cape girardeau

i got third today. normally, that wouldn't be cause for celebration, but today was somewhat special.

cape was a local norba race, so there are no age groups. we all start together, youngun's and old coots like me. tom albert, an old coot from the old days, was the only guy 40+ like me. we busted out on the super fun twisty single track, and a group of 5 of us were off. plochmeister and john rines were there, along with bob and a young pup named travis. cool. the pace was fast, and soon we shed bob. then, surprisingly, we shed rines. i started thinking big then. i was in the lead three. yee haw. i stayed there until i had to stop to grab a bottle. my superteam of fans and water hander uppers decided that swimming and generally having fun all day was more fun than standing in the hot sun and handing me bottles. i lost about 10 seconds, and i fought a whole lap to make it up, but it just grew. those guys just weren't playing around. i had to settle for third. but i was quite glad, very glad, to see that my training was working and i could ride with the young guys.

i can't beat them. yet.