8.05.2007

Brew City Slop

Rowan and coach Andy.























Can't see the top three.


I can't think of any better use for a pile of garbage than to have a mountain bike race on it. Saturday night at Mama and Steve-o's I was afraid we might have a rain-out like this is baseball or something. I was happy to hear that we would be racing rain or shine, but decided I should drop gearing to 32x20 to deal with the slop. Of course, my chain was too short. Grabbed a chain from the truck only to find out Don's chain tool was broke. Rifled through the truck for a bit to find my own and then gave up figuring the good Jebuz was trying to tell me to run my 32x17 as his good Daddy intended.

I was supposed to find Jerry's wheel after the start and then sit on it. That I did, until he walked away from me on the moon climb. For the next lap and a half I had to deal with battling the little bastard in my head that tells me "its okay to walk this climb" and "you have nothing to prove, take a nap". I eventually beat down the doubt and had a good and fast laps 3 and 4. Well, fast for me. I rode about 1.5 laps leap frogging with Russell (only because his bike was complaining). At the end he sat behind me on the final climb and then gave it a go to show me how it's done. I saw him coming on my right and responded by stomping on it, making for a nice way to finish. (yeah I know he started behind me)

That final sprint while not meaning much helps to support my decision to upgrade early like I did. The Comp/Elite squad is a very fun group to race with. Not to mention that it is nice not having to deal with slow singletraffic. In this group I am the slow guy. Speaking of which I just found out that my Norba/usa cycling expert upgrade had been approved. Hmmm .... What to do next year?

I really appreciate the family coming out for this one being close to the old hood and all. Tarry was very cool playing superfan with the water dousing. Everytime a cold bottle of water was poured on me it felt like someone was pushing my turbo button. Good times, beer, and lasanga.


2 comments:

the_drake said...

hey, ever think about running with a half bottle for each lap?
seems like you came around with 3/4 left each lap.
it could save you a little more weight.

good times though. that was cool being there.

Kerry said...

Well, you never know when you might need a full bottle of pink stuff to revive some fallen rider quivering on the side of the trail.

Really though, I should have been drinking most of that but you forget in competition. I'm gonna run smaller bottle for shorter lap races when I can get some.

Beer kind of foams up and goes everywhere, then when you reach down it is empty.