DINO #3 – Portage – Imagination Glen

I had been contemplating the drive to Portage (East Chicago) all week. As the radar screamed of rains that forecasted crappy trail conditions, I was sighing relief. Spending 4 hours in the car just to get there and another 4 for the return trip wasn’t that appealing. Plus, I still hadn’t been on the bike that much due to long days at work; I was just mentally exhausted.

By Friday night, the riders were assured that the impending rain had actually missed Imagination Glen Park and the trails would be decent. So, Meredith and I agreed to get up at the crack of dawn and make the trip north. We arrived in time to get in a good pre-ride and learn some of the obstacles we would face in the course—thank goodness! There are a couple of nasty, steep drops would have made me cringe had I not known about them during the race.

Four girls gathered at the start line: Melanie (this was her home course!), Emily (who just catted up to Expert), Meredith (the sole Sport rider), and myself. My heart was not with the bike on Saturday, and the results showed it. I came in last of all the riders. Melanie & Emily had superb starts; I had no aspirations of staying close to Melanie as she knew the course inside and out. My goal was to keep Emily in sight.

Local knowledge was super important to a course like this. The trail is littered with twists so tight and roller coaster hills; proper gear selection was a must. Periodically, I would find myself going too fast only to have to brake hard just before a turn and losing acceleration out of a corner. Same thing on the roller coasters. At times I would be in too hard of a gear without enough momentum to make it up the other side gracefully. While Meredith and I joked on the way back that Portage actually means, “Hell” in another language, I think it would be a really fun course if a rider knew what was coming up. Without knowing, I never found a rhythm that kept me going.

Emily was in sight most of the time. Again, on the second lap, I felt much better and thought I should give racing my bicycle a try. It stopped about 3-4 miles from the finish when a stick got caught in my rear derailleur. Not thinking much about it, I stopped pedaling and waited for it to fall out. Wrong strategy! The demon-possessed stick fell out after twisting my rear derailleur and bending spokes in my rear wheel causing it to go out of true. I learned about the damage as I tried to pedal my bike only to have the chain skipping up and down the cassette. So, I stopped to try to assess the problem. Gosh, I didn’t see anything: no stick, nothing in the chain, etc. This happened 3 more times as I’m trying to figure out how to fix my bike on the trail. I learned I could pedal without using force of any kind in one gear. So, on the downhills and flats, I could move at a slow speed but had to push my bike up any incline whatsoever.

With this sad display of loss, I crossed the finish line 13 minutes behind second place. Coach Battin was at the finish (with a first place victory); naturally, he fixed my derailleur in about 6 seconds; he’ll be seeing my wheel next week.

Lessons: 1) Must have my heart in it. 2) Learn how to do minor fixes to my bike on the trail!