Global Cooling Race

It's the first race of the year up at SkiBowl - on the flanks of Mt Hood - with its own special microclimate. Most other parts of the world are experiencing global warming - but not here. Only 500 feet higher in elevation then Bend, but 10 times as cold. The forecast isn't great - showers in the morning and a high of only 58F. There's a weather web cam up at the pass near the race, and at 8am it's showing 38F and the road is glistening wet from showers. As usual in the morning, I am not too disposed to driving to a race when the weather is questionable, so this seems like a good excuse to skip it. I can go for a ride around here in the balmy sunshine instead. But I check a little later, and can see bright sun reflecting off the road - OK I'll go, might not be too bad.

On the road, and sure enough it's sunny just about everywhere. I can even see the mountain, so should be clear there. But near the end of the 2 hour drive, as gain elevation near the summit, I am plunged into the soup of thick cloud cover, and it is raining. The thermometer on the car shows 4C - so hasn't changed at all since that 38F reading a few hours ago - and it's raining on top of that. I sign it, and putter around the inside of the van, taking my time layering up. Not looking forward to a cold wet race at all. I do a bare minimum 10-minute warm-up, and get into the start chute with the unsurprisingly small crowd. Only about 30 Pros and Experts. The Pros and young Experts take off first, then the 40+ crowd a minute later, with the single-speeders and women.

The trails are actually nice and tacky, as there had been no rain prior to today. The rain lets up shortly, and after 10 minutes I start pushing ahead to the front. Only 2 are ahead of me - one I know that usually finishes a good 10 minutes in front, and another who has been pretty close in time to me, and has beaten me before this year. I slide by him, calling out a greeting - but he barely emits a grunt. This guy must probably hate me I guess - in the last race I followed him for an hour, and then passed him decisively 15 minutes before the finish. I keep the #1 guy in sight for the first lap, but never see him again after that. Ok, gotta hold down the #2 spot. Second lap, up the steep Horse Trail climb, which is usually sandy and loose, but tacky and grippy today. No one in sight behind. The top of the course is now shrouded in fog, with visibility maybe 50 feet. I might easily get lost if I didn't know the course (in fact I did get lost last year in perfect conditions).

I'm finding it hard to push, as there's no one in sight to chase, and no one chasing me. The occasional Pro sneaks up behind and passes, as they are doing longer laps. I keep thinking they're someone in my class, but nope haven't seen anyone in that crowd for a while now. Here's me struggling to keep pace with the Pro eventual winner as he passes me :


I do the foggy, rocky twisting downhill run for the third and final time - and have a nice little crash, as my hands are starting to cramp in the cold. But no one behind to take advantage, and cross the finish line in under 2.5 hours - only 4.5 minutes behind the first place. Well I needn't have worried about getting caught, 3rd place comes in almost 18 minutes later.

Now the temperature is real balmy - why it's almost 6C ! It's hard to enjoy the cold Pilsener what with all the shivering standing around afterwards. But the racing in the cold was actually quite pleasant - I'll have to try to remember that the next time I start to whine about crappy weather conditions going into a race.