Race Report-Corriganville Classic MTB

The Race:
I share this little tale not because it ends in a feat of heroism, a fiery crash, or kisses from the podium girls, but because it is a rather unique race. The Corriganville Classic MTB Race in beautiful Simi Valley is a relay. 90 minutes, 2 teammates, switching every 2 mile lap. Wes picked me up in his car without a name and as we headed raceward, both of us subtly did the in car rain dance as we had decided yesterday that if there was rain we wouldn’t race … “Can’t risk any broken bones”, Wes said. Fortunately or unfortunately, the weather held out. We got to the race early to preride the course. Other than one ball/ovary busting climb and some switchback singletrack, there did not seem to be any major worries on the course. Yesterday, we decided to flip a coin to decide who would start. Today, Wes Army volunteered me to do it. At the line, race instructions were given, including, “you must finish your final lap before time expires or it will not count.” “Damn”, I thought, “now this race is going to turn into a math test as well”. The gun went off or someone yelled go to get us started and off we went. Eight or so minutes later I arrived at the finish line and Wes took off on his SPECIALIZED S-WORKS EPIC mountain bike. Now friends, here is where the fun begins. I now had 8 or so minutes to recover from the effort. This included gently coaxing my raisin bran back down into my esophagus (this would continue to repeat itself lap after lap). Fast forward to the last couple of laps. Wes takes off on his last lap and by my watch, he needs to be in by 11:52 in order for me to have a chance to finish my last lap. At 11:50 on my watch, the announcer says, “10 minutes to go”. Wes comes screaming in on his SPECIALIZED S-WORKS EPIC at exactly 11:52. I race out knowing that I will have to go under 8 minutes for the lap to count. I passed a guy early on in the lap and kept pushing ahead because he previously was catching me on the downhills on earlier laps. I saw the finish line and sprinted toward it. 11:59:15 on my watch … my fastest lap of the day and just snuck under the time limit … until Wes came up and said that they said time was up 5 seconds earlier. We finished somewhere between first and last, but had a fun time and great interval workout doing it. I highly recommend this race to change up the usual fare.



Ben Cornell