Great day for a race

We were fortunate to have great weather for Saturday's running and mountain bike race. Blue skies made the chilly temperatures seem a lot warmer that it really was. Overnight lows in the single digits gave way to the high teens by race time.

A lot of time was spent trying to get the course ready to ride on as the foot of snow in the week preceeding the race would have made it mostly a hike-a-bike for much of the 3.2 miles. I was fortunate enough to get the use of a 4-wheeler with a plow and I spent quite a few hours Friday night and Saturday morning plowing the course. By race time I estimated 90% could be ridden on the first lap.

After the runners got through and awards given out it was time to send off the bikes. They course wound it's way up the drive and across the parking lot where you began the first section of snow covered trail. I was not able to clear this section very well so most were forced to dismount and run. Then came the signature feature of this course, down the sledding hill. Many riders chose to get off and run down but some did ride, with varying degrees of success. Check out the youtube video to see what they faced. The runners came UP this hill near the end of their race.

As the race went on the bikes broke down some some of the snow so the course became slower. I had calculated this into the number of laps required and as a result, the races were just about the ideal length for this time of year. Everyone, from runners to riders seemed to have a good time. T-shirts that the school had made up said this was the first annual event so soon it will be time to start planning next year's race. And maybe even one in the summer, this year or next.