Carter's L-ache

Yes indeed. My legs did ache at Carter's Lake.

Jake and I went up Saturday morning to prepare our campsite and get in a preride. We knew preriding a place like CL the day before the event was a bad decision for the legs. But we wanted to be familiar enough with the trail to know when to let go of the brakes on the downhills, so we rode anyway. Despite our attempts to take it slow and granny the whole trail, it's difficult not to over-exert yourself on some of those climbs.

The camping was great. The weather was in the 80s and we put up the tent sans rain fly to stay cool at night. It dipped into the low 60s so I was glad I brought a thick blanket just in case! We were up bright and early at 7 a.m. to gather our belongings and drive to the other side of the lake for the race.

The race start was heinous. It was a torture-fest for sure. About 1/4 mile straight UP a road. And when I say UP, think Brasstown. Yeah. Then drop into the trail for a nasty long downhill, which was VERY sketchy!! The rest of the trail continued in similar fashion, up down, up down, up down, repeat. I'm not sure it was actually flat anywhere.

So the legs were hurting from the get-go and I resigned myself to just finishing the race strong and not killing myself trying. That was until I met up with an expert rider on previously mentioned scary downhill (which we rode through at the end of each lap). So as not to be accused of slander, I'm only going to refer to him as 352 -- not that it was his race number or anything ... and not that if you want to know who it was you can look up the Carter's Lake event at goneriding.com

... So 352 comes up behind me hollering for me to get out of his way, that he's an expert rider and needs to pass. Now, I'm familiar with this situation, as I often get passed by the top end of the experts. And every time, I do all that I can to quickly get out of their way. But on this particular downhill, going anywhere but straight down the line down the hill was out of the question. So I told him I couldn't move and he'd have to wait. He insisted quite loud and angrily that I needed to move out of his way. Let me explain, you can't stop on this downhill, and you can't pull over off the trail. It's that steep and sketchy. So I told him again I couldn't move. He proceeded to tell me that "oh well, he'd just have to force his way around me." And that's what he did. And it scared me so bad that by the time I got to the bottom of the hill. I was having a full-blown asthma attack. I was off the bike for 10 minutes trying to regain my breathing. I managed to get back on the bike with the support of a female beginner racer who happened to be at the bottom of the hill spectating. I managed to pedal out the last lap, very slowly, and with rapid and irregular breathing -- all because he couldn't wait the 30 seconds it would take to reach the bottom of the hill.

When I finished, I immediately approached the promoter about 352's actions. They called him over and our verbal confrontation led to another asthma attack. To say I was "worked up" was putting it lightly. He defended his right to pass and made a reluctant and forced apology that wasn't in the least sincere. The announcer defended him saying 352 was a nice guy and had been racing a long time. Well, I've been racing 4 years and have never had another rider treat me that way on the trail. So shame on him!

The good news is, karma always wins out in the end. Come to find out, not long after his "ill-timed pass," as the promotor put it, he broke his rear derailleur and had to DNF. Guess you reap what you sow.

I finished 5 out of 7 and was SO glad to see Jake waiting on me at the finish line! It was a tough race, but I'm glad I didn't let my slow legs and a rude racer get me down.

Nolite te bastardes carborundorum!

On a final note, for my day job I'm a newspaper editor. I occassionaly write. I did a column that printed Sunday about camping in the summer time. To read it, go to http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/living/14980338.htm