HPCX

The rule for this season is no races more than an hour away from home. Charm City is one of my favorites and it was tugging at my heartstrings last weekend. I resisted the urge to travel to Baltimore. It was the right decision for both personal and financial reasons.

HPCX was new for me last year. I remember that it was brutally cold and that there was no place nearby to get coffee. 

I arrived at Thompson Park a little before 8AM and proceeded to double flat on the pre-ride. My initial instinct was to pack up and go home. After some persuasion, I headed over to the Stan’s No Tubes tent for support. The mechanic was able to seal my front tire, but couldn’t guarantee that the rear tire would hold. No pre-ride, no warm up, sealant oozing out of my back tire and my race goes off in thirty minutes. 

My pit bike is a peanut butter sandwich...let’s eat...then let’s spend $100 on new tires at the bike shop!

I can’t say that I was thrilled when the alarm went off at 6am on Sunday morning. It was dark and cold, like frost on the windshield cold. This time, I pulled out all the stops...a road bike, trainer (what?? who warms up?) and two CX bikes made the journey with me. I cannot believe how much shit one person needs for a 40 minute bike race.

The course on Sunday was new this year and it included two sand pits. I watched people ride, but I also saw some epic failures. Running would be the fastest way for me to get through this section. I committed to the run, even though most people around me would be attempting to ride.

I had a decent start and settled in somewhere around 4th or 5th. There was nowhere to recover on this course. If it wasn’t the sand it was a climb or a run up. It wore me down, but it felt good. I hung in there and battled it out for a third place finish, which was a nice turn around from the double flat on day one.