gmo

It wasn’t until 2005 that I thought about racing again. I’m not sure how I heard about Wednesdays at Wakefield . It may have been Ed Bailey from the Drinkmore Water store who told me about it. I usually go out to Moab once a year as a reunion of sorts of my original biking clan, most of whom have moved out of the DC area. I consider them all excellent riders and I am always wanting to keep in excellent shape so that I can keep up with them on these trips, or, dare I say, leave some positive impression on them of my riding skill. There was no question in my mind that competitive bike racing is a surefire way to take my riding up to the next level. So I tried some of the Wednesdays at Wakefield bike races. WaW consists of three loops of 3.5 miles of twisty narrow singletrack, some small hills, and some lightly technical roots and rocks. On a casual ride, you would consider this easy. It’s so easy that everyone sprints the entire race. This is why I consider WaW qu...

First Inklings It was 2001 and a friend of mine had told me he did a race at the Avalon area of Patapsco state park and told some story about it being very difficult. Later that year, I went biking with a coworker of Sharone’s. Im sure the story at her work went something like, “Oh.. you bike? You race too? Oh.. cool. My husband Gary bikes. Maybe you guys can go biking sometime?” “uhh.. sure.. ok”. So early on a Saturday I met up with Russ at Fountainhead regional park in Fairfax county. The trail is mostly comprised of rolling hills, with some ruts and short steep descents, but nothing too technical or challenging. Russ was off. Way ahead of me. Every ten minutes or so he’d slow up, to be sure if I was still alive. After one 40 or so minute loop, I was toast. “This was a good ride. We should do this again.” “I’m doing another loop or two. You up for it?” I hadn’t even contemplated this scenario. Again? This was hard?! And fast paced. A g...