Caveat Emptor

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. Before I get into my Bear Creek 10 Miler race report, I must first discuss something that happened to me on the way home from the race. Like the many thousands of triathletes, cyclist, and families who travel with their bikes, I have a bike rack on the back of my vehicle. I bought the rack in 2010 from our local REI here in Richmond, Virginia. As it turns out, my bike rack is illegal. That's right. According to the Cumberland County sheriff who pulled me over for speeding on the way home from the race, the bike rack obscures the license plate and is therefore illegal in the state of Virginia. Even without a bike on the rack.

When I got pulled over for doing 69 in a 55, I expected to get a speeding ticket. What I did not expect was being told my rack was illegal. When the sheriff told me that "the thing you got on the back of your car is illegal" I was a bit miffed and in an act of anger made some smart remarks. He told me I could tell it to the judge after which I explained that coming to court would be inconvenient and couldn't I just pay the fine. At that point, he had me get out of the car to show me why the rack was illegal. I was super polite and understanding from this point forward because I did not want the extra ticket.

The sheriff said that just because you can buy these things at the Walmart or wherever, they are illegal in the state of Virginia. Part of me realizes that it is my responsibility to know the law and to abide by it. Part of me wonders why the REI here in Virginia would sell me something that is illegal. Ultimately I know it is my duty to make sure my vehicle complies with all the laws of Virginia but at the same time, wasn't Tommy Chong arrested and jailed for many years for selling a device -legal in some states but not in other states- to someone in one of the states where it is illegal. I am not sure how this is different. We are talking about two very different items but still, it makes me wonder why the laws are not applied the same.

In the end, I did not get the extra ticket. But I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this issue. The sheriff told me that if I wanted to keep the rack on the back, I would have to move the license plate to a place on the back of the vehicle that was not obscured by anything. I am not sure how I am going to pull this off but I am going to research it.

As far as the race goes, it was a blast. It was a bit chilly at the beginning of the race but after about 2 miles into the race, I stripped off my hat and gloves and stowed them in my pockets. It was actually great weather for a race. The terrain was mostly single track with lots of wet leaves all over the trail. In addition to the roots, rocks, creek crossings, and leaves, there were also a fair amount of downed trees to hurdle here and there.

With less than a mile to go in the race, the people I was following went off the course and before you know it we were lost. We ran back and forth in the woods trying to find our way back to the official race course. It was fairly obvious we were off trail as the leaves looked undisturbed. We finally did make it back to the finish and ended up with an extra 1.5 miles. I did not really mind too much as I was just doing it all for fun and was not too concerned with my time. Speaking of my time, I ended up doing the 11.5 miles of trails in 1:48 which is pretty good overall I think.

Despite being pretty sore for the next couple of days, I decided to go ahead and sign up for the 35K trail race that takes place at the same park but on different trails on January 14th. It will be a very different race because I will have to take it much easier in order to finish. It will be the longest trail race I have ever run and the most I have run since I ran the Richmond Marathon back in 2007. I am looking forward to the training leading up to the race and hope that running trails makes me a stronger runner. Running trails is so much more interesting than running on the road.

Well, I tried to keep it relatively short. Sometimes I think more details about the race would be interesting but I don't want to ramble too much. Comments are appreciated. Thanks.