Maine Sport Run Off Part 2 

so much for technology.  Yesterday, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to put up part two so I ATTEMPTED to do a quick post from the new to me blogger app.  after much furious front of phone stabbing, I had a quick post that I tried to upload.  Unfortunately, I got the spiraling "working on it" symbol and that is all.  Trust me when I say it was some of my best work. You'll have to take my word for it.

Ok, so back at it.  So now I find myself in the part of the course where I feel like I can rip.  I'm good at semi fast, technical stuff, I'm not so good at super fast, downhill technical stuff so I was very happy to get into the backcountry portion of the course.  Sections of the course are very much like my home trails so I literally railed those bastards as I kept a very fearful ear out for Alby and unidentified expert #1 creeping up my rear.  I was so intent on riding fast and sceered that I allowed my front wheel to drop off the edge of a 10" bridge doing a nice endo into the ditch.  A quick assessment said the bike was fine as was the body except for a throbbing shin but my shins typically throb with awesome so I was able to ignore it.

I finished up lap one in just over an hour (better than I expected) and feeling surprising good but still fearful of what was to come.  I grabbed my second bottle from Marcy which would mean that I have three bottles for a 3-ish hour race.  Would this lead to drama?  Who knows.

The cool thing about the Camden course is that you lap through at the base lodge and there is always a good crowd gathered so I made an impressive showing hauling through the grassy slight uphill and then literally threw out the anchor as soon as I got around the corner and out of sight.  

Thankfully, the rest of the laps were shortened so that you didn't have to do the full climb which I was much appreciative of even though the shortened climb was still a solid 7-8 minutes.  As I started lap two, I saw Mr. ADD Alby just ahead on the climb maybe 10 seconds ahead.  I cheered out loud about catching him and he gave me some lame excuse about having a slow leak and having to stop or something.  Whatever, I wasn't listening, instead I was plotting how I was going to dispose of his body after I KILLED him on the climb.

Sadly, my legs didn't agree with my brain and Alby was able to hold his advantage during the climb and then literally blasted away on the first fast technical descent.  I thought for sure that was the last I'd see of him so I licked my wounds and soldiered on.

When I finally entered the backcountry, I caught up to Alby once again as he was having trouble with line choices (and a sore back) so this time I took my opportunity, passed him with more conviction than my body would have preferred on a quick uphill and then ran like hell.

Lap 2 finished up with another very impressive run past the lodge and then a squealing of brakes as I rounded the corner for yet another climb.  Lap three was mostly uneventful other than catching a bunch of sport riders while keeping a mindful ear out for anybody catching me which they thankfully didn't do.

I finished lap 3 of 4 at 2:38, just 7 minutes shy of the mercy time of 2:45 (because of the length of the race they decided to shorten the end of the race so nobody was out there much more than 3 hours).  I didn't know when or where I'd get pulled from the course but I knew it was coming and I hoped it was soon.  Very soon.  I waited, nay, prayed for a course marshal around every corner because I was feeling like a bag of smashed assholes and finally got my wish mid lap when I got to peel off and do the final downhill to the finish.  I crossed the line at 2:58 in 6th place in the elite field.  Andrew Freye would finish about 12 minutes later to take the victory.