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XC Marathon #3

It was the third consecutive weekend of racing and I was at the Northhumberland Forest for XC Marathon #3. The Northhumberland forest marathon has been my favorite race ever since I started racing in the Ontario Marathon series. The trail's are all ways super fast and in great shape. As always the event was very well organized by Dan Marshall of Substance Projects. Today's marathon was 70km in length and I noticed some tough competition on the starting line. It was awesome to be able to chat with friends before the race and on the start line, it definitely helps with race jitters. The race buzzer went off and we all blasted away from the start. It was a bit tight at the start but then everyone got lined out and 4 of us went out and gained a big lead on the rest of the group. About 5km in I had to back off the high pace so I didn't burn myself out. Once I dropped back a bit I got together with another group and we rode the rest of the first lap together. On the second lap I started to hurt pretty bad but I was able to push it and I was in 3rd place at the half way mark of the second lap. With about 10km left in the race a racer passed me and shortly after I came around a corner and he was laying in the middle of the trail injured. I had to stop and I saw that he was holding his arm and there was a lot of blood so I put my bike to the side and came to his assistance. The first thing I did was I took his bike and put it off to the side and took my tube out of my back and tried to tie it around the upper part of his right arm. It looked liked the racer punctured his bicep with a stick so it was very important to restrict the blood flow so he wouldn't lose to much blood. As I was trying to tie the tube together another racer came by and stopped as well. He was very helpful and he had a camel bak on so he took his drinking tube off and used it to tie the bicep which worked very well. As we were helping there were many other racers coming by and offering their help. I stayed with him for at least 10 minutes and it might have been even longer. Once he got feeling a bit better and was able to stand he decided to start walking out. The other racer who stopped decided to stay and walked out with him. I was able to get back on the bike and went on to finish the race. Even though I stopped and took time to help out I still managed to place 4th just off of the podium. After the race and when the podium was taking place I was called up and given an great prize for stopping and helping the injured racer. Tons of people came up and thanked me for helping, which leaves a really good feeling about the wonderful mtb community that I am part of.
So that's the story for XC Marathon #3. Now I am off to two weekends of Canada Cup racing.



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