rhett's run

it's no secret that i'm not a fan of wet mtn bike races. who knew it would rain sunday morning?? i sure didn't. john twist and i arrived in columbia with the windshield wipers running. that's never a good sign.

but the angry clouds rolled away and the earlier races smoothed a path for us. rhett's has always been able to hold water; last year's race was soggy as well. this time it was no different. the attendance was great, most classes had some great competition, and it seemed like everyone was ready for some racing in missouri.

bang, i jumped off into the lead and promptly went the wrong way. yep, i went straight instead of turning and went into the woods in 13th place. i took it in stride...i'm not in great shape, my mood was not the best, so i just went with it. i pecked my way up to second place (john matthews is not an easy man to catch if you're on your game, much less when you're feeling slow and you go off course) so i was pretty pleased. then i flatted.

if god was on vacation at, say, jupiter or uranus, he would have heard me loud and clear.

i fixed the flat with some haste, watching 12 or 13 people (most of which i had painstakingly passed just a bit earlier) go by. back on the bike, i was unhappy. my unhappiness began to float off in the direction of jupiter and uranus, though, as i began to pass people with even more haste and found myself going faster than before. i don't know how that happened, but i began to enjoy the race more and more and more....and i nearly caught everyone again. i ended up 4th on the day, seconds behind 3rd, a minute and a half behind 2nd, and about 4 minutes behind that murderous old matthews. hmmm. had i not flatted, i could have been in the hunt!

woulda. coulda. shoulda.

so twist and i collected our things and headed home, both of us in surprisingly good moods considering he flatted completely out while fighting for the lead. i guess we were both encouraged by what coulda been.