A cold shot of me at the start of the race. Along with a guy just beyond me doing... Well I don't know what he's doing. Picture credit: Martha (thanks!)
Some times you do races that are just custom made for you. And other times they couldn't have designed a course for a more bizzaro version of yourself. This years OBRA State Championships were a great example of the later for me. But I had a good time and the course was a lot of fun. Hard as hell. But fun.
But I'm not really going to be writing about my race (I know. The whole last paragraph was about me. Pff. Whatever.). What I wanted to talk about was how well set up and organized this race was. And how unfortunate it can be when the general public (ie. neighbors) complains about someone else's good time.
There was quite a flurry of emails and messages being sent around in the following days about some of the local residents around West Salem High School complaining about the damage the race was causing to the school grounds and the small adjoining city park.
A picture taken by my beautiful wife.
Now please know that the school and the town were made well aware of the damage that a cyclocross race can have on the grounds by the race organizer Jeff. And that the school's Athletic Director and Groundskeepers had given them complete permission to use the grounds as they saw fit. But sometimes that's just not good enough for the people looking from the outside.
Never mind that the cross race was a successful money maker for the school (they sold concessions). Or that repair and clean up were all part of the master plan.
It's just frustrating to me that people start complaining to the city with half the information. I know I can be irate about a subject too without having all the info (This blog in general is a great example of it.). But I wouldn't make an accusatory phone call or email to the powers that be before I had all my shit together and it was correct.
I like this pic because there are still guys behind me. Towards the end of the race I honestly thought I was in last place. It's not easy to keep going when you think that. I was almost praying for a mechanical at that point. But I didn't do to bad and I wasn't last. (Another pic for my Super Hot Awesome Wife Who I Really Don't Deserve or SHAWWIRDD for short)
But it still doesn't change how great the race was. And hopefully the complaints won't ultimately effect the race organizers abilities to be able to put on the Championships in the Salem area (Although, it might be nice to put it somewhere flat. You know. For me.).
Okay. Rant done. Thanks for reading.
Rubber side down,
Big E
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