Stottlemeyer 30

This weekend I went with Roy to race the Stottlemeyer 30 miles Mountain Bike race in Pouslbo, WA.  It's been a while since I have done a mountain bike race and I was sold with the lure of single tracks and a short drive from home.  The drive was not too bad but we had to take a ferry which added some times.  We decided to stay in a hotel the night before, that was the best decision we ever made!  It had been raining all night so you can imagine the kind of riding conditions that would be awaiting us.  Mud and more mud.  This race had a big field, around 270 for the 30 miler and another 100 or so for the 60 miler.  The 60 miler were sent off 30 minutes prior to our start.  I decided to seed myself upfront, knowing that if there were faster riders they would pass me before the single track begins but it would save me to have to fight slower riders.  The gun went off and for first little while, I was hanging on to a pace line of about eight guys making our way you the single track.  They slowly made their way and I stayed with about three guys, trying to navigate the muddy course, blind as I had never ridden this course.  I can tell you this, on a drys day, this would be a fast course.  In the mud it's a bit of a different story.  It was so muddy that during some section I would have to slow down my cadence dramatically or my wheel would just keep turning without being able to move forward.  The dry section were fast.  The race course was two loops so you can imagine by the second loop how much more churned up the course was.  I was quite happy to cross the finish line in 16th overall, good for 6 in my age group.  The times were 20 minutes slower than last year which is considerable in mountain bike racing.  This was a fun race and very well put together.  Plenty of stuff at the aid station to choose from and great spread at the end of the race.  I really recommend to add this race on you calendar next year, Roy and I sure will.  Now it's time to focus on the Grand Rapid 70.3, US national qualifier on June 6.  Than I hope to make my way to Victoria for Xterra Victoria.  I was also lucky to be selected to race for Canada for the ITU world championship in Zittau Germany and I am hoping toy link that with Xterra Czech the week before.  Stay tuned for Gear 2.0 with Steph feedback on her fitbit flex.  Happy Trail!

Carpe Diem