Pure sweet hell: Moorhead race report

Oh, how quickly we forget. The suffering. The pain. The exhaustion. And then, minutes later, wanting to do it again! Why do we do this to ourselves? My theory: because it feels so damn good when it's over!

Former Cat6er Fil's in-laws have a cabin not too far from Moorhead, so we headed out along with (dis)pencer on Friday afternoon. We watched a disappointing Transition 2 to get us in the spirit, followed by an (expectedly) disappointing Nacho Libre before hitting the sack. Saturday morning we lazed around a bit before heading out the rest of the way to Moorhead. All that was in the cabin was Folgers, so I held out for coffee in Moorhead, and found a little local cafe. I really try to frequent the local shops, but I'm disappointed more often than not: their espresso machine looked like a gas-station 'cappucino' maker. Although it actually dispensed 'real' espresso, and was probably better than if the teenagers working there tried to use a real espresso maker, it just wasn't the same. And people lament and wonder why Starbucks is driving these places out of business. /rant.

We rolled in with time to get registered and take a couple laps around the course before the C race. From the rain the previous two days the course was pretty similar to last year: muddy in the wooded areas (of which there was plenty), which turned into peanut butter as the sunny day warmed up. It was actually muddier than last year and not as sticky, so it didn't bring my bike to a complete halt twice a lap. The Continental Twister Pros and Empella Frogglegs performed flawlessly! Unfortunately the engine wasn't up to snuff, but I'm not expecting much my first few races as a B, so I didn't fret it much and was happy not to be last, keep the rubber side down and avoid mechanicals.

I forgot how sweet the course was. Unlike many of the grassy park tours locally, this one featured plenty of muddy single track, some off-camber, a runup, two single barriers and a double barrier, and some pavement. A great course, well-organized, free coffee, bottled water and a water bottle, and $20 registration. Nice. Next weekend one of the races will be $25. Not nice. And Como Park is gone this year! That was one of my favorite races last year, if not my absolute favorite. Alas.

Tomorrow: St. Cloud.