TP for my bungholio

Okay, now I can say I did Turtle Pond, and I left with my bunghole and bike intact, too many people can't say that. Well at least in my book. Even Soups went down and destroyed his helmet. Team mate had his deep dish carbon powertap wheel destroyed, well the spokes were all severed, probably repairable.

I hit the sack early last night. But well, the dog had other plans than letting me sleep until 4:30am. 12:30 she was INSISTENT on being let outside. I knew if I ignored her i'd have some clean up to do on Isle 3 in the morning. And it was mid sleep cycle so I just got up, let her out, drank a glass of water and slept solidly until 4am, then fitfully dozed until the alarm went off.

Made my special breakfast sandwiches that I've had for the last could days. Wrapped them in foil and ate them in the car. Man it is dark at 4:30 am. Rolled out at 5:29 am and headed north.

At some point the car stopped making power. Limp mode? Boost leak? Not smoking just no power. Damn. So the whole trip up I was in solid "don't freak out mode" spending the drive focused on NOT getting worked up about the car not working was tough. I am a bit tired of dealing with it. But hey the car fits me perfectly, I can drive it for long stretches without any stress or strain.

So with the lack of power issue constantly on my mind I tried to go through a normal pre-race routine. Tried. All i kept thinking about was "don't open the hood, it will be the same when you get back, it is fine, you drove up here no problem, nothing blew up or fell off or anything, you can drive home, relax"

Uh yeah. So anyway, lots of friends were there, good to see all of them. Zencycle looks alot younger in Road season than Cross season, like 15 years younger. The rest of the old farts, parked next to Lube boy. G-ride made an appearance, JLS and a handful of other tweeps. It was good.

But anyway, it was a road race. Full of people yelling "SLOWING" a couple times I said "we're going to be slowing down in a few seconds" then sure enough everyone started shouting 'SLOWING' yeah okay, cause um I couldn't tell that we were slowing down. Thanks I might have run someone over.

Poor Tommy G was coughing through the whole race again. Man he's going to cough his 85 pound self right off his bike one of these days if he doesn't sort it out.

Up and around. First time was neutralized and it was fine. Slow in fact. Second time not so bad either. Third time I moved up into the top ten as we took the corner and drifted back towards the tail by the time we were at the top but still comfortably in the group.

And never in trouble anywhere else on the course. Moved up VERY easily before the final time up the climb. Again sat in about 10th or 15th, but. BUT, Tommy and the CL Noonan jr attacked that hill. Those little tiny kids set a pace that was too brutal for this big old man who isn't in shape for efforts lasting more than 60 minutes it seems. The car was just in view. Just up ahead. I could see it until we got to the school on the back side with the sign in the middle of the road.

Just up ahead. Working my ass off. TRYING to bridge, hoping like hell that they would slow down JUST a hair so I could catch on. Head down going so hard I nearly missed the right hand turn. OOOF. then the rollers on the back stretch. No stress in the group but alone? Man that hurt.

And well, that's about it. Guys were cut and bleeding, and as I rolled up to the finish I saw what I was hoping not to. Bloody guys waking non-functioning bikes, one guy getting loaded up in the sweep car all bloody and stiff. People dragging bikes back towards the parking lot. Not Skinny just said "screw this" and sat up at the finish as people were going down left and right.

I was OTB, but not last. Effort was hard, very intense. Verge of cramping all the way home. Worth it? Maybe. I don't know if i'll be going back, but hey next year is next year. A long way off.

Ooh, my hamstring just about cramped there when I moved my leg. Not pretty. It was hard. Very hard. A good day. Fun racing with everyone that was there. Just wish I had dug deeper sooner on the hill and stayed in contact. Ugh. Oh well. Next time MoFo, next time i'll be there. Yeah. We'll see about that.

Time for a few tall boys, some hockey on TV with my feet elevated. That or I might just have to take a nap. I'm pooped.

Bike racing, you know, it WAS fun. Man I was a chatter box. Running my mouth. Should have saved some of that energy I suppose, being quiet might have gotten me over the hill that last time but then maybe i would be the one walking/limping a broken bike back to the car.

I didn't do what I had hoped to do (finish with the pack) but I'll take it. It is an improvement over last year. And really, as long as I keep improving, even incrementally, well I'm happy.

Props to the winners, Thanks to JD for doing results, and thank you to all the officials who worked the race. It was fun.

Peidiwch da
G