Cross Crusade #2 – Rainier
Oh boy. This race was fun? Yes. Right? Yes.
Each category experienced a significantly different consistency of mud. The guys in the morning slipped, slid, and splashed through classic wet rain mud. Then the rain stopped and things started to change. The mud got thicker, more peanutbuttery, and in some ways better, and in many ways worse. It’s all about perspective. At the end of the day, things were drying up, meaning the entire course was still mud, just really really thick and slow. More of a chunky peanutbutter molasses honey combo.
Everyone raced hard, and the course won most of the battles. There were crashes, climbs, mud, climbs, mud, mud, mud and climbs with some more crashes. Nathan and Sterry kicked off the day with solid mudslinging and root hoppin’, and Dave S. continued on his warpath to a 22nd place finish.
Next up, Jimmy and Chris raced against 150 Master C fellows and they both did quite well, making Jimmy a strong candidate for GSR’s ride o’ the day award with his 18th place finish. They both crushed a lot of dudes, and Chris even crushed his own groin. Take that, stupid muscle!
The course then started in to get thick and meaty when the Men’s B & Single Speed race began. Dave and John grinded like bash brothers up the hills and slogged through the mud with the best of them. Dave definitely had the socks of the day, and John had the prettiest (green) hubs to match his uniform. Oooh la la. Christian smiled the entire race as he slid around course to a solid finish, although his shoulder might not agree, as it doubled as a crash landing pad. See photo below.
The ladies shot out of the start chute, rounded up the hill past the snazzy new team tent, and did very well. Definitely GSR’s most successful races of the day. Hannah and Jill both finished at the front of the Women’s B race; Jill (the other GSR’s ride o’ the day award candidate) finished 10th, and Hannah finished 16th. In the womens’s Beginners race, Diana and Krissy showed their stuff, and climbed the hills with gusto and verve. Krissy finished 22nd, while Diana was right behind her strongest ride to date (she must be part sherpa) and she climbed to 31st.
The day ended with a new extended (mud climbing) section of the course for Nat in the Men’s A race. He rode a consistent race, climbed the hills well and stayed up on his bike the entire time.
It was a sticky mess, and everyone survived. Fun? Definitely.
I would like to add that I crashed a solid 3 times during my race and beat my arch nemesis Lance Nelson. (He’s not evil at all but I wanted a nemesis.)
Good work team!
If you really want to know who your nemesis is, check this out: http://www.crossresults.com/?n=racers&sn=r&rID=44957
That’s awesome…
Oh well that works too.
Let us not forget, Jill restored an innocent child from the brink of disaster, providing him with critical fluids from her own camel-back, after his croaking plea, mid-lap of the kiddie cross race. Heroic.
Jill’s pretty much my hero… After Sterry.
Jill is my mentor, Sterry is my hero, and the Juleek method is my religion.
you also forgot to mention that during the race I drove a stake through the heart of my evil vampire bike. it will now stop biting people. whew! instead of calling it the evil maCHine, you can now just refer to it as the hill climbing maCHine or gandolf the white. pow pow!