Gee, a summer of running, riding, and lifting paid off. I did not actually win this race, but for the first time I was up front and in contention. So what if the guy who beat me was 45 to my 37, and the guy in third was only 15... I have been in similarly small races before (a total of about 30 people) and got my tail whipped. This race ran the same course as the previous Woods Landing race. In the morning was the Fox Park Descent, which in reality was a Fox Park Climb, and then a descent. I figured to take it quite easy to start with as the course starts uphill immediately -- and steeply at that. Well, we got up the real steep pitch and I was in fourth position. I came off the bike twice, and if I hadn't been so excited I probably would have stayed on and managed to hold on to third position the whole way. So, after about a 7 mile climb, we got a 7 mile descent. I actually reeled in the guy just in front of me and passed him just as he blew both tires at once jumping a water-bar on the double track descent. I must say, I was more tuned in on that descent then I have ever been before on a race. It was not like I was so dialed in that I would have contended for a medal at a downhill world cup, but I was as comfortable and as smooth as I figure I'll ever get. So I ended up third for that stage, two minutes behind the winner -- a 45 year-old ski and cycling god from Jackson. Only one minute in front of me was Clayton Barrows, my 15-year old nemesis.
After lunch is the Jelm Mountain hill climb. It is pretty much continuously uphill on an improved dirt road for 6 miles -- and steep at that. The race organizer, Mike Lowham, told us he would put four $5 bills under a rock, one at a time on different sections of the road to add a little spice to the climb (although we were to only pick up one each). Clayton took of at the start like a bat-out-hell -- I figured he was smarter than that, and he was as he had seen Mike put down a bill at the first false-flat in the road. He grabbed the prime, and we settled down to business. Within a mile there were only the three of us who had placed in the top three in the morning stage. I picked up the next $5 prime. At a little over half way up, the "old guy" upped the pace just a bit when the grade relaxed a bit and both Clayton and I fell off. I did my best to keep him in sight and did on the steep stuff. It was kind of interesting to have someone do to me what I usually do to others -- just survive on the really steep stuff, and motor on the less steep. I finished another minute down on him and beat Clayton by two, so I was second overall -- yee haw! I probably shouldn't be so pleased, but that "old-guy" is certainly better now than I'll ever be, and I'll probably never beat Clayton in a race again.