Rhetts Run cop-out

Normally in this space you see my race recap from the weekends activities.  Not this time; I didn't do the race.   I planned to do the race and I really wanted to do the race, but common sense prevailed and I stayed on the sidelines for this one.

I was in the Columbia area from Thursday to Sunday.  On Thursday I stopped by Cosmo park (site of the race) and tried to ride some of the trails.  They had standing water from a recent rain so I decided I'd come back Saturday for a pre-ride.

On Friday I drove up to Kirksville to ride the 13 miles of trail at Thousand Hills state park.  The trails there were way too muddy and I couldn't cross the lake spillway so I ended up riding around the paved section of the park for an hour.  The beavers didn't want me to ride the trails either:

On Saturday I went to Cosmo and rode the race course a couple times in the rain.  It wasn't a downpour but when I was finished this is what my bike and I looked like:

The trails were not fun to ride and I knew they wouldn't get any better once 50 or so people started churning it up.  During the ride I talked to the race promoter who was there marking the course.  He sounded upbeat about the race and was hoping for a decent turnout.  I just decided I didn't want to take the chance of breaking anything trying to ride those conditions at race speed.

I went to the race Sunday to watch and think I made the right decision.  I left when it started raining.

Next race is the Down and Dirty in Warsaw Mo in 3 weeks.  I've got some training goals to keep me busy in the mean time.