MBAA McDowell Meltdown
January 18, 2014
Scott Thomas
Unlike last week this race was very simple and not a lot of prep work to load gear and planning for fueling. Got up Saturday morning unlike last week kind of slept in till about 7am then grabbed my bike and headed to Fountain Hills, AZ, which is where McDowell Mtn Park is. I was surprised by the amount of people there with campers. This was a short sprint race.
I knew my start time was 10:32am, so getting there at 8:30ish gave me lots of time. I checked in and grabbed my bib. Ran into a few guys I knew that came down from Prescott to race. Then made it back to the car (1/2 mile away) to slowly start getting ready. Time slowly pasted and finally I just got bored and headed over to the start line.
10:32am (well 10:25am) racers started staging in our age categories and getting ready. Whistle blows and we are off. I am extremely familiar with this course as it is the course for the 24 Hours of Fury that I have done a few times. Things were tight heading out and everyone finding their position.
I felt really good and thought I could make up some ground on people as the course went on. There is a part of this course I hate and I think I hate it more now that I don't have a full suspension, but the South Ridge is a nasty rocky area. Well I lost even more ground on that stretch.
Finishing my big loop I pushed on and a little faster and harder into the last 3 miles. The last bit was the fun part of the course. Some short rollers with a little switch backs. Finished and really didn't see my time. I was a bit discouraged. I felt the first half of the race to wasn't pushing hard enough to get good positioning and knew I had people pass me.
Hung out for a bit at the race and watch a friend's daughter finish her first mountain bike race. Then packed up and heading in. Stopped in Fountain Hills for some food to refuel a little and thought I would just check and see how bad I really did do.
15th. Wow. I figured I would be a lot further down in the pack than that. I looked at my lap splits and saw that my first big loop was around 52-53 minutes. That's faster than I have ever done it before. Went and looked at the times a little more yesterday (Sunday) and the times and rankings updated and I took 14th.
Big thanks to: Poc (helmet, gloves), Crank Brothers (pedals, wheels), GU Energy (Roctane brew, Roctane GU, Chomps), Serfas (Shoes, eyewear, shorts, saddle, saddle bag, mini tool), Stan's NoTubes (sealant), Polar Bottle (water bottles), Geigerrig (hydration pack).
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