Last weekend the H2H series race took place at Jungle Habitat. The once defunct safari theme park in the 70’s, now bike specific park is built and maintained by Jorba mountain bikers and Team Town Cycle. Town Cycle trail builders pride them selves in building the toughest, rockiest and in my opinion the least flowing trails on the race circuit. This race is known for being a bike handler’s course and not a racers course, all good to me, by the way.
The promoters granted us 40+ women our own start, so Campmor filled the entire line-up. After a good start, I got a little bogged down through the Warthog trail, but did not worry because the race is plenty long to settle in and sort out before the end of three laps. After the Fence Line descent, I cut back through the fence into the cages and miscued on a slightly upward tight turn. I applied some torque to the pedals to pull me out of the stall and as I reached the top, my bike was pulled out from under me, and I was on the ground with my hand screaming at me. I sat myself up slowly, with all attention to my hand stinger. I made a fist and opened and closed my fingers and although it hurt, I could move everything. Realizing I was still in one piece, I picked myself up and assessed the damage. After a brief go over, I saw that I had no gaping holes with blood gushing out and I decided it was ok to proceed with my race.
Within 50 feet, I noticed that rear braking and holding the handle bar was painful and for some strange reason, someone was throwing acorns at me. I adjusted my grip, and was doing ok through Tiger, but wondered how I would fare the Goat Trail. The first turn in Goat went well, and I managed to get over the big rock and through the nasty boney part, but I soon had a racer bearing down on me that did not offer any communication. I tried to speed up a tad, but went down in the next turn. He ran by, and although I was a little frustrated, I felt better that he was in front of me, so that I could figure out if I could finish this race or not.
I had a good clean ride up chute, and not being a quitter, I opted to try 2 more laps in hopes that endorphins would set in, and I could find out who the heck was throwing acorns at me. About one lap later, the endorphins finally set in, and I had a decent last lap, where I bridged back up to the women’s field to finish as the fourth overall woman. This was probably not a top finish, but considering the circumstances, I was happy to finish and take the NJ champion title for Campmor. As for the acorns, it is a mystery to me. I heard rumors that ghosts of monkeys exist in the Jungle, but that sounds like a chapter in “Weird New Jersey”. I think you may need to go up there and find out for yourself.
As for Traumeel, that stuff is great! http://www.traumeel.com/
I am back on the bike today, and my bruised hand has healed nicely.
