Trail friends and a rubber ducky…??

Last night I raced the 2 Wheels 4 Hope McDowell Nighttime Time Trial. I love this race it’s put on for a great cause and by great people.

I won this race last year and it started off a 4 race winning streak. With the US Nationals and Western State P&F Games coming up, I was hoping to repeat performance.

Unfortunately it was not to be. You see for those of you who live back East you don’t get the fine pleasure of negotiating 2 of the trail obstacles that we do here in the desert. I’m speaking of our friends…Mr. Rattlesnake and Mr. Cactus.

We start the TT in 20 sec intervals and when it was my turn I blasted out of the start box and in a matter of seconds I was on the single track with nothing but a light and instincts to lead the way. Unfortunately we did not have a trail marshal to stop all trail traffic, and as I was still in mid sprint I noticed a rather large rattlesnake smack dab in the middle of the trail. I opted to swerve around him rather than to use him as a speed bump. Wrong idea!!! As I swerved around him I got my tire to the outside of the trail and into the loose sand. My front tire began to wash. As I was careening out of control I noticed I was headed toward our other trail obstacle…YES, Mr. Cactus. I ended up flipping over the bars and landed on my back in a cactus…(after you’re done wiping the tears of laughter at my expense, read on because it gets worse!!)

I quickly rummaged my bike out of the cactus and all I could think of was… where is Mr. Snake? And is he on his way to use me as a evening snack? I knew was I was not going to wait around to find out. I jumped back onto my bike and started to go just as I heard the next rider leaving the start house (is it bad to say I was hoping that Mr. Snake was still hungry?). Once I was back on course I could only imagine I must look like that freaky dude from Hell Raiser because I could feel the cactus needles protruding from my entire body.

I persevered though!! I continued to race. The problem was I had a large cluster of cactus on my left hand which was interfering with me using my brakes. I had no choice but to try and pull it out with my teeth….BAD IDEA. Now I do look like the freaky dude from Hell Raiser because I ended up with cactus on my face and in my mouth. Try to drink from your water bottle with cactus needles on your tongue, NOT FUN.

In the end I was able continue with the race. As I crossed the finish line, I headed straight to the aid station for assistance with my “little problem.” After I got myself cleaned up I worked my way over to check out the race results. Remember in my last post when I talked about what ifs and maybes? Well, I missed out on 1st by…30 seconds!!!!!!!

As a friend of mine always says, “If you’re on wood, it’s all good”. Plus at least I had a new friend to share my bath time with…Rubber Ducky you’re the one!!!!