MTB with Ian to Marshman

So I decided to ride up to spectate Marshman, a local sprint triathlon at Marsh Creek, and asked Ian to join me in a bit of Mountain biking while we were up there.



After a late start, we headed down Hillsdale at 25+ MPH in sub 50 degree weather. It was tough to stay warm in the first couple of miles, but eventually warm blood reached our extremities and we had a nice easy ride up to Downingtown and along the Struble trail. When we got to the trail head, we saw the cyclist racing down the road toward the 282 turn. We made our way 100meters up the hill and carefully crossed, taking some nice pictures of the cyclist before we continued our off-road journey.





After 12 miles on pavement, it was nice to get off-road and do some single track. When we got to where I thought the race start/finish was, we found out it was on the other side of the lake. We took a break and a picture of the fog clearing off the lake, then headed back along the trails to the other side of the lake.


Once on the single track again, I almost forgot about the race and just enjoyed the trails, but this was a fairly short ride in the woods and soon we were back on the roads heading to the race.

It was fun being at the race - the energy level is high and everyone is having a good time. I got to see some friends, including Andy H (he actually one the race!), and met his friend who came in third, then saw Rob J who came in 4th. Pretty funny. I rode with Andy a few times this summer, and of I've run and raced with Rob many times before. Small world.

So we headed back to the trails, and I soon realized that I am way out of MTB skills - just not riding enough. The first clue was when I endo'd going over a pile of logs, which would have been no problem a couple of years ago. Then, about 20 mins later, I was following Ian down a partially overgrown single track, not particularly difficult, but I wasn't really paying much attention and my front wheel went slightly off the track into the wet grass and I was down for the count. Ouch. It didn't help that I only had one treaded MTB tire on the rear, so my slick road tire on the front did not handle tall wet grass very well.

Anyway, most of the riding was awesome. My skill level is spotty. On the way home, we did small section of Harmony Hill which was fun.

Good times. Peace.