Rewind - Mogollon Masher

BEFORE

What may turn out to be one of my favorite races in the MBAA series and I'm almost a month late in posting about it. We drove up to the Mogollon Rim fairly early Friday in the new VAN. We were meeting Jeff and Vienna to camp for the whole weekend.

The set up in the van. Layla is laying on a nice comfy futon mattress.

The views from our campsite, on top of the rim.

Our campsite.

Vienna getting the dogs settled. My favorite picture from the trip.

Once we arrived, Jeff, Zach and I suited up and went out for a preride. I loved the course. It reminded me a lot of Nine Mile. Alot of people did not like it because there was not enough climbing (huh?), but after the Prescott MBAA race and the Whiskey 50, I was ready for a "flat" course. And despite the protests of flatness, there was climbing. It was nice and gradual, no crazy steep climbs. It was good. Lots of pedaling. That's probably what people didn't like. It was beautiful with pines, aspen groves, and open pastures. The snow had just melted so there were a few mushy water crossings and 2 creek crossings. Fun stuff.

After the ride we got settled in (Thanks Vienna for setting up camp!) and celebrated Jeff's birthday.


The race venue turned out to be about a 20 minute drive from our campsite...yet I still somehow ended up running late. I barely had time for a warmup and we were off at 8:45. The race went well. I loved the trail even more the second day. The course was set up lollipop style; each loop was about 9 miles. The double track up to the feed zone turned out to be a killer and the 2 way traffic section back to the finish felt like 5 miles since it was all uphill.

First place! (dang I look old!)

Zach had a good race with photo finish at the end with his friend Tim (who lives in Chino Valley).

And then he puked.

The altitude must have gotten to Tom. He finished second.

Jeff dnf'd. If I remember he flatted...maybe twice.
After the race we chilled around the campfire. Tim, Robin and their 2 dogs joined us that night. We had 6 people and 6 dogs! We should have gotten up and rode Sunday morning, but we were all feeling a little groggy. We had breakfast and cruised. Stopped in Payson for some killer Mexican food and Zach slept in the back the whole way home.

AFTER