nowhere but up from here
friday the weather report looked great for the weekend. saturday morning i went in to swimming lessons with Henry during a beautiful May morning at 9:30 and walked out at 10:30 to completely overcast and a funny, stormy feeling breeze. what's going on?
got home to see that storm clouds produced in seconds at some point and were about to hit the twin cities.
Henry was now sick (he worked so hard to keep going at swimming lessons) and laying in bed. B and the boys were not going to the Freewheel Frolic.
i packed up and headed out in a driving rain and lightning. i had heard from a friend at the race that the sport start was postponed but nothing cancelled yet.
got there and saw two lightning strikes nearby. went to register and the steel at the starting chute was layed down wisely.
sport took off about 1 i think. expert at 2:30 with us in comp 5 minutes behind.
i have got to get better at staging because i was still in the 3rd wave when my wave (the 2nd) took off. you would think "excuse me guys that was my wave" would get people to let you through...it doesn't. i was last by far out of the start.
got into the single track probably about 6th from last. the mud was there but not too bad. rode fairly easy for a while making passes as smooth as i could. i was pretty nervous/careful about passing because i was remembering the wash out i went through on a pass on this course last year.
22 minute lap on lap 1. lap 2 felt a lot better. i got out of the single track and was riding the grass with about 3 or 4 other guys pretty passively. i heard a girl yell, "do something!". i don't know who she was yelling at but i thought it was about the best thing i heard all day. i started to push and came across the line for lap 2 in about 20:20. lap 3 felt the best of them all. the sun was out, the jersey was zipped down, life was good. i didn't know where i was in all this but i was having a good time.... until my back end felt squishy. are you serious!!?? a slow flat?? yes, i'm serious.
pulled over to fix that. just like Afton last year had trouble with getting the tire off. it is embarrasing to write that i couldn't get it off. i started hiking. no idea where the quickest way back was. saw some beautiful prairie land and some impressive perfomances by other racers out there. and then 2 people standing in the distance. walked about half a mile over to them. bike patrol. sweet. and even sweeter he had metal tire levers that were almost sharp. they would fit into my tire great and snap it right off. changed the tire and rode back in for a finish.
i'm not even in the results online right now. i think i came in last by a long time in my first comp race. nowhere but up from here.
got home to see that storm clouds produced in seconds at some point and were about to hit the twin cities.
Henry was now sick (he worked so hard to keep going at swimming lessons) and laying in bed. B and the boys were not going to the Freewheel Frolic.
i packed up and headed out in a driving rain and lightning. i had heard from a friend at the race that the sport start was postponed but nothing cancelled yet.
got there and saw two lightning strikes nearby. went to register and the steel at the starting chute was layed down wisely.
sport took off about 1 i think. expert at 2:30 with us in comp 5 minutes behind.
i have got to get better at staging because i was still in the 3rd wave when my wave (the 2nd) took off. you would think "excuse me guys that was my wave" would get people to let you through...it doesn't. i was last by far out of the start.
got into the single track probably about 6th from last. the mud was there but not too bad. rode fairly easy for a while making passes as smooth as i could. i was pretty nervous/careful about passing because i was remembering the wash out i went through on a pass on this course last year.
22 minute lap on lap 1. lap 2 felt a lot better. i got out of the single track and was riding the grass with about 3 or 4 other guys pretty passively. i heard a girl yell, "do something!". i don't know who she was yelling at but i thought it was about the best thing i heard all day. i started to push and came across the line for lap 2 in about 20:20. lap 3 felt the best of them all. the sun was out, the jersey was zipped down, life was good. i didn't know where i was in all this but i was having a good time.... until my back end felt squishy. are you serious!!?? a slow flat?? yes, i'm serious.
pulled over to fix that. just like Afton last year had trouble with getting the tire off. it is embarrasing to write that i couldn't get it off. i started hiking. no idea where the quickest way back was. saw some beautiful prairie land and some impressive perfomances by other racers out there. and then 2 people standing in the distance. walked about half a mile over to them. bike patrol. sweet. and even sweeter he had metal tire levers that were almost sharp. they would fit into my tire great and snap it right off. changed the tire and rode back in for a finish.
i'm not even in the results online right now. i think i came in last by a long time in my first comp race. nowhere but up from here.
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