I think most of the money went into the alien costumes.
Seems like a good time to reflect and remember last weekend's race at the Double Lake Recreation area in bustling Coldspring, Texas. Actually - between the road race on Saturday and the mountain bike race on Sunday, the town's population was probably doubled over the weekend.
It was typical Houston area hot & humid on Saturday. After the pre-ride was done and the race clinic completed it was time for the boys to play. Kyle challenged Alan for the sacred title of King of the Track Stand. Only one problem - since Alan was recovering from some minor day surgery, he didn't bring a mountain bike and the road bike and his helmet were back in our room. The appropriate pressure was applied and Alan commandeered the next best thing... mine.
Two hands, no problems. One hand and the competition started falling like flys. No hands, well that's a little different. First Kyle, then Shaun and the man on the too small bike wearing a white & pink helmet was the last man balancing.
After all the bike play was done, we got cleaned up and met with the in-laws (who just happen to live in Coldspring) for dinner and a visit.
Sunday morning rolls around early and awfully dark. It wasn't that we were up before the sun, it was the dark ominous looking clouds that were overhead. We grab some breakfast and head into the park, about time we get everything unloaded and under the canopy the rain starts coming down. Not a hard, pounding rain - but rain on race morning. The Cat 2 racers are milling around, not really wanting to warm up in the rain and hoping that it stops before they have to stop. Lucky for them, it does. We watch the starts and then it's time start getting ready.
Some races are finished earlier than planned
Towards the end of the Cat 2 race and not long before it's time to start our warm up the rains come again. Once again, racers are milling around instead of riding. This round of rain doesn't last very long and once again there's nothing falling from the sky when it's time to get staged for the start.
Last row off, the youngest and the oldest (of which I'm the oldest of the old).
Jurgen gives us the countdown then Start! and off we go. We're together to the first turn but I'm at the back. Since I'm at the end of my season and "participating" more than racing, I'm not surprised. The course is pretty sandy, so the rain didn't make the course that bad. At least until getting to the slickery slippery sections. It was even more fun when the back wheel would slide around and it felt like you were riding sideways.
Keeping up a steady pace, I closed in on and passed a couple of the 60+ men. Going into the 3rd (last) lap I was getting encouragement from the feed zone (pic here)that there was another racer in front of me. Thinking it was one of the 30-39 women I wasn't too worried. Not long into the lap I came up on another rider and surprise, it was Steffi from my class. Uh, how about that? She said she was feeling bad, so I went on around and picked up the pace... just in case.
Final result: Not last and in the money (again!)
plus the last race winnings
I'm rich!
But, then again the bike needs a new chain.
In other news, our attic is no longer quite the fire hazard. We're getting more insulation installed, so everything needed to come out of the attic. Since we are now empty-nesters (or at least for about 9 months of the year), we made use of the local nephews and hired them to do the work.
The "it's not going back up there" pile just kept growing.
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