What in blue blazes?!
Another phrase you don't hear very often. And I didn't this weekend either. But what made me think of it was what they told us during the racer's meeting before hand: Follow the blue blaze markers and you'll have no problem staying on route. They also told us not to pay any attention to those other blue blazes. You know, the ones the loggers use to mark trees to be cut. Yeah. Ok...
Oh, and "there is water on the course". Both to drink and to ride through, apparently. I don't know why I race with my camelbak. Security I guess. That and safety (I keep one of those Mylar space blankets in there along with my "first aid" kit -- what's that? You broke your leg? Well I have some band aids and an antiseptic wipe here. Will that help?).
Undaunted by reports of the rain-soaked course, I patiently waited for the call for cat-3'ers to line up. And when the call came, I immediately executed the plan-of-the-day: easy rider mode. That's right -- aiming to avoid an early blow-out similar to last year's race, I was gonna take it easy and keep my motor running steady for all three laps. I love it when a plan comes together.
Sadly, it didn't. Planning some things well and others poorly is sufficient cause to cancel out all those good intentions. Ask any pilot.
So what happened? Low air pressure. Double pinch flat on the first major downhill. No serviceable spare. Four (count them: four!) holes to seal or I would be walking the last 2.5 miles of my first lap. I got it fixed. Which is to say, I got it to where it leaked slowly enough so that I didn't have to walk back. Yay.
Baby What?
But was that it? Not exactly. There were still Baby Heads to crush yet. I put that in capital letters so that people don't think I'm into infanticide.
These are not real baby heads, but rather Gila Baby Heads. And yes, I had to have someone explain that to me. Am I really a mountain biker at all if I don't know this? They are, apparently, the semi-large rocks that one tends to try to avoid when going uphill and especially when one is going downhill. Hence the subtitle of this year's race.
Fun for riders and the kiddies alike, as racers were invited to crush some Baby Heads when coming round to the start/finish line. Yay, right? Aw, come on now -- it's all in good fun. And the level of realism was way up there too! I leave you with this... This event is a classic and I'm looking forward to next year already.
