Let's see, it was sort of a busy weekend... It started Thursday evening arriving home just in time to run back to school to retrieve a lost memory stick, but fortunately that was near the dentist where they needed to go anyway at 5:30. Unfortunately the appointments were back to back and not in parallel...so it was pizza at 7:30. Then trying to see if I can figure out how to get the boat that John bought back in the fall that was delivered here onto my car so that I can take it down and drop it where the UofR is setting up for the big regatta over the weekend...I think I figured it out, got it up there and tied down, got some "instructions" for where to meet the UofR team the next morning...So Friday morning I am cruising slowly past trailors for of boats, buses and vans from all over the East Coast, an unbelievable amount of people and logistics, though at 6:15am the crowds weren't too bad...got the boat dropped off, dropped my car in the parking lot, had a big meeting at 10:00, then the guy with the new servers showed up at about 10:45 and we spent the rest of the day putting those in, getting them set up and getting a quick and dirty introduction to "virtual servers." Suffice it to say: sacrey cool. Ran home but had more errands before I could get anything like a little bike ride in...then I spent the rest of the evening packing for the race the next day. They were talking about thunderstorms in the morning, so packing became more difficult...Woke up around 6:15 on Saturday morning and headed up to French Creek. Ran into just a few drops on the way up...picked up my registration and then...it looked like the storm had missed us and there was some blue sky, even...finished getting ready and, uh oh, looks like it's gonna have another shot at use and it started raining about 15 minutes before the start, but it wasn't cold and it didn't last for more than about 30 to 45 minutes so it wasn't too bad...
About 50 people in all lined up for the start of the 6 hour endurance race at 9:00, including the Elites, the Masters (that's me, the old people), the women and the folks on singlespeeds. Laps of about 10 miles, only a couple of "rocks gardens" but a very rocky course, complete with a massive series of "steps" down some huge water bars and bone shaking descents...two long hellish climbs that just didn't wanna stop...Was worrying a little too much about "bonking" but once I stopped "eating" my stomach settled down and I started to feel a little better...After the rain left and things were seeming pretty darn nice, the wind started up. Being deep in the woods it wasn't so bad, but you could HEAR it overhead in the tree tops, sounding like the proverbial locomotive and I just kept thinking how it was nice to only hear it, but not be riding into that headwind...and then the limbs started falling all around. One pretty big one landed nearby but behind me as I climbed up the Six Penny trail, but I didn't bother to turn and look at it. When I started my last lap, it was pretty obvious that a big tree had fallen across the dirt road climb and that someone had gotten to it and cleaned it up with a chainsaw...pretty fast work (though I don't mean to be suggesting ANY thing about my lap speed).
I had been wanting to ride it like it was a short race and really try to hammer it, but I just couldn't do it...but in the end I did end up putting in a decent effort and I did come across the finish line with nothing left in my tank so...Mission Accomplished. After I could walk again, and I gathered my stuff up, I managed to crawl home in the car...B made some kind of eggplant thing with couscous...needless to say I ate it up.
Of course, Sunday was Mother's Day so we needed to do all that stuff, including brunch with my MIL. We then strolled out onto the back patio of the mansion turned brunch spot before saying goodbye and taking B to what she really wanted for Mother's Day, which was to see the new IronMan movie...
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