Racing, Camping, Kids

I had good intentions to get this updated after Iola. I ended up going up with a friend who's wife and baby stayed home as well for the weekend. The pre-ride felt really good so I was excited about the race. Later that evening I was going over the bike and noticed my repair weld had cracked. I didn't have much choice so I just hoped it would make it through the race. Sunday felt really good the hills were fun and the single track flowed perfectly. I ended up rolling in 12th spot...not bad for the first race of the season.
After the race I decided it was time to retire the Mongoose. One of the guys over at the Trek East store had a Rig that he wasn't riding. I picked that up and swapped everything over on it.
We weren't sure about going to Rhinelander and were looking for a camper so we could bring the kids with and camp with them at races. We found a nice used camper on Thursday before the race so we decided to take it up north and see what the kids thought about camping.
Saturday we got up to the race course. We got the camper set up and Cathy headed out for a pre-ride. I took the kids around the venue and tried to get them good and wore out so they would sleep good. If I have learned anything as a parent it is that "wearing the kids out" is a wives tale or fantasy that people talk about. We ran for about 3 hours straight, ate some supper, hung out in the camper, read some books, and then put them down. 2.5 hours later they fell asleep - lesson learned: kids have an endless supply of energy that if it could be tapped into and harnessed would make them nearly unstoppable at any activity!
Once the kids fell asleep the camper worked really well, and despite the challenges we are looking forward to more camping trips.
The next day was the regular routine, I worked at the Park Tool tent, Cathy played with the kids, we ate lunch, and then race time. I didn't get a chance to pre-ride but everyone was saying the course was really rough. We hit the first set of single track and that was ever true! I had this weird throat thing going on so the first 1/2 lap I was coughing up junk the entire time. After I got my system cleaned out I started to feel alright, I got into a good group and we were picking off riders at a steady pace. Half way through the second lap I hit one of the bumps REALLY hard. I heard bad noises from the front of the bike and thought I might have broken my front axle...yeah I hit that hard. Then about 3/4 through the second lap my chain broke. I got that fixed and checked the front wheel - which was fine. My fork however was not right, it was stiff and clunky. I got back on the bike and tried to make an effort to catch up. I was pretty far back in the pack and was just not feeling good so I pulled the plug at the end of the lap. I was a little bummed for making that long of a drive just for a DNF but I guess that is all part of the game. I took the fork off and sent it into the guys at Hayes/Manitou so we will see what they say broke inside some time this week.
In all it was a good time, spending a weekend at the races with kids is a whole new challenge. I hope they get more used to it / easy as the summer progresses and as they get older. We are going to try a more local camping trip again in a couple weeks just to get more time in the camper and for them to get used to it.
In other news, Cathy got signed up for the Madison Half Marathon. This will be her longest run ever and now that she is signed up she is really excited about it. That is happening Memorial Day weekend. We are also going to be doing some landscaping in our back yard this weekend. It should be interesting so we will be sure to post pictures.