Design Physics Conquers the Hill

Husband and wife duo Tom and Sonya Richeson represented Design Physics p/b Endorphin Fitness this past Saturday at the “Conquer the Hill” race at Miller School ofAlbemarle.  I was curious about the course, as this was the first year the school had put on a race on the trails that the school had made themselves.  The school is in a beautiful area in Charlottesville VA. 
 
Before the race I had checked the preregistered women in my Cat 2 field.  I didn’t know about the others, but one woman I had raced against for the first time two weeks prior at the Battle of Burke Farm.  She had beaten me in a 16 mile race by 12 minutes.  Hmmm…wasn’t looking too good.  Plus, she was literally half my age, I could have been her mother.

The start line was interesting, this was the first time Tom and I had ever been at a start line together- they had combined the cat 2 women, single speed, and men’s 50 plus category for the start.  I told him I would let him get in front of me before the woods, hah hah.  I was thinking, what if my handlebar hooked his during the start and I caused him to go down, that would not be a good situation!  But the start went well.  Really well.  There was a long gradual downhill in grass to the “hole-shot” into the woods, Tom was first into the hole-shot, and I was the fourth person into the hole-shot and the first woman.  As we started on the single track, I could hear a girl right behind me and I knew it was “fast girl” (who I now know as Sarah Twiford).  After a mile or so the trail opened up and a long climb started, and as expected she passed me like I was standing still, so I was now fifth overall, but further in the climb I was able to pass the large single-speeder guy that I had “drafted” on from the start line to get into the woods quickly, so was back in 4^th position overall.

I know most of my team seems to be doing those mega endurance 100 mile races lately, but if you ever get a chance to race here in the future I strongly suggest you guys try it- the trails were incredible- mostly super tight single track, lots of corners, rollers, banks, off-camber trails, and some small pump-track areas…it just flowed smooth as butter, so nice, so fast…and some good climbing.  If you like fast cornering you will love this track.  There is a video of the course here at 4X speed. 

 

Towards the end of the first lap I saw “fast girl” on the side of the trail, fixing a flat.  The emotional part of my brain felt bad that she had a flat, and bad that I might do well because of that, but the logical part of my brain was doing the math- so if she had beat me in a 16 mile race by 12 minutes, and this was a 12 mile race, if all else were equal she would beat me in this race by 9 minutes…could she fix a flat in 9 minutes?  I still had to boogie, I couldn’t take any chances.

By the end of the third lap, no on had passed me male or female, I had won the cat 2 women’s race!  Then at the finish I found out Tom had won his race too.  “Fast girl” was able to fix her flat and still place third, so that was good too.  Perfect weather, perfect trail conditions, sweet trail and great family results, we couldn’t ask for a better day.

 

Here are some links to pictures from during the race:

Sonya just warming up, hence the smile. 

Tom cornering, very focused.
Sonya going over a log, note the tense face (I hold my breath going over obstacles!), compared to a picture of Tom nice and relaxed going over the same log.