So this year, I was excited, but not sure how I'd fare. I showed up this morning and proceded to do a couple warm up laps to feel out the course. Fast as usual for this event. The course was/is on Mud Island and sits right on the Mississippi riverfront. There was one hill which I was able to ride up, but most people were running it. After that, there was a stair runup, a set of two standard barriers on a short hill, and 3 large river driftwood logs on the main straightaway to cut the speed down a bit.
When I went to register, I started to register CX4 as I had earlier this year. The registration people asked if I'd rather ride in Masters Men 35+? I told them I was not old enough for Masters and they quickly set me straight that I was...... great, I'm officially getting old per USAC. So Masters it was. The other bonus was that prizes went fairly deep in Masters.
Lining up on the start line, I recognized all but one of the Masters racers. We hit the course and I actually got a pretty good start. CX4, all Masters and SS started together as part of the B race. Big crowd, but most of the CX4's pulled away pretty quickly. I continued on and had the lead in Masters for approx half a lap. Then the unknown person pulled ahead followed by a guy who beat me here last year.
After that, I held my position and actually started to pull back a number of the CX4's. My dismounts and runs were really going well and I was flying through the barriers faster than I thought I could. I even rode the steep hill on the last lap that everyone else (mostly) was running.
I ended up 3rd in Masters 35+, and beat all but one of the Masters 45+ guys, as well as maybe 1/4th of the CX4 field. To top all of that, Boomer only lapped me once..... (he lapped me 3 times 3 years ago!!)
Was a really fun race and I look forward to next year.
Next on the calendar is the Lock4 Cross-The-Way race in December. I don't think I can make it to the Jonesboro race the last weekend in November.
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