Wild in Waco

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After a long drive from Las Vegas, (no snow going south through Tucson and El Paso, but I did get to drive right through the wildfires burning in West Texas) I got into Waco late Tuesday night. Losing those two hours really cut into my drive time! But that made today much easier - unpacked my car and settled in for the next few days. I took advantage of the free time to go for a relaxed run and pre-ride of the course.

I remembered that the run course was a little crazy in the beginning, so didn't even try. I just hopped on the single track near the house and started trying to follow the red arrows. It was easy in places, but in other areas all the red arrows had been torn down. So it's not like the course hasn't been marked, just the markings have all been moved or shredded. Finally, I hit a junction in the trail and couldn't figure out where to go next. So I just started running back on the bike course. I love running on the trails in Cameron Park - it's fun kinda technical running and the trails have good flow. After I got back, I looked at the map - I know what to do now and will be able to run the course later.

I was hoping that Will and Suzie would be able ride with me, but things didn't work out. So later in the afternoon, I headed back over to the park to try and follow the blue arrows. Luckily, I remembered most of the course and the blue arrows hadn't been as trashed as the red ones. And wow. Even though I remembered that the course was twisty, tight and filled with sharp turns into steep climbs and abrupt corners, I didn't quite recall the exact technical demands of Cameron Park riding. From the first drop onto single track, the fun never stopped. I can't even put the course into words - its just crazy. Either climbing, descending, twisting around trees - they don't move, by the way - chattering over rocks or roots and constantly looking ahead for the next corner. Fun! But by the end of the ride, I was feeling good on the bike - like I was getting some of the flow back from my month off. And flow is gonna be key on this course! Its also gonna be a challenging course on tired legs from Xterra West last week.

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