the grimace at hermann missouri

thanks to paul "pdaddy" from stlbiking for the great photos~!

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since the beautiful mrs k did her crit at hermann in the rain and cold, it was not going to be politically correct for me to bag my race. the p/1/2 race was scheduled for dinner time, and by then it was warmer, not windy, and certainly not cold. i had to race.

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i really wanted to race, but i had fear and loathing for the downhill on the backside of the course. it was VERY fast and the pavement was pockmarked to the extreme. i actually wanted to do the climb that was so feared, well, because i like to climb. well...i thought it did.

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not that i'm ever in any danger of winning hard races like this, but this race was pretty much safe from any threat of me winning. safe from any threat of me...at all. my legs were just flat. my first lap down the big descent was drama free, and i was quite happy to settle in the middle and go through the two 90 degree corners. but i took them slow...every lap. so, every lap, i would lose a little time and have to make it back up. unfortunately, a combination of low talent and slow cornering on the bottom of the course makes it very hard to make up time on the monster climb...remember, this was the climb that i wanted to do.

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the first lap i was in the mix on the climb, but started to get gapped at the top. i struggled back and latched on to the riders at the bottom of the downhill: score! i defeated my fear of the descent.

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my elation lasted exactly that long. again gappage occurred at the corners, and again i struggled back on the monster climb. which, by the way, i had grown to fear. it was HARD. in four laps, i was by myself. i was going to quit after the fifth one.

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but i didn't quit. i kept going, like i was racing, for 7 or 8 more laps, i lost count. (16 total!!!) even though i was practically creating a double hernia every climb. i actually looked forward to the downhill every lap, too. i just couldn't quit as long as they weren't pulling riders.

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i was going to quit after every lap. but, each time, at the base of the climb, hanna and tyson were screaming their little heads off. about a third of the way up, there was deanna and elijah and more of my friends, including brad and the allisons. about two thirds up, there were more on the right side of the course. and before i ever crested the top, there was the announcer, my old buddy aaro froese, telling me like it was. and there was another group at the top, too.

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once i crested the top of that stupid climb, there was no way i was quitting. those people made it happen. it was incredible.

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i was lapped twice by jenson. i was treated like a whack-a-mole game. but i had a great race.