Sunday started out like any other race day. This time I was picking Taylor up at a wonderfully bright and early time, and with bikes on the roof and all of our stuff in the back we hit the highway. Things got a little different though, instead of the usual where we drive further from civilization, this time we found ourselves surrounded by more and more concrete and more and more people. Then we came around a tight little corner on the cross county parkway and saw the sign for our exit right in front of us, hard right onto the ramp. As I pulled the hard right I realized there were actually two signs for the Saw Mill parkway and I'd just taken the wrong exit. No worries, we made a U-turn near the Dunwoodie Golf Course, which Taylor found the name of to be strangely funny. It was just the beginning of odd things to come on this day.
A few minutes later we were on Manhattan Island, at High Bridge Park. Strange place for a mountain bike race, but I think that's why we were there. Taylor partook in the Cat 2 race, and I decided to roll over to the staircase and grab some pictures. From there I decided to continue in the direction of the course. Bad idea. I was still wearing sneakers, heavy shorts, a regular old t-shirt and had a camera on my shoulder. I had worn my helmet though. I ended up in some gnarly, greasy single track that was likely to be difficult to negotiate in race attire let alone what I was wearing. I also climbed the toughest climbs on course, and despite trying to take it easy through all that, I managed to work up a serious flow of sweat in the mid-80° temperatures. Turns out I rode most of the course.
Well onto my race. I'd already sweated out more than my fair share of liquids, so it wasn't long into the race before I realized I wasn't prepared with enough bottles to last me through the race. Luckily I'd warned Taylor that I'd likely need an extra bottle. There were only 2 of us in our age group and I managed to stay on my competitors wheel without difficulty through the climbs of the initial partial lap. I pulled away a little in some of the technical stuff but I figured he might crack with the gear he was trying to pull up the hills so I let him go without too much worry.
I might mention that we started out with this 3/4 partial lap that went straight to the top of the park off the start. It was really a pretty darn good climb. After that we (the Cat 1 field) did 5 full laps of the course. Starting out with some gnarly single track, followed by a long semi paved section into the ride down the staircase. After that was a little bit of grassy stuff, before entering the caverns under a few bridges. Then it was climb, climb, climb up mostly pavement to the top of the park. Greasy rocks, roots and off camber stuff followed in some amazingly awesome single track. My only complaint, the switch backs were the worst bit of hike-a-bike, back to the top of the park and around the baseball fields. From here it was mostly down hill, with a few minor hills just to keep the roller coaster ride going. This was some of the best single track I've ridden, period. The lap ended by popping out on a sidewalk, and though it was taped and barricaded down the middle, and had few warning signs, there was the occasional oblivious pedestrian to avoid.
Back to the race. I had my competitor in my sights through part of the first full lap, but things shortly went dry for me. At 45 minutes in I'd done a 3/4 lap, plus one full lap and I was realizing that my hydration supply was quickly disappearing. At 2 and 3/4 laps I was beginning to get lapped by the pro field. Near the end of 3 and 3/4 laps I saw Taylor and Christina and yelled out, "I NEED WATER!". It would be another lap before Taylor could meet me at the feed zone with water.
2 laps to go and I'd just started my 2nd bottle of fluids. I should have planned on a bottle a lap. Well my breathing had been comprised for a few laps, I could only seem to bring in enough air to fill up half of my lungs. I side effect of the heat and dehydration I'm sure. This kept me from being able to get my heart rater higher, or efficiently provide oxygen to my legs. The result, I had but 1 speed that I could ride at. It wasn't particularly slow, but it certainly wasn't fast.
Somewhere in there, while I was descending a couple of sketchy looking rocks I saw a guy come flying up my ride side on an 'alternate' line. Nothing I was going to tempt riding, and out of the corner of my eye it seemed that he was going waaaaaay too fast. My thoughts were that he came up on me too fast and couldn't make the slight turn for the good line and couldn't stop quick enough. Oh, man, I'm going to have to stop and help this guy, he's just crashing down through the weeds. I got down over the rocks, and followed the trail back to the right, looked up and saw that the guy was not out of control and crashing through the weeds down the embankment. Rather, he'd hucked off one rock into this 'line' then popped back up onto the main trail, catching air, and doing a slight tail whip too. Hmm... I just got schooled. I still shouted at the sheer awesomeness of it.
At just over 2 and a half hours I finished my 5 and 3/4 lap, 21 mile ride. Cooked. My competitor was about 4 minutes ahead. Not really that much considering how long we were riding. Had I been more prepared with water, I might have tipped the balance the other way. An awesome ride either way.
Since there were only two of us, I got the 2nd place prize pack, which included $30. Taylor, Christina and I headed for a pizza joint. We found one, with prime parking, I think it was the only open spot we saw on the way there. Some little shop, near Broadway and 207th. Food!
There are some selected pictures here, taken by Christina, Taylor, and myself.
Another entertaining report on the race, by Gary Fisher 29er Crew rider Thom Parsons can be found here.
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