Plug Pond Thursday Night MTB Training Race

Plug Pond Thursday Night MTB Training Race
April 13
Haverhill, MA

There is a pretty good MTB training race in Haverhill, MA. It runs every thursday during the month of April and it put on by Riverside Cycles. Its a benefit for their junior team and tons of juniors participate. I had wanted to check it out for a while and, unfortunately, when I finally had a thursday off, it was 88 degrees outside. I had to drive my car through rush hour traffic to get there for a 6pm race, but it was worth it. NEMBA and some locals have built a really tight, up and down, collection of singletrack. The lap is 3 miles long with 400 feet of climbing. They said, "Yeah, it's a four lap race, but we'll pull you if the sun starts to go down". There were 50 men and women lined up, and these things are supposed to be kinda casual, but some knuckleheads in the front crashed and blocked the whole trail. So there I was, standing on my feet, only 200 yards into it. It was fun and flowy. I tried to make the best of it and not get heat stroke. I only finished 3 laps, but that's fine. I jumped in the pond afterwards and enjoyed the sunset.