Fun in the Crud

Yesterday was not the US Open Relay in Marysville (Mr. Kuhn does not want to be sued) and it was a blast. Going in I felt like I had a bad week of training, a general lack of power and fitness but, it turns out I'm not too far off of where I want to be.

Let's start at the beginning.

It was a downright windy day with temps in the 40's in the morning. A wee bit chilly. The course was just as I predicted. Singletrack, great. Grass fields, a wreck. Some of these fields were underwater, like 2 or 3 inches of water, and by the end of the day (4 hours and about 70 teams of 4 later) were just a soupy, sludgy mess. If you've ever seen swamp buggy competitions (like mud bogs only in swamps) that's the best I can describe it. Yum! Throw in a few brand new sections and you have yourself a nice little relay course.

Our team was made up of two Bike Line riders (Erick and Todd) and two Milkmen (Steve and I). To start the day I was either still sleeping or maybe Steve and Todd really do look alike but I was calling Todd Steve (seeing as Todd's kid called Steve "dad" at one point last year. Can you say vindication?)

Anyway...Erick was first in our order and lucky him got to do the ever-so-fun running start. He did well and was 7th or so to get to the bike. He's also a pretty fast rider so I knew we would be in good position when his lap was over. Erick set a good pace for our team with a 15 minute lap. Steve was the next to go. Another 15 minute lap. Long story short everyone on the team was pulling 15 minute laps. Each of us riding 4 laps on the course. None of us stuck around to see the final results since the pro's were turning 13.5 to 14.5 minute laps and one team had 8.5 lap handicap. We figured our chances of taking home the coveted Cup were very low.

A blast.