First mountain bike race

Bethany and Silas supported me during my first mountain bike race. It was the Fat Tire Challenge outside of Sigel, PA. The sport category was 14 1/2 miles of single and double track trails in the wonderful forests of northwestern Pennsylvania. There were some nice technical sections and lots of mud. I survived my first flight over the handlebars after solidly planting my front wheel in hole dropping down from a large boulder. There was a long (reputedly 2 mile) climb in the middle that didn't turn out so bad, but the mile-long climb near the end was pretting grueling.

My goal was to finish within 2 hours, because I had no idea of what to expect. I missed it by 10 minutes (2:10 total). I'm ok with that. I didn't get hurt (which was my highest priority goal) and did lose 3+ of those minutes due to thowing my chain off the small chainring and wedging it good between it and the frame. I was almost to the point of giving up on fixing it and running the bike the rest of the way to the finish.

I think if they'd have normalized the field by either inverse cost of the bike or bike mass, I'd have been in the running for a medal. My bike was probably $400 new and cost me $150 used. The guy I was talking to setting up next to our car was riding a frame that cost $1,800. That's without the components and wheels and whatnot. Granted, he was good enough for that to make a difference. He placed 2nd in the expert class single-speed division.

Silas checked my gear over for me.

Setting up the group start. The expert riders were already 20 minutes into their race.

Transition to a jeep road about 7 miles into the race.

Beautiful part of the world to be riding!

Survived with a smile.

Final gear check by coach.