Ramsey's Revenge

I registered for this race a while ago because I had heard that Brandywine was a beginner friendly park. Then, I realized that the race was on the same day as my team's sponsored road race, Tour de Pitman. This meant I'd be up very early to work race registration before heading over to Wilmington for my 12:30pm start, right around the time I'd be wanting to take a nap.

I arrived at Ramsey's Farm while the first race was still in progress. I talked to friends and got some feedback on the course...logs, streams, rocks, roots and my favorite "bomb down" a hill...I can go up all day, but when it comes to going down I'm probably faster walking.

I checked out the prologue section, selected a gear for the start and chatted with a couple friends who were in my field. The horn sounded and we were off, some of us (the winner) faster than others (myself). I settled into a nice pace on the first uphill section, in second place with the leader in sight...then things got "technical" (at least for me they did) and I found myself off the bike (at logs and stream crossings) more than I was on the bike. On the climbs and flat open sections I would make up ground only to lose it on the down hill and technical sections.

The battle for second place lasted the entire race, but I was able to pull away on the the final climb. I might not be that lucky next time. It's definitely time to start working on technical skills!