Polar opposite.....

.....from last weekends race conditions. Remember last week? Temps. in the 80's, dry,fast, felt pretty good. Yesterday was NOT like that at all.
I had heard conditions were a little bit muddy, but that was an understatement. We were greeted to cloudy, damp skies that let loose of some drops as we were warming up. This continued the rest of the day.
The start was good, almost got the hole shot as Travis(Ethos racing) and I elbowed our way into the single track....laughing as we did it. sat in second for a while, but as we got to the steep climbs I was forced to run as the guys with the shifty bits geared down and spun up them seated.....giving them better traction in the slimy conditions. Needless to say I dropped a bit as each lap(of 4) I took a good fall that made me become a bit too cautious to make up any ground......like lap 1 on the off-camber slick rock, lap 2 same type of digger, just different place on the course. Lap 3, downhill rut washed out the front wheel as I went a few feet off into the bushes, and lap 4(thankfully) a little too squirly close to a tree that wouldn't give up its spot next to the trail.
All this carnage, coupled with mud that weighted down my One9 from a 20lb race machine to what felt like a 30lb tank with a single option of gears, you would think the worst.....but I actually held it together ok and settled for 2nd Cat1 40-49 and 7th OA. Sure I could have moved up a couple spots, but for all that yesterday was(or wasn't) I'll take what I can get.
Today I'm feeling every unexpected dismount as my back is killing me,left elbow swollen(tree), right knee bruised and swollen(slick rock), and foot stone bruised from all the crap that gets in your shoes from conditions like we had....... Looks like this week will be an easy one so I can rest up and be ready again for racing this coming Sunday.