HoCo double weekend

This past weekend was the Howard County Double Cross weekend. My wonderful sense of purpose got me going late on Saturday morning so I wound up leaving a good 30 minutes late. That coupled with a slow traffic day as the police were out in force and I wound up getting to the race venue 50 minutes later than I was thinking I would. So with only 20 minutes before my race start, I bagged it and upped it to the 123s. This would prove to be a dumb move as I got blown away halfway through the first lap. One thing you absolutely not do is ride 1 day in the previous week and just think you're going to jump into even a smaller regional 123 race. After 4 or 5 laps of that silliness, I bailed and and began the warmdown. I was kind of hoping that I would've hung in longer, but the last couple weeks or work along with coming off from an injury and I just wasn't ready for this kind of effort.

The second day at Rockburn went better for me. I was racing in the Elite masters category which was only a small step down from the previous day. This time, I faired better and was hanging with the group through the first couple laps. I finally wound up running down and was then racing for the back of the group when going down the one trail, there was a group of spectators egging us on to do the log pile. I looked at it as I went past and thought, heck I can do that. There's a $5 prime in it? Sure, I'm game. The next lap, no one else had taken them up on it and using the MTB skills, I pulled up the front wheels and set it up and pedaled right up over the pile. It was a pretty good sized pile and I popped up over it. Well, I wasn't going home empty handed at least and there was a good cheer for me. I guess if you're not doing something well, at least be colorful about it. I finished up and didn't even get lapped so it was an ok day, all things considered. Taneytown is next week so maybe I can get rested more as well as some riding in to get me ready. After that, it's off to Reston. If nothing else, I'd like to grab the hole shot again which is something I've done there twice from the 3rd and 4th rows. It'd be cool to do it again.