4luvandlife

fit a race into painting a kids room last weekend. got to Mankato at 12:30 and switched things up by warming up. strange sensation to spin a bit before the race. this was the first race with signs marking the waves so i had to find something else to be confused about. after call ups i rolled up to the start line while Wyatt was sticking his head into the starting chute, pumping his fist, and yelling "Daaaaaaddyyyyy!!!" again and again. gave him and Henry high fives and waited for the countdown. very small wave took off up the climb. i thought i would be feeling good right off because of a short warm-up. i was wrong. i felt pretty bad, unusually bad. i'm still curious why. i think it was painting all day the day before and the morning right up to when we left. that and a lot of pepsi all week before are the only thing i can think of to create the sluggishness. i kept at it hoping to break out of it. at the end of lap 1 my seat broke. i'm thinking, "ok...

we showed up a little later than planned. got there in time to get my packet, change and ride for about a mile to warm up. i was feeling better to see that the climb up was dramatically less than Mont Du Lac. weather was great again. upper 70's and very breezy. started in the 2nd wave. went off the start line for a short sprint to the switchbacks uphill. 4th race of the year so i knew who to try to stay with. got into second going up the hill and tried to stay with JC in 1st. my legs felt the lack of a real warm-up here. he started to move away towards the top and really took off in the single-track woods at the top. remembering afton and mont du lac i went after him but he was out of sight. came out to a little opening and then back into single-track that wasn't very pass friendy. came across a group of 5 or 6 from the first wave and thought for sure JC in 1st would have got caught and slowed up in that group...he wasn't there. couldn't believe my eyes. he must be flyi...