Mud…and a Marriage Proposal

Last weekend the skies opened, the trail flooded and the bikes got dirty at the 24 Hours of Allamuchy. The precipitation was predictable—it rains at Allamuchy. Every year. Yet we’re back on the starting line. Every year. A good course, good brew and good friends make the race easy to come back to and hard to forget.

Despite the weather.

I went into this race a little less enthusiastic than Justin—who was still flying high from his French Creek finish. We planned on racing coed duo, and Justin planned on winning. (I even got a lecture about riding in the rain.) I decided we’d double up on laps so we could have more time to rest and refuel in between. Justin started the race with two back-to-back 10-mile laps and I quickly followed.


Around 9:00 p.m. he came back from his fourth lap sopping wet and covered in mud. The monsoon had come…and it was my turn to pedal closer to the podium. I must not have hid my disdain well. Justin dropped a note into my back pocket and gave me a kiss before I went out.

“Read this at your lowest point,” he told me. It reminded me of the notes I packed him when he raced the Tour Divide earlier this year—waterproof and all.

I never read the note. Much to my surprise, my third lap turned out to be my favorite. Accompanied by new dad, Ryan, from Princeton Tec, I splashed through rotor-deep puddles, pedaled in place through peanut butter sludge and dodged toads with the best of them.


I rolled through the start/finish around 11:00 wide-eyed, wet and willing to play in the mud again. But I never got the chance. For the first time it its 16-year history, 24 Hours of Allamuchy was called off. And Justin was waiting for me at the timing table.

“Did you read the note?” he asked. And right then, I knew what it said. I pulled it out and read it anyway.

As racers came through, the sound of time chips being scanned reverberated, and I thought it ironic that they had just finished an incredible ride as I was just about to start one—with Justin by my side.

I have a feeling we’ll be at the starting line again next year.

Despite the weather.

P.S. We won.