SWAMP Club Croom 50
It was almost washed out. Nam & I stopped at Croom WMA for a quick ride on Friday evening on our way down from Atlanta. We were about 20 minutes away when the storm hit. The rain was so thick I could only make out the lights of the cars around me.
All the way down from GA we heard reports of bad weather and just hoped it would clear by the time we got in. St. Pete and west Tampa got hit hard. I spoke with some former coworkers at Raymond James Financial who relayed stories of flooded parking lots and stranded cars. On the radio we heard about a store roof caving in because of it’s in able to drain the rain off it fast enough. I was beginning to think riding in FL this weekend was a stupid idea.
20 minutes later the rain broke and it was merely spitting out. I had forgotten how it works down there. I used to live by the radar and dodge the storm cells to get rides in….I just didn’t have a radar in the truck. We continued on to the trail-head to get an hour ride in before the next cell came through.
Now before the my fellow Georgians throw a hissy about riding in the rain, let it be known that Croom actually improves with water. This place is rather high for FL at 100 ft above sea level and is very sandy, so it drains or rather absorbs quickly.
After raining on and off all night and well in to the morning the Croom 50 was a go. It was great seeing the SWAMPers again. This is where my riding began and these are the people that made me feel so welcome that I poured my entire life into this sport. SWAMP is based in the Tampa/St Pete area and maintains over 100 miles of single track. The Croom 50 is a fund raiser for them which includes 50 miles of single track, SAGs, and a huge post ride lunch. Despite the rain they did an excellent job pulling this one off. Next up for the SWAMP Club is the Squiggy Classic 6 Hour MTB Race which I am currently undecided about.
As an added bonus, my knee felt great while I got a four and half hour ride in. I even pushed the pace a couple times just to see what would happen and all is well. I still have to keep up on the stretching, but I think I am past worst of it.
Many thanks to the volunteers from the SWAMP Club for the efforts in putting on the Croom 50 and Robert Hernandez for the photo above.