Beezley Burn, Ephrata, WA

Solomon Woras

Well, first real race of the Mt. Bike Season in the books. It always feels
good to get it out of the way without any serious mishaps, unlike Joe
(Hopefully he writes up an account of his very strange pre-race crash).

There is no such thing as a completely mishap -free fist Mt. Bike race of
the season though, and as it happens one minor mishap can lead to a chain
reaction of larger problems. Case in point:

Having a water bottle bounce out in the first 500m is not a huge problem
unless it is the only one you have. This is also not a big deal when you
have a teammate willing to hand you up a bottle, unless you don't realize
the bottle is gone until after passing your opportunity for a replacement.
18 miles of a 27 mile race with no water is no problem if you happen to be a
camel.... which I am not.  If you, like me, are not a camel then you may
experience some of the following symptoms.

1.     Dry dusty mouth

2.     A slight sense of panic

3.     An overwhelming compulsion to stop on a descent and walk back on the
trail to pick op someone else's discarded bottle full of strange hot orange
liquid.

4.     Cramps in one's back, hamstrings, calves, and feet.

5.     The inability to pedal up steep hill, resulting from cramps.

6.     The inability to walk up steep hill because of cramps. Resulting in
the activity of beating on one's muscles with one's fists, while in fetal
position on side of trail.

Lucky for me 75% of the symptoms above happened with only a couple miles
left in the race so I was able get across the finish line before any one
could see me in my embarrassing state. I guess that is what you call getting
the kinks out.