2013 Cold Catfish Cup

Here are the pics I promised from yesterday’s winter mountain bike / fat bike race, the Cold Catfish Cup.  (I realized I failed to ever mention the name of the race in the previous post.)

I’m basically posting these in the order of how I spent my time watching the race.  I didn’t take the most direct route to get to the main parking lot of the park (where the start/finish was set up) but instead headed to the park’s lake beach.  I thought I remembered reading somewhere the route went over the beach and across the lake.  Indeed that was the case (as stated in the previous post) and I found myself a nice spot by the beach house, out of the wind and freezing rain.  It also happened to be a good place to watch the race.  I was able watch the racers come off a slick-looking downhill, through the beach house structure, over the beach, and across the lake. 

 

Racing through the beach house…

And out onto the frozen lake. 

Careful now, there’s no lifeguard on duty.

After spending awhile by the lake, I moved towards the start/finish area, stopping for a time at the giant snowy uphill the riders had to climb.  This hill sucks to simply walk up when clear in the summer time, it was just ridiculous that this was on the course.  Some had to walk up, but I don’t know how more didn’t in the slick snow.

View of the hill from the beach.

The hill from the bottom looking up.

Eventually I made my own way up the hill and to the start/finish area.  I made it just in time to see the first finishes, but also to see the variety of people racing.  As I said, there were a few guys on unicycles, and here’s the proof:

I pretty much stayed by the finish until everyone came through, becoming decently cold by that point.  It was mid-afternoon and I hadn’t anything more than a banana for lunch after my run, so I was pretty hungry too.  I made my way over to the Potter’s Pasties & Pies food truck, bought a traditional pasty, and started back home.  By this time, the freezing rain was turning into snow.  That big hill I talked about earlier?  Well that was much harder going back down – especially with a pasty in one hand and a Thermos of tea in the other.  I made it home safely without falling though, just a very wet and snow covered stocking cap and down coat to show for my time spent at the race (well and a full stomach from that pasty).  My coat still hasn’t completely dried…

The start/finish area with the Potter’s Pasties and Pies food truck in the back right.