Marin Knobular Race Report by Peter Donohue Well, I entered my first expert class race for the year - the Marin Knobular. Prior to this, I had only entered single speed races. And after this one, maybe I should go back to singlespeed... I had never raced at Marin before, but I had a chance to ride the trails at the boyscout camp a while ago. BTC Marin is doing a great job with the trails they are building. Lots of good singletrack. The race started at a bit after 9am. It was 3 laps of about 6 miles each. Starts with some fire road, then a big climb, then into the singletrack. About two thirds of the way through a lap, the course returns to the start finish area and crosses over itself before we go out for some more singletrack. The cross overs are mandatory dismounts and have a pair of telephone poles laid down to enforce that. The first lap was painful. For some reason, my body just wasn't up for the intensity of the race at the start. One of my car pool mates caught up and passed me on the first lap, and he started 3 minutes behind me. The second lap, I started feeling better. Finally felt decent on the third lap, but by then I was way off the back. Oh, well. I felt like dropping out on the first lap, but stuck with it. When I finished, I waited at the line to make sure that there was at least 1 person in my class behind me, and thankfully there was. The latest scores posted before I left had me at 35 out ot 38 finishers, and about 17 minutes down from the winner. I am sure there were a few DNFs and perhaps a few other slow folks that they didn't have ranked by then, so the total should increase. I think I had signs of things to come (and maybe I should have listened to them) when I realized that I had brought two left gloves. And during the race, the bike wasn't running at 100% - biggest worry is an expensive sounding thunk from the shock. Plus the front shifter didn't always want to let me shift into the big ring. But overall, it was my body that let me down. On the plus side, I was able to cyclocross the cross overs pretty well. On the second lap, I went across just after someone went through the other direction, and just before another person on that direction. The timing for us was perfect - all blasting through, none having to slow down, with just enough space. Peter