Blog

Another Carrabassett race is in the books. This one was particularly nasty. The day or so before the race saw over 2” of rain in the area, and the night before the race added a few hours of light rain. While most of the trails were in great shape, there were numerous mud holes, including a section of downhill that was essentially a river of mud with a variety of rocks and ruts thrown in for good measure. Overall, the course pretty much threw every type of trail and terrain at you. The folks who won are all great mountain bikers and incredibly fit.

My race went quite well. I was out there for 3:39:40, which is longer than any of the two other times I did this race. There was 3,320 feet of climbing in a single loop of 32.3 miles. My average heart rate was 146 bpm. While this is lower than my average race HR, most races are around 2 hours and I can push harder in those. I wound up 10th out of 60 finishers in the age 50+ category. I’m pretty happy with that, considering most who beat me were in their 50’s. I did have a slow leak in my rear wheel with about 8 miles to go, so I lost about 2 minutes pumping it up. I don’t think it made any difference as 9th place was about 4 minutes ahead of me. Just for fun, my time would have put me in 6th out of 54 finishers in the 30 to 49 age group. The older group I’m in is just so fast. Glad to have this race behind me now. I’m not sure what my next event is going to be, but I’m going to carry this fitness for a while and see what looks like fun going forward. Thanks to everyone who put this race on, the support from Bikeman.com, and the encouragement and love from my wonderful wife, Barbara :)