Smörgåsbord has MOVED!!

On advice from Scotty, I've moved my blog over to Wordpress... honestly, I'm not so sure it was worth the trouble but oh well. Please don't mind the funny looking font over there either. I'm still getting the layout situated. I'm thinking about changing the title too. You know sometimes you gotta go big with changes and since the domain mercieb.com was available I figured I might as well pick it up and use it.

"The MercieB" is a 15ft. wooden sail boat hand-built by my Uncle Gary in the early 80's and currently resides at my mom's house (S. OR) after recently being transported from my dad's place in WA. It was named after me and I'm glad someone in the family was able to hang onto it. It's truly a beautiful and one of a kind piece.

Anyhoo, please change your bookmarks to either of the following links...

www.mercieb.com

See you there.

DOH! (duh)

Ok, it happened yesterday. On beautiful, not-raining, mid-winter day, Camille and I decide to cut out of work early to do an easy road ride. We head out of Kirkland and towards Woodinville via Hollywood Hill. Neither Camille or I are too familiar with the neighborhoods out that direction but Camille has turn by turn instructions and I have the iPhone. 

We end up spending a lot of time on the side of the road looking at the paper and the iPhone. While being a very beautiful and rural area, it's also extremely confusing to navigate with streets that change names at least 3 times in a half mile. No worries... we have plenty of time and it's just an easy 40 miler. Riiiight.  


As we are headed out of King county and into Snohomish county, we stop again to see where the next turn is and how far into the ride we really are. As it becomes apparent we are rapidly running out of daylight and the route is calling for several double-backs and a lot of meandering, we decide to high-tail it back the way we came and take the "short-cut" up and over Novelty Hill (steep as s**t, by the way) into Redmond. We mostly made it back to civilization before it got dark but there were a few hair-raising moments in rush hour traffic on roads with no bike lane and no street lights.  


Now you're asking where our lights were, right? Yeah, well we didn't have them. With no intention of being out until dark, it didn't even occur us to bring lights. I know, pretty dumb.  


The good news is that we didn't get squished. While we may have not been smart enough to bring lights, we were smart enough to know when to call for a ride home. We only had to deal with a little razzing from our rescuer and one driver who yelled, "We can't see you!" which, I thought was funny because if he couldn't see us, then how'd he know to yell at us? And really, do you honestly think that we don't know we need lights and if we had them, we would certainly opt for using them? Drivers are funny like that. Always stating the obvious.

So yes, in the winter, take a light with you wherever you go. It can't hurt and can be very helpful when the ride lasts longer than you planned for. I have these Knog lights which are very easy to put on, stash in a jersey pocket or stick in a saddle bag. They come in a million colors and configurations. In the future, I won't be leaving home without them... They probably won't get you down a pitch black trail in the middle of the night but they will help save your butt from getting run over.

Future

Happy 2010! We all know this is the time of the year when we are determined to turn over new leaves, break bad habits, practice good ones and finally live the lives we imagine in our dreams. It's the time of year when "should- have's" become "will-do's". For me it's also that time of year when I start pondering the impending race season.

This year, I'd like to add some more 24 hour races. And not suck at them. With the Cream Puff under my belt, I feel free to start exploring the possibility of solo 24 hour races and multi-stage racing. Finding balance in the schedule to 'train' and actually get to race day somewhat prepared would be kind of fun. I, also, would like Scotty to stop hounding me about how I make everybody mad with my non-training laziness but then still manage to make a decent showing at the races.

I suppose there is something to his logic but I don't much like it. I am getting to the age where my past athletic achievements won't serve me as they once did. So this year, I'm going to make an effort to get some base training in and have some fun kicking some butt in the spring and summer.

Wish me luck!

And the best of luck to you in whatever your goals are for 2010!

All Roads Lead to a Bike

No, the blog is not dead. It's not... ok, maybe a little dead. I've been doing other things, like tweeting and Facebook. One interesting thing about Facebook is finding folks with whom I have not heard from or seen in 20+ years. My brain has been busy compiling information based on a variety of things and I've come to a few conclusions.

Here's the background: I grew up in Santa Cruz, CA

I've noticed about 50% of the folks I went to school with moved from Santa Cruz. A surprising number of them landed in the Northwest (myself included). Now here's the interesting part... bunches of these folks, both people who stayed in SC and those who left, are into bikes in a big way. Not in the "hey, I like bikes" way but the racing, avid riding/commuting, multiple discipline, bordering on religious fanaticism way. Again, myself included. And it got me thinking... Why? I mean, I know how I got into it but what about the others? Is it some sort of inevitable product of growing up at the time, in the place, and with the people we all grew up with?

One has to admit Santa Cruz was a weird and, I think, a wonderful place in the 70's and 80's. It was a much smaller community back then and we all grew up with freedoms kids today know nothing about. I'm told the world is just plain scary now. Until we all got drivers licenses, we used bikes to exercise those freedoms and even after we all started to drive, bikes were the preferred method for getting to the beach in the summer or to school the rest of the year. I remember bikes being more transportation than anything else.

With that said, bikes were definitively a part of everyday and woven into the fabric of my psyche. My best friends Dad wrote the book on bicycle maintenance, his brother was some sort of Junior Olympic phenom and their family had a stable of bikes like you wouldn't believe. The first bike race I ever witnessed was a 'cross race up at the university. I believe it was 1982 or something. Santa Cruz happened to have some terrific bike shops, killer riding and a great bike community.

My love affair (in it's current form) with bikes didn't really start until I moved to San Francisco in '94 and I started exploring Mt. Tam on a fully rigid M300 Cannondale. After that, I spent a summer touring the US by bike and logging in some 5400 miles on a 2 1/2 month cross-country trip. In the summer 2000, I did a 5600 mile bike trip from Prudhoe Bay, AK to Laguna Beach, CA. When I turned 30, I decided I wanted to try something new to celebrate the second third of my life and settled on racing mountain bikes. I later went on to working in the bike biz, being apart of owning a bike shop, helping to manage a local team, and being completely immersed in bike community to the point of not really caring if I ever ride a bike again (no, not really).

As it turns out, I'm not the only one. I don't know if anyone else has gone quite so deep into it, but from what I can tell, there are ex-semi pro racers out there along with folks who have managed to make bikes a major part of their lifestyle. These guys are riding everyday, putting on bike races, lusting after new gear, and living the life. Good on 'em! Now I'm curios how they got there.

Fall

Yep, fall is in the air. With gentle cool breezes, the temps are perfect, the rain has been good enough to wait for another day, and the light has changed. I love fall and... I hate the underlying impending doom of fall. Fall is the thing that let's you know winter is just around the corner. Fall is the thing that reminds you of all the things you failed to do with your summer. All the missed rides you had on your summer to do list, all the trail runs and hikes you never got to and all the trips, near and far, you'll not get the chance to go on.

Fall is perfect and maddening at the same time. Like the rest of life, take the good with the bad and drink from your half-full, half-empty glass. Try to squeeze some fun out of the last few days of summer. Or, take a play out of the Alaskan Play Book of Summer Fun, and run, don't walk, do not pass go and head directly for your fun of choice as fast and as furious as you can.

Yep, it's fall. Now, go.

Interesting Encounters with Cars

Four way stop. A convertible Porche with the top down driven by a guy on the phone. We came to the stop at the same moment. He looked the opposite direction of me and proceeded to roll the stop. In fact, I don't think he even touched his brakes.

As I passed behind him, I said, "Nice stop." He flipped me off.

Now, normally I wouldn't have done anything because I'm not the confrontational type but the flippancy with which he threw his middle finger into the air made my hackles stand up. I made a U-turn and got back to the intersection just in time to see where he turned. I rolled up on him just as he was getting out of the car.

Me - "Hey man, flipping people off is not very nice." 

Dude - "What you said wasn't very nice, either."

Me - "All I said was, 'nice stop' after you rolled it. How does that warrant the finger?"

Dude - "Bicycles roll stops all the time."

Me - "Well, I don't and flipping me off was pretty out of line regardless."

Dude -  Walking into his house, "Whatever. Have a nice a day."

This conversation happened while he was still on the phone and I can only imagine what the person on the other end of the line thought. I felt like I was in 4th grade. "You suck." "No, you suck." "No, YOU suck." etc, etc.

Pretty lame.

 

24 Hours of Fun, Fun, Fun

This last weekend was the 24 Hours Round the Clock in Spokane, WA. For those not familiar, this is a 24 hour mountain bike race. uBRDO Team Project (uTP) supported 3 teams and it was a production of epic proportions. We left Kirkland with 4 pop-up tents, 4 coolers, 4-6ft tables, 9 bikes, a giant box of bike parts, and the rest of the van was filled with the miscellany we would need for 2 days of MTB racing. 

Things were a little crazy trying to get out of town but we eventually made our destination at 5:30 am Friday morning after driving all night and getting an hour of sleep in the van in a rest stop. Not an ideal way to start the weekend.

Setting up camp was a blur in our delirium and trying beat the heat didn't help matters. It was about 30 degrees hotter in Spokane than we are used to on the west side of the Cascades. We did manage to put together an impressive camp for the team that was dubbed "The Condo." Friday was pretty low key with everybody making their way in throughout the day. We got everybody signed in, got our race volunteers squared away, started drinking and then went as a group to pre-ride the course.

Chaos ensued as our very buzzed riders were having a grand time checking out the course but ended up totally freaking out the other riders not on our team. Which seemed funny because I would have figured everybody had at least a few beers in them by that point. Apparently, not so... and too bad for them. It was fun.

We ended up getting pretty good sleep that night and all woke up ready to go Saturday morning. After a huge breakfast at a nearby European pancake house (the potato pancakes were to die for) the first riders got kitted up and made ready to race. I was a big ball of nervous jitters (no, not too much coffee). I was to do the starting lap, which included a La Mans style start. We had to rack our bikes, head to the start line and wait for the gun to go off. Then it was a 600m run up a hill, back down to our bikes and then ride back up the hill. The run was only 3 1/2 minutes or so, but I have never been so happy to get on my bike. Running in bike shoes and helmet is pretty lame. I'm told this is the traditional way to start a 24 hour race...

Being on a 5 person ladies team was fantastic. We had about 4 hours between laps and we did great. "C" was pulling down our fastest laps, "A" was hauling ass after not even touching her bike since CX season, "CH" was consistently solid, and "L" was a breath of fresh air. She came ready to race and she certainly did that with her consistent performance throughout the race.

The best part was the team dynamic. No bickering, no weird 'girl' stuff, and no drama. Just great attitudes, a willingness to keep at it, and a desire to have fun and race hard. I came back from my night lap at about 2 am and slept from about 230-5 am. I woke up wondering if we were still racing and sure enough the girls had kept at it during the middle of the night. As I prepared for my 7 am lap, I wondered how my legs would feel after so little sleep and being stuck in the heat the day before. As it turned out they felt pretty darn good and I put in 1:16 lap. Not my fastest but certainly not the slowest either.

I had given "C" the option of waiting for me to do another lap so she could get some more rest. When I came in she had a huge smile on her face, said she felt great and was ready to go. I handed her the timing chip and away she went. About the time I was starting to get ready to do another lap (an hour or so later) we got a call from "C". She had crashed and the medics were advising her to abandon the race. She had punctured her knee cap and couldn't move her leg for a few moments. She told Scotty she thought she might be able to continue on. We made the decision for her and I grabbed my bike and headed out to restart the lap. At this point we were solidly in second place and had been since the very first lap the day before. But with me restarting the lap we were getting bumped down to 3rd.

I spent that whole lap calculating how many laps the 3rd place team had done (assuming they hadn't dropped out) and when I would need to come back through the timing tent to be able to do an extra lap to beat them. We had to start the last lap before noon and I was mentally preparing for my 6th lap. To my surprise, "A" was waiting for me at the timing tent ready to take the timing chip and rally the course one last time. She came back 1:17 later with a smile on her face. 

We had done it. We had successfully completed our first ever 24 hour race, we stepped up when things went awry and overcame what would have been a looming 3rd place finish. 18 laps for a total of 270 miles got us 2nd place.

Now it's not all about winning. Heck, we didn't win. But we did great even though none of us had any idea what we were doing. All of uTP was pretty wiped after the race. The boys ended the race in 8th place after 2 really hard crashes in the first rotation of laps. The 2 man team was DFL and gave up about 6 hours into the race. They slept a solid 8 hours that night. Hilarious.

It sure was a lot of fun and I'm thinking about making a solo run at it the next time around. Sounds crazy but I think I could do it. The course was long enough that even after 5 laps I didn't have it totally figured out.

New Gadgets

Just discovered something called the "FURminator." Ridiculous name, amazing product. No, it's not a new thing for the likes of Scotty... It's a brush for the dog and in about 10 minutes I combed enough hair out of her to make a new dog. Neat. Now I all I need is something called the "MUDliminator." C'mon Google.

Just Ride

I've been thinking a lot lately about what has become my life adventure in cycling. I've come along from the days when I didn't own a car, was really poor, and what I considered fun on a day off as a trip over the Golden Gate bridge to Mt. Tam on my 1992 fully rigid M300 Cannondale. Man, those were the days. I used to just take off. Sandwiches and water loaded into the pack, my walk-man with a fresh set of batteries, and a sense of adventure. I would be gone all day, sometimes not making it home until after dark.

These days when I look back on all the riding we have done over the years, I think it would be neat to go back and ride all those places again. Would it be hard? Would Moro Canyon be as technical and scary as I remember it? Perhaps not. Now that we have been in the same place for an extended period of time, I have lots of opportunity reflect on trails that used to be difficult and made me nervous once upon a time. 

Take Tiger for example. The first time I rode the Preston RR Trail, I had to hike my bike through a mile of major blow down. Picture taking your bike and flinging it as high and as far as you can over the downed trees. Then imagine crawling through the innards of the trees to go retrieve your bike. Do that about 100 times. Then when you finally reach the other side of the blow-down, you are met with the wettest trail you have ever seen. A literal river using the trail to get down the hill. It was an adventure I'm not likely to ever forget, but that trail gets easier every year. Is it me or the trail? There has been a lot of trail work done in the last couple of years up there.

Brian and I used to ride St. Ed's from time to time. Half the fun was getting really lost but now we know those trails like the the back of our hands and it has turned into a place to take the dog riding instead of taking ourselves for a ride. Being on the constant hunt for new, more exciting trail systems seems to be the order of the day. Whistler is the next obvious choice for the excitement upgrade. It requires a new bike and a whole new set of gear, but that's a small price to pay for adventure.

I would love, one day, to go back and ride Slickrock in Moab. The first and only time I did that was on that M300 Cannondale and it was outfitted with full touring racks. I had never been mountain biking before (not really anyway) and I had no idea what I was doing. My guide, bless his heart, was gentle, encouraging, and gave me lots of pointers on what to do. How easy or hard would it be now? 

Along this same line of reasoning, I'm racing XC again and having a ball. So far this season, I have 2 wins under my belt and that effectively doubles my number of wins for my entire racing career. Now, is my class getting slower or am I that much faster this year? It's hard to say. I know it's a lot of fun but the girls this year just don't seem to have the same kill instinct I have seen in some past years of racing. It is a different group after all. In my defense of sandbagging, I did overhear a few of the girls on course chatting with each other. I hope they were having a great time... I know I did.

Perhaps it's experience, perhaps it's fitness, perhaps it's sheer dementia. I don't know. I wonder what it will all look like with another 10 years of riding experience. I hope to keep learning and getting better at it and maybe I can make it back to all those places to see what they look, feel and ride like then. 

'Cross Update

I said I'd let you know how the next few 'cross races went and if I had been bitten by the bug yet... My second race was a total disaster. We showed up 15 minutes before my start time and I barely had enough time to get dressed, let alone warm up. Not a good idea... I ended up 13th out of 14. Not an encouraging result. Worse is that I truly hated it. I was shouting curses through one part of the course (apparently that didn't go over too well because I'm still hearing about it - you know there are little kids out there) but I did finish and can say I'm 13th in the state of Washington in the Cat 4 group. Like I said, not a great result.

This last race was a whole other story. The course was a bike handlers dream and those with out the skills really struggled. I, however, actually managed to have a good time. Cutting girls off in the bermed turns and choosing the inside lines instead of the outside lines to make quick work of the twisty course was a lot of fun. I didn't feel like I was going to die the whole time and since I skipped breakfast, I didn't feel like throwing up for the first 2 laps. All in all, a pretty good race. Not to mention I came in 5th place out of almost 30 girls. A better result... Of course it's 5th place in the Cat 4's. Certainly nothing to write home about.

There are only 2 more races we have planned to attend, so the season will be over before I have the chance to completely fall head over heels for 'cross. From here we get to start thinking about the mountain bike season. Fun.

SSCXWC

A crazy day at the raceway... Portland shows again how to put on a 'cross race. A good time was had by all. I'm sure the free flowing PBR sponsored by The Bike Gallery helped. No tally yet on how many kegs were emptied, but the beer delivery guy was busy all day. The Foam Pit, courtesy of the Yakima Gang, was way too much fun; probably more for the spectators than the riders...

Rough(beer)garden battles the killer windmill and wins... this lap...

Speed Suit. Speed Dog

I'm a Little Cross

I have a bad habit of trying new things. When I turned 30, I decided I'd try racing mountain bikes. It was great and I have spent almost every summer since then racing my mt. bike.

Sunday was my first ever cyclocross race. 30 minutes of sprinting in the mud. It rained and it was cold and we were all a mess. Doc asked me if I had a great time. I think my response was something like, "It was miserable." Then he asked me again... I changed my response this time to, "Yeah! It was the best thing ever." It wasn't. Not by a long shot.

I have to wonder about people who LOVE 'cross. Here are the things I've come up with so far that is wrong with this silly discipline:

1. If I wanted to go to the park, I'd leave my bike in the car.
2. Freezing to death is not my first choice in ways to expire.
3. Getting off the bike and running is silly.
4. 30 minute race? Why bother?
5. Slogging through 4 inches of mud for 1/4 mile is no way to spend a nice Sunday.
6. Spraying the mud off your legs and backside with a cold hose after the race is truly awful.

I'm sure there's more... Perhaps I will list them next time.

OK! Yes, there will be a next time. I never said I was done racing 'cross. I just said it was silly.

Blue

I do a lot of driving and with this being election season, I've had the opportunity to look at a lot of campaign signs. Yard signs, billboards, bus signs, etc. If it has a flat side, chances are it has a campaign slogan or name on it. It suddenly occurred to me that, for the most part the, Republican's are using the blue usually reserved for the Democrats. Honestly folks, there's not a whole lot of red going on out there, which seems a little off. Even the McCain/Palin signs are blue and are terribly hard to read to boot. Who ever hired their marketing firm should be fired.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say the Republicans actually have no interest in winning this election. Aren't they proud of their red(neck)ness? I suppose the argument could be made for wanting to distance themselves from the current administration, but I can think of a lot of other ways, like not sucking, to do that.

Democrats, get the blue back.

It's All Clear Now

This morning we have had at least 2 birds fly into the front window of the house. The first one hit really hard and it was a mildly surprising while in the process of waking up.

What the heck?? I haven't even used any window cleaner on that window. These birds are driving the dog nuts with all the thunking on the window.

I Need a Bailout

I figure I need to chime in on the economic crisis thing... I think maybe we should be outraged. We should probably be outraged about a lot of things but this seems like something we should be really up in arms about. Let's recap... Ok, so someone gets this bright idea. Let's give everybody mortgages they can't afford and while we're at it, let's get them neck deep in credit card debt with outrageous APR's and lines of equity based on the worth of their property that they have no business having in the first place. Let's tell them it's all good and they don't really need to worry about that balloon payment or the highly inflated interest rates that will kick in in 3 or 5 years. We'll make a lot of money... in fact we'll be rolling in it. Not just rolling but bathing in it. We'll have so much money, we'll use it to wipe our butts because we just have that much.

I don't know who these people are and I don't where they are right now, but I think they are laughing a big hearty laugh. Ohh, one little problem... now the banks don't have enough liquid assets to cover all the foreclosed property. They never wanted that property, they wanted the interest off it. But since the whole country is in deep debt from trying to stay afloat while being pushed under by APR's, medical bills, credit card payments and geeze, I don't know, maybe food bills, people simply aren't paying all that interest. When push comes to shove, food trumps the credit card bill every time.

So the government has to do something to keep the whole shit-wad going. Yeah, $700 billion ought to do it. What? We don't have $700 billion? Well, then just print some more money. There. Fixed.

Riiiiiggghtttt.

I'm all for helping out "Slow Joe" next door. He got suckered into his mortgage by the schmuck down at the bank. He did not do his homework and he was not being smart when he sign those papers, but does that make it right for the bank to get him in so deep? If that $700 billion were going to pay off all those crappy loans so the general public could keep their houses, I'd say fine. Do it. Print more money. In fact, print all you need to make it work.

However, I am highly opposed to corporate well fare. Bailing these guy's out every time one of their evil schemes goes awry is getting old. It's always under the banner of "It's what's best for the American Public". Boooring... Can't they just say, "Well guy's, they screwed us again. We have to help them out because they pay our salary in kickbacks through the lobbyists and we owe them big because they are going to hire us to go on a speaking tour for ungodly amounts of money when we retire from office and don't forget, we need to help them because we are going to find some loop hole in the law to take a lot of money from them for passing laws that screw with the environment and undermine the lowest paid workers so they can save a few bucks here and there." It's going to be rad.

Can't we just get them a bucket and let them do the bailing?

Amazon, Leave Me Alone. Please.

I'd like to rant a little about company's who send email you don't want... I got one this morning for amazonfresh.com. You know, delivery grocery service. So I click the unsubscribe link and it takes me to a new web page where I have to click another link and then hit the "confirm changes" button. As if it were the end of the world if I accidently unsigned up for their stupid emails, which by the way, I never signed up for in the first place. But get this, the last message in the process is that they will send me an email confirming that I have unsubscribed to their offer of sending special promotions to me by email... un-freaking-believable. I think I just told them I don't want anymore emails. I currently have something like 1650 messages in my in-box. If they had a special offer to send some one over to file and organize all my emails, I might take them up on that!

How It's Made

Watching TV the night before last, I caught an episode of "How It's Made". You know, that goofy Canadian show on the Discovery Channel with really cheesy background music and the commentator who sounds like he's on Valium? They take 3 or 4 things and show the process of manufacturing those items.

Needless to say, I forgot all about the Olympic coverage when I heard, "In this show, we will see how robotic arms, tattoos, feminine pads and concrete pipes are made."

Enough said.

Eat the Fruit!

This last weekend was the Cascade Cream Puff. What is it, you ask? 100 mile mountain bike race on some really fantastic trails in central Oregon. We went. I rode 85 of those 100 miles before I decided to save my knees. I don't really think I've ever been that far on a mountain bike in one day before. I was in the saddle for 12 1/2 hours and felt really great for about 9 of those hours. Yeah, I suffered, but not too bad and I'm actually considering doing it again. The watermelon at the aid stations saved me from myself. At some points of the day, it was all I could think about and what eventually got me to the next check point. Not too much to write about just yet. I'm still processing the whole day and waiting for my legs to stop hurting. They are a little sore to say the least.

Race Update

3rd out of 19... not too shabby.

Oh Happy Day

There was warm sunshine in Leavenworth this weekend. After several cold, really wet and totally miserable days here in Kirkland, the blue skies were a welcome change. Why were we in Leavenworth, you ask? For my first mountain bike race in more than 2 years. This weekend was the Bavarian Bikes and Brews Festival and it's one of my favorite places to race mountain bikes. In an effort to get prepared for the Cascade Cream Puff, NB signed me up for this race on the east side of the mountains. Thanks NB! It was to be C & NB's first mt. bike race ever and they peppered me with questions for most of the 2 hour drive out there. C wasn't feeling good and there was some question as to whether she would start. NB, however, had every intention of kicking some butt and I was just hoping to get the first race under my belt and not be the last one off the course.

We got there the evening before and had just enough time to set our camp up in an organic strawberry patch and head out to pre ride the course. I had forgotten how much fun Freund Canyon is! 4 miles up on some fire road and single track. Just when you think you can't take anymore, you reach the top and start the descent. What a descent it is! 4 miles of bomber, no brakes required, balls out adrenaline pumping fun. It's so fun in fact that when you get to the bottom, you get total amnesia and suddenly become willing to drag yourself back up the 4 mile climb just so you can come down one more time.

Strangely, I wasn't at all nervous for this race. In the past, I got so nervous before each race that it was hard to eat breakfast without throwing up. It only hit me moments before we headed to the start. I told NB I didn't really want to race today and he called me a 'total wuss' and firmly stated I was going to the start with him. And so it was...

Apparently NB missed his start by about 40 seconds as he was far back in the mob waiting for instructions on the coming to the start line. He had to push his way through the mass and chase to catch the group. I guess he caught the lead group as the fire road turned to single track.

The girls went off a few minutes later and it was a different start than I remember in previous years. The starts used to be so fast and I would go into oxygen deprivation just trying to stay upright on the bike for the first quarter mile. I'd watch everyone ride past me and I'd have to concentrate on finding a pace I could manage. Eventually most of the group would slow down and I'd start passing girls on the down hill and technical sections, picking them them off one by one. The longer races were better because I had more time to move up into the lead pack. This race was different. They sent us out and no one rushed to the front. In fact, I was sitting second position for a lot of the climb. Weird. A couple of girls did come through which is fine because I knew if I kept them close, I'd have no problem catching them going down. Which is kind of how it worked itself out.

Finally at the top, I prepared for the descent. It was hard to get relaxed enough to let the trail flow. After flying sideways into a swooping washboard right hand turn and hearing a group of spectators yelling "yaaaayyyyy! Did you see that????" and then remind me to relax and have fun, I wondered what the heck I'd been thinking these last 2 years. Racing is fun...

I knew I still had another lap to complete and I settled into rhythm of the trail. Even the down section was eventful with trying to get past other slow-poke racers, running over a lizard which I thought was a flat tire, seeing a guy who'd crashed and looked to be in really bad shape, and passing NB who'd flatted at the top of the hill and had not packed a spare tube into his pocket (apparently this bit of info was assumed on my part. I mean who mt bikes without tools and a spare tube?) Anyway, I got near the bottom of the first lap and suddenly was stuck behind this girl who would not let me through. She was on her brakes the whole time and all I could think was "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" She finally did just as we ripped out of the trees and back onto the fire road to start the second lap. I was relieved to see a few more of the girls right in front of me.

We headed back up the hill trading places and I put the bike in an easy spinning gear trying to save enough energy so as to not completely blow up before getting to the top. After all, this was a training race. The second lap was hard and I tried taking my mind off my legs by listing animals you would find in Alaska... bears, caribou, geese, eagles... that worked for a little while and got me to the top. The guy at the water station yelled "It's all down from here! GO!"

And I went. This time much more relaxed and way faster than the previous lap. But the slow girl was in front of me again... sigh... I asked her to move aside when it was safe so I could come through. She decided she wanted to talk about it and asked, "When do you want to come by?" "Now!" was all I could come up with. She still wouldn't slow up to let me through and I finally blasted past her when the trail opened up a little. The medics were taking the injured dude down on a backboard. He was strapped down with an oxygen mask on and completely bundled up in a blanket and neck brace. It didn't look good. I hope he is alright. I was then stuck behind a guy who was going pretty good and I kept thinking I should try to get past him but he was going really fast in the straight sections and only slowing a little in the turns. I decided I probably wasn't going to catch anyone else before the bottom so I just hung out behind him. We came off the trail and sprinted for the finish, although it wasn't quite wide enough for me to get past him.

That was it... the dude I had come down with stopped long enough to congratulate me on a fine sprint to the finish. As I was waiting for C & NB to come meet me, the slow girl came through the finish. I apologized for being so aggressive with her out there and all she could say was, "Wow! You are really fast going down. I mean, really fast."

We left before they posted the results, but it doesn't matter much. I had a great time and I'm relieved to know the first race is over. Now onto bigger and better things...