down here it was fast flowy and a different kind of rocky and technical…..and I LOVED IT!! I has such a blast flying through the trails that I was really looking forward to racing the next day.

So Sunday morning after getting woken up from sleeping in the car by the local police
department (just making sure we weren’t wanted for anything) we headed over to the Flat Creek Ranch to go race our bikes. My race went off at 8:45am and though I complained about the start time in the end it was a good thing because it was a good temperature for our race and by the time the Cat 1 racers went later in the day it was starting to get a little warm (at least for our more northern blood for this early in the year). So the race went off well and they group started FAST!! The other racers took off from the start line and hammered into the course as I did my best to keep up. We finally got into the main course and I started to pick off other racers but really didn’t think that I was doing all that well overall. I felt like I was flying through the course and praying I didn’t flat while going through the rocks. But in the end my KHS XC Team bike did a fantastic job on the trails and didn’t skip a beat. I kept a nice smooth and steady pace and was loving every minute of the course and the trails and finally finished the race without any idea of how I actually did. I finished thinking I was mid to back of the pack and when the results went up I was pleasantly surprised to have been 4th place! I would have been
just as content finishing last with as much fun as I had racing and was even more happy to be 4th and walking away with an award and some prizes!

So thank you Texas and Mellow Johnny’s for having such a great race. Now I am going
to sit here for a little longer and drink my beer and finish my alligator, wild boar, and venison pizza and think about bike racing. I hope this is a start to a good year!!!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment