NMBS #6 - XC Supplement

It is weird when you don't remember things that
happened during a race until someone mentions something and you suddenly remember it. A couple strange things did take place during the XC race. One I wasn't even aware of and the other I am just now remembering. Guess you just get in that racing zone with your blinders on and become too focused to remember incidences.

What I didn't see happen out there that Chris my husband did see, was that there was paintball war going on ON THE COURSE during the Pro Womens XC race. Are you kidding me? Chris said that as I came thru the last section of singletrack before hitting the feed zone that I rode not even 6" away from this dude that was lying smack dab NEXT to the singletrack in his camo. Chris said he didn't realize what was going on until a paintball whizzed past his own head. At that point he went banana's trying to find someone to help remedy this safety issue but no official in the feed zone could help nor really seemed concerned. Chris's concern of course was for the riders that could potentially get hit with a paintball unexpectedly while rippen the dh at 30 mph and then flying off the bike and hitting a tree or something. Luckily nothing like that happened but wouldn't you think the dude in camo might be concerned for HIS own safety as well? Dumb.

When Chris mentioned this to me after the race I remembered that I had another incident of my own while trying to chase down the gal that was in front of me on that last lap.

I was flying down the descent and came around this corner and saw an old man and women with their 2 dogs ON THE SINGLETRACK. Oh crud!!! I was way too fast for them as I flew towards them in race mode. The lady was able to grab the one big dog and jump off the track but as the man went to grab for the little ankle biter, he missed and ended up falling IN and across the singletrack. And his little dog that had broken free started running up the singletrack in attack mode towards me!!! I tell you what....I think I am going to win on that one, little guy, but maybe that is where natural selection comes into play hugh? Not really wanting to run over the thing, I had to SLAM my brakes on almost to a complete stop, and was then going slow enough to ask the guy if he was ok (the dude was OLD) and get a response before I had to start up again to get back to speed to continue my quest (which only got that much harder now) of passing the girl in front of me.

So what is the deal with all of this? Why weren't he hiking trails marked off (or were they?) and why were paintball games allowed to start and proceed in the middle of a National XC race? I would like to think that safety for all parties (paintballers, hikers and bikers) is a high priority during these events but I wasn't seeing that today unfortunately.