RTTR 2008

Once again I participated in the Race to the River at Harbison Forest. This year the family has had a bit of bad luck with injuries and I am the only one racing. I am really hoping next year both kids will be healthy enough and motivated to race.
As the life of an over scheduled father goes, I arrived at the race a little later than I would have liked, 30 minutes before the start. You know soccer games to coach, celebratory ice cream afterwards for scoring goals, and then a mad dash to get everything loaded and down the road in time to make the race. It sometimes feels like life is a race.
Once I got there and saw a few team faces the anxiety level dropped. Jonathan has a way of putting life in proper perspective.
We did our warm up ride/BS, lined up to start, and then it hit me… I have to change my wheels before this horrible storm hits! Of course I had the race wheels on that have no tread. These tires and wheels took me to my first MTB win ever last year at this very race. The only problem is that they suck if the ground gets wet. A few rain drops, dark skies, and increasing winds scared me into changing just prior to the start. With super human pit crew speed I changed to the Mountain Kings 2.4 and increased my rolling weight by over 1.5 lbs, but I had the assurance that things would stay were they are supposed to be when things got wet. Of course it did not rain until the last 20 minutes of the 2 hour race.
The race started in a bit of a disorderly fashion, and then we entered the single track behind Jonathan, who was running 1 big gear. As I watched the lead 4 pull away, part of me wanted to pass and sprint, but my lungs and legs were saying just hang here behind Damon. He is a seasoned racer teammate, and I am sure he is going to make a move at any moment. So for the first 8 miles I hung behind Damon until we got the climb right before Spiderwoman. I still had Spoke junkie in my sights and finally caught him at the rock garden. He happened to be running because he also only brought one big gear to the race today. I got ahead and held it to the end of the trail, but he passed me shortly afterwards. I saw him a few more times during the first lap, but he took off during the second lap and that was the end of that. The second lap was uneventful. No one flatted out, bonked, or wrecked in a bad way, so the finishing order was pretty much set. It was a lonely hour of telling myself, “at least your back does not hurt”, “I know a better way back to the car where the beer is”, “Man I hope it starts raining”, “Damon is going to catch me any minute”, “I wonder how long ago the others finished” and other random conversations with myself.
Finally the finish line and I got 8th out of 11 racers. 2 hours even on 24.5 miles. That is 12.25 mph and more than 1.25mph slower than last year. Even so I am happy that I finished, beat Damon for the first time in over 6 races, and represented with the other Harrell’s mates. A few cups of liquid aspirin with friends and back to the house.
I look forward to the next race on May 3, 2008. PMBAR, PMBAR, PMBAR!!!