Mountain Biking Competition

I was invited by a friend to participate in a mountain biking competition on the weekend of September 30 - October 1, 2023. The MIT cycling club regularly sent people to mountain bike races, so I would have a group of people to come with me and try it out. I had never mountain biked before, but I thought I could pick it up during the races, so I said yes. I signed up for two races: first, the cross country race on Saturday morning, and second, the short course cross country race on Sunday morning.

We arrived to the campsite on Friday night greeted by rain. People were talking about how the course would be slippery and wet, and that I ought to be careful and feel free to walk my bike as much as I wanted when I didn't feel safe during the race. Many people were clustered around a bonfire, but I had no desire to stay out in the rain so I went to bed rather early.

I woke up the next day at 6:50. We were supposed to be ready to leave the campsite at 7:20, since it was a short bike across a bridge over to the start of the cross country race course, and the race was supposed to start at 8:30 or so. Naturally, being MIT students, we all left closer to 7:30, but were still on time. But we got to the bridge that we were supposed to cross and found it closed for repairs. It seemed every other team had gotten the memo and had chosen to bike over instead, but we felt like fools biking in the rain (which at this point was just a light drizzle) for 4 miles to get to the next bridge over.

Eventually we made it to the start, and some people did a quick pre-ride of the course to check out the conditions. It was reported to be exceptionally wet and slippery, with a full half mile in 4 inch deep swampy mud. I was told that the race was to be 2 laps on the 4 mile course. I was placed in Men's category C, which was the second group to start, and I lined up close to the back since I had no idea how I would fare compared to the rest of the competitors. As we started the race, though, I realized that I was actually faster than a lot of the competitors, but got stuck behind a particularly slow rider right at the start, and the trail was too narrow to pass. So the rest of the riders left us to the dust (mud), and only after a long while was I able to pass the slow rider. I tried speeding up to catch the next riders, but found myself gradually riding all alone.

At some point, I thought I did a wrong turn, and could no longer see course markers, so I got worried about being lost. I figured, though, that if I just kept going I'd probably end up back on the race course. Eventually, a rider from the Women's A division (the first group to start the race) rode up in the opposite direction from where I was going, and asked me for directions because she too was lost. We decided to keep going in the direction I was going, and eventually we made it back on course. But not much later we got to a flat stretch of gravel road, and I sped up and left her behind me. I turned at a side trail that had a big arrow pointing to it, but once again found myself lost. Eventually, I made it back to the course, but found that I'd done a "shortcut" that basically cut out the section containing the finish line, and at that point I knew that I was pretty much out of the race. I continued and did the larger half of the lap again, and finally arrived at the finish line exhausted at having done probably close to 7 miles of a 4 mile lap. I told the organizers that I was done and that I should be disqualified.

For the rest of the day, I just rode down easy green and blue flow trails at the biking resort. Super fun, but nothing particularly noteworthy except for me getting a flat and having to borrow someone else's bike for the next day.

The next day I woke up at around 7 for the race at around 8. Short track cross country features a course that can be ridden in about 5 minutes, and you do about 5 laps depending on how fast people are going. I once again started a bit toward the back of the pack, and got stuck behind some slower riders. But this time I wasn't going to be left behind, and started passing people as early as I could. The lap finished with a big straightaway down a grassy field leading onto a gravelly road. At that point, I really let loose and managed to pass 4 riders out of a field of maybe 10-15 within a few seconds, and I could feel my adrenaline pumping. I was getting into the zone, and I was ready to lay down a solid second lap to catch up to the front pack of riders. I passed the finish line and went into the first quite fast, and right after the first turn was a big drop into a pit full of large rocks. I thought briefly about dismounting and walking, but figured that if more experienced riders could make it through, I could probably do it, too.

I couldn't do it. As I hit the bottom of the drop, my front wheel got caught on a rock and I got thrown over the handlebars. I landed face first on a rock, and felt nothing but shock and the taste of pine needles in my mouth at first. Some friends of mine happened to be spectating the race right by that drop, so they immediately came running and asked if I was okay. I said I was fine but needed to step off the course. They took my bike and led me away from the path of the rest of the riders, and I kept wondering when I would start feeling the pain from probably destroying my entire face. But it didn't come, nor did the confusion from a concussion, and I kept accurately telling people that I was fine. Regardless, we decided it was best for me to go home early and get checked out at the hospital.

After 3 hours of sitting in a car and feeling my nose swell up out of shape, I finally arrived at the emergency room at a hospital in Boston. They took a CT scan of my face, and determined that I had "nose bone fractures" but that that was the extent of my injuries. I got to leave after a few hours and was pretty much just told to take it easy and not go mountain biking for the time being, and to schedule an appointment with the plastic surgery department to reset my nose. At the time of writing, I'm optimistically thinking I'll end up with a better nose than I started out with!