I went back to read my race report from this course from last year and I think I was a bit harsh. The course was basically identical to last year and while I hurt probably just about as much as I did last year there were parts of the course that I enjoyed a lot. Or maybe its just because I didn't have to deal with any mud and after last week I could ride up a giant 20 mile fire road and be happy.
Harding is a tough course for a SS. Its a lot of work, grinding fire road climbs one after the other. And unfortunately today a few of them were exposed and trudging up slowly in direct sunlight pretty much sucked. I was able to ride all the climbs though which was an improvement from last year, although I came close to cramping on a few pitches on my 3rd and 4th laps.
The main descent on the course was awesome. Just technical enough to be fun but not crazy so you can really let it rip. That section was followed by a great flowy section that I looked forward to every lap. Basically for me this race was just busting my ass so I could get back to that section 4 times.
Other than that the race was pretty uneventful, no crashes, no funny stories like last week. I met some personal goals...I didn't come in last and I broke the 2 hour mark coming in at 1h 54m, thats almost 10min faster than my time last year...a HUGE improvement for me. I came in 6th about 3 minutes out of 5th. Not sure where I stand in the overall at this point, they haven't updated the standings, but I think I might be in 3rd or 4th.
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