Full Service Racing/CORA- Revenge of Mt. Mother- Harbin Park

This was a race that wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't going to race, but I have found over the past couple of months that the best way to train for racing is to race. So I drove out to Harbin and met Chris and his friend (and photographer) Randy. It was a surprisingly nice day... not too hot or humid.

For those of you who have never been to Harbin Park, here is one racer's description, "75% uphill, 5% level and 20% downhill." That pretty much sums up the course. Mt. Mother is a steep (some have measured it out at over 20%), loose, rutted beast of a hill that has a short, equally steep and loose run in. Each lap came in around 5 miles with a little over 500 ft of climbing. The cruel and unusual gang at Full Service Racing (ahem...Phill...ahem) put on the show, much like their wildly successful Hueston Woods race (a race I observed from a hammock atop the longest climb).

Chris was to race two laps while I was in for three laps of torture. My goal was a good workout. I let almost everyone go ahead of me down the grassy slope and into the single track. Slowly I picked up my pace and began picking people off... not in order to move up, but instead to go faster. I began catching some of the earlier waves towards the end of my first lap. I just kept chugging along passing people, hoping for the end, hating my lack of handling skills, passing more people, praying for the wretched race to be over.

Then I finished. I find finishing races very anticlimactic. There are rarely people cheering for you. Occasionally someone says your name over a loudspeaker. You find a nice patch of grass (hopefully near a water cooler) and lay your bike down and drench yourself as you try and consume as much water/Gatorade/recovery bar as possible in the short window that athletes have to stuff their faces after exercises. Harbin was no different. I rolled over the Chris (Mt. Mother + recovering knee = not good), sat, talked, drank, ate, drank, talked with random racers and friends, and drank some more.

Phill called us all over for hoagies and awards. Chris and I weren't expecting anything, but somehow, during my hour and forty minutes of suffering I had passed everyone in my age group save for one hardy soul. The photos throughout this post are courtesy of Randy. It is now time for me to hit the sack and get ready for my second trip to Brown Country in three days! I will post some thing about said trips in the next few days.