lonely race weekend

since mrs k took the boys to family camp this weekend, i was left to fend for myself. i did a little warm up riding, then went to see hanna's dance recital. it was great to see her tap dance her little routine.



after seeing her safely off to family camp sunday morning, i headed to the kaiser's house for our columbia adventure. marty and i had decided long ago that rhett's run would be our race of choice. neither one of us really like matson, and the rain only made us happier to go to columbia.

upon arrival, we were greeted with the inevitable: it rained pretty hard at rhett's run as well. sigh. a quick preride showed that it was not all doom and gloom. as a matter of fact, aside from some slippery sections, the trail was solid and it just wasn't the type of soil to pack up and carry along with your tires. so it was on.

davey b and mike best blew out the younger expert race, while i had my hands full in the 35+. it seems mr andy gibbs has been eating his wheaties. we battled it out for 4 solid laps. his technical riding was beyond mine, and i only had an edge on some of the steeper climbs. fortunately for me, it came down to a grass field sprint. i've only lost one of those in my mtn bike racing career, and to none other than dan schmatz, so i was pretty confident. rip, rip, rip, and it was done. andy tried a gear change and it just wasn't necessary. but i was spent, so i must say it was a killer race. too bad i wasn't able to pass ALL of the young guys. dave and mike were just kickin it. a huge pat on the back goes to matt james, who took 4th in his group and kept up with andy and i quite a while. ah, i love rhett's run even more now that i know it's a good race when wet!

the kaiser and i ate our usual post race meal of mexican and talked about the usual post race stuff. it was nice seeing friendly faces like john twist and kyle and the other mesa guys. tom brinker, sprinter extraordinaire from long ago, raced and it was great to see him riding pretty well on an ancient super v.

i was happy to be home and see the boys and hanna and of course, mrs k. it was a long lonely race weekend.