The rain was my fault

Yeah, and I am proud of it!! So all week the forecast has been for rain, I was getting cocky and would leave ever window open in the car just because I knew they were wrong. On the way to the race we were talking about this and Cory was said that if the rain gods took out their revenge this weekend that was why. Guess I must have must have said the wrong thing to the right person, because it RAINED!!!
I really like this course they have a nice mix of climbing, single track, open fields, and downhill. This year they switched things up a little and during the preride I totally fell in love. Saturday night it rained on and off, hard for a while then nothing. We got up and the rain had only settled the dust and was going to make for FAST racing. At registration I found out they were having a hill climb for $5. Turns out they were giving out $200 for male and female!! I planned on doing that during Cathy's race.
So Cathy took off in the same form as the other races this year. Off the gun she got the jump and checked out. She was riding really smooth through the single track, I think the night riding has helped with that. While she was out on a near perfect condition course I tried my hand at the hillclimb. I posted the high mark on my first try, after getting stuck in a rut just off the course. I cheered for Cathy has she was coming through on her second lap, and wanted to beat her up the hill. On my second try up the hill, I found a better line and despite only having a 2x9 set up I was the first person to get over the top of the hill! There were several other racers that tried the hill but MacIej Nowak was the only other one to make it. I waited for Cathy at the top then headed down to watch her finish. She held off the competition and wrapped up the points race! That is going to make the awards ceremony a lot of fun!! After she had cooled off a little I talked her into trying the hill climb. She really wanted to, just didn't know it. When we got there and there it had started raining and there was only one other girl giving it a try. On Cathy's second try, in torrential rain and lightening she posted the high mark beating expert rider Holly Liske! When your hot your hot!
Cory and I decided that the rain wasn't going to stop and that we needed to switch to the mud tires. This was my first time on these tires and they worked so good, I am going to do a product review in the next couple days. I got a good position on the line, we started downhill into a left hand mud hole. My tires just hooked up and I shot to the inside passing about 15 people. I was running in the top 10 and feeling really comfortable. I got settled in with TJ and Carlos Haeckel, they were faster on the big climb but I was able to catch and pass them on the single track and down hills. Right from the start the bike was solid mud. It was handling everything pretty good, considering. But by the 4th lap the mud was starting to run it's course. I was getting bad chain suck, my shifters had locked from mud in the cables, my brakes were shot, the mud was weighting the bike down and the suspension was bottomed most of the time...but the tires worked incredible!!! Half way through the final lap I fell apart, my legs were shot I was getting sloppy and just wanted to be done. I can't thank Cathy enough for all her work. She seen me struggling and told me that I was almost done, I didn't realize how close I was and kept pushing. If it wasn't for her to have been in the right place I wouldn't have finished.
When the race finally ended the next task was to clean the bikes. There was a 10 mile line waiting for 1 hose, but why use a hose when you have a LAKE!! Everyone was having fun cleaning the bikes and playing in the water.

This might be our last WORS race of the year so it was really good that we finished on a good note. We walked away with money from the hillclimb and Cathy is already excited about moving up next year. What class is she going to run? I guess we will have to wait and see, lets just say sport might not be enough of a challenge!