After some incredibly bad luck last weekend in Fayetteville, Eli was really needing another race. Hitting another race really quickly after a bad one has a way of washing away the pain. We found that Landahl Park in Blue Springs was having a dual enduro/XC race today... and that none other than Matt Johnson was part of it. Landahl was the scene of XC races for me 20+ years ago. It was always a rough, brutal course and I liked it that way. So we got up early and drove to Landahl this morning, and Eli got himself a selfie with the king of selfies.
Not to be outdone, I had to get a selfie with Matt as well.
Annnnnnnd.... the after-selfie. What transpired over a two hour period was worthy of an epic novel, so I'll spare you every detail and tell you the important stuff. The course was so much more brutal than it was in 2002. Even with our modern full-suspension bikes and 29 inch wheels and tubeless tires, it was bone-rattling goodness. 21 miles of rocks, boulders, roots, switchbacks, and mayhem. I started well, and within 2 miles Eli passed me. Yep, we raced together in the "Expert" or "Cat 1" class. I fought very hard and had a few glimpses of my youngest boy kicking my ass. But I never caught him. He finished 8th out of 23, and I finished about
20 SECONDS behind him in 9th. How is that for a fairytale passing of the torch? And Matt was not only the celebrity selfie guy, he was the announcer. He made it painfully clear to the audience that he was enjoying the father/son battle.
Eli and I enjoyed it, too. He's really good and wants to get better. Best of all, he loves it and doesn't have the angst and emotional baggage surrounding racing like I do. And lest anyone think that I let him win, I present my heartrate data from Strava. Bad picture, but knowing that my max heartrate at 56 years old is only 173...yeah. I was going as hard as this old body could go.
What a great way to lose.
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