Bipolar at Steilacoom

Good people watching at cross races

 The course for the 2015 MFG #2 cross race at Fort Steilacoom was, in a word, bipolar.  Big sweeping turns on groomed grass led to a field-separating uphill, which yielded a long snakey (is that a word) downhill.  So much for the manic, now onto the depression.  The dark half of the course was through a pair of insanely rutted, thickly-grassed fields.  Imagine those cattle guards that ranchers put at the end of service roads, now imagine two hundred yards of that, now imagine doing it five or six times.  Soul-crushing.

Dave S in the 55+ Race

Due to the fact that Terry B didn’t seem to know that Specialized makes shoes (an insider joke), and since I’m a born rule follower I ended up last row at the start.  Fifty racers started Masters Cat 3 45+ field and despite some serious effort I was only able to move up about six places during the initial paved sprint.

We Fraternize

The first time up the hill I managed to move around a half dozen other riders, one guy was pretty angry about me passing him in the tall dry grass.  I’m not really sure why, he was on the nice gravel path, I was out in the rough.  He yelled “Really man!  Really.”  Hey if you’re talking you ain’t racing.

Chris M. and I had a nice slug fest going on for a while, but that all ended when on the third lap I was pushed into a tree on a little narrow single-track section and conked my head.  Some dude tried to pass me and smashed into me from the back, which sent me headfirst into this sturdy tree.  The timing chip on my helmet was knocked off, so I picked it up and put it in my jersey pocket, gathered up my wits and set off to finish the race.  I had no fight left in the old fight tank.  I finished but that was about it.

Back at the tent I took off my helmet and realized that one side was smashed in.  My shoulder hurt more than my head, but Mike M. escorted me over to the medical tent where all of my marbles were pronounced in place.

Broke it good

My apologies to Rodney and Erik who were out racing the Masters 1/2 race when I broke down the tent (hey where’d that tent go).  The half rack of Rainier is now in my son’s fridge, I’ll bring what’s left to Arlington.  Thanks be to Dennis, Paul, Dave and Mike for helping me to break down the tent and carry all of my crap back to my car.

Check out a few more photos of the action at: https://greenliteheavyindustries.smugmug.com/2015-MFG-2-Fort-Steilacoom/