It is amazing what a couple weeks can do and how much can change. Two weeks ago at
Mt.Morris I was suffering in ways that I'd felt for a long time and wasn't going anywhere. This week my only goal was to make it through the race,
no crashing, no bonking, just riding fun trails and if I could go fast that would be bonus.
We headed up on Saturday and Cathy went out for a pre-ride while I watched the kids. From the point we got there until we left, about 4 hours later, Keenan did not stop running! We walked through the kids course then said hi to just about every camper and every dog at the venue. Finally we got to the mist tunnel and he just couldn't get enough of that I think he ran through it at least 6 times! We ate some supper and then headed to the hotel for the first overnight stay with all the kids in one room with us. Our room quickly filled up with 2 pack-n-plays for the kids to sleep in, our cloths, 2 bikes, and our cooler for food and water. Both kids slept really good while Cathy and I tossed and turned all night on our piece of granite they called a bed.
Sunday I got up early and headed to the venue to help set up and then get to work wrenching on bikes for the first 3 races. Cathy got all the kids up, fed, and loaded pretty much solo. Her parents came to watch us race and they helped where they could. Once at the course Keenan was again off and running, it was little harder for Cathy to keep up with him as it was significantly more busy Sunday from Saturday.
During the morning I was looking at my bike and the crack that had formed was getting bigger each ride. When I pushed on the bottom bracket the frame would open up along the entire crack and there was only about .75" of tubing still holding the drive side chain stay in place. I talked to one of my WORS team members and he offered his bike to borrow. He was going to race the sport race and hopefully get done in time to give me his
bike. Sure enough about 20 minutes before the start he finished and we started wrenching. Seat post, seat, fork air pressure, flipped the stem, adjusted brakes and shifter, handlebar, grips, ect. I lined up just before call ups and I was still adjusting everything on the line. We took off in a cloud of dust, I stayed toward the back to avoid any crashes and not to go out too hard. The first couple runs of single track were a bit slow due to congestion but once everyone got strung out I just put it in cruise mode. I made it through the first of 4 laps and was feeling good so I went for it. I dropped the group of 4-5 that I was riding with and gapped up to
Scott Cole. He was riding a perfect pace for me and I knew if I could stick with him he would take me to a good finish. The next 3 laps we really got into a good rhythm and picked off a few riders. We could hear a chase group forming and they got within about 5-8 seconds of us at one point. I knew if they caught us I wasn't going to have enough in the tank to fight them off again so I took the lead in the next set of single track and just drilled it. We opened up a good gap again and then Scott pulled me through the open field. The last lap we really turned up the heat, caught Eric from MN who latched on. He made a move in the last double track putting me 3rd wheel. We all came into the final rock garden wheel on wheel. Scott washed out on a rock and had to run, Eric did the same and was off the bike. With both lines taken I dismounted while I still had momentum and got by Eric on foot. At the line it was Scott, Me, and Eric. This course was so much fun and having good legs was just icing on the cake. I ended up 2nd in the Cat.1 field = WORS bucks, and 14th overall = Cash.
Cathy did an amazing job juggling both kids for the entire day. They were both worn out and slept most of the way home, and then all night and about an hour later than normal in the morning!
I haven't posted pictures in a while so I will get some picture only posts up here throughout the week.
Keenan really liked that while Georgia was happy to just play in the grass in the shade. Maybe when I was a kid I sat in all the wrong places, but Keenan was getting totally hooked up with candy! Unfortunately for him after collecting it most of it ended up down the street to a couple little girls...I feel bad for their parents tonight.
After the parade we headed down to one of the parks and found the petting zoo. Keenan had fun petting and running around with the animals.
No pony in the future at least for a year, we will see what happens next year with Georgia.
