Status update..Just like facebook but less interesting

You might have to excuse my spelling, as I am starting my Thursday off right with a little (big) glass of rum and coke. 'Tis the only way to get Thursday going. So just a recap from last weekend in which was the first race of the Charlotte Winter Short Track series. Weather was perfect, about 55 degrees. Cool enough were you didn't need to bring a lot of fluids, hot enough where you weren't freezing your ass off. I love the Carolina winters. I was feeling good going into the race. Went to church early in the morning, grabbed some breakfast, then headed on over to Renni park to do a few warm up laps. Luckily because it was the first race and a HUGE turnout they were running a little behind. That just gave me more opportunities to warm up...or to go out on a warm up lap and break my chain and walk back to the pits. There was still another field that had yet to start and finish their race so I wasn't too concerned with time as I did the walk of shame up the gravel fireroad. Luckily I caught Robert, one of the allen wrench monkeys for my new shop team this year Sun and Ski Sports who was able to shorten the chain and get everything all dialed in for me. I took it easy on a few more warm up runs as I didn't want to jinx myself with breaking a chain during the race. The race before my group, 19-39 sport, finally ended and my group got ready to go. It was a large field, 31 overall for my age group, and then about 30 for the 40+ group. That is a lot of people on .8 miles of mountain bike singletrack. I went off with a bang, or about as fast as I could. I ended up going into the first turn in about 20th place. Since this event draws a lot of roadies, they are fast on the gravel climbs so I wasn't concerned with catching those in front of me, just making sure those behind me didn't pass. About 3 laps in I noticed my mistake I made earlier in the day. No, it wasn't about the chain breaking, but about how I ate a bagel sandwich only about and hour before hand. Cramps. Bad ones. Laps 4-6. After pushing through those I finally settled into a rythem and had in my sights 2 people in my class. I caught one of them at lap 7,and one at lap 8. It is a new feeling for me to be able to pass people that late in the race. Most the time the leaders pass me on these short races. Well, they did, with 2 laps to go. Not to shabby holding on that long. All in all I took 24 out of 31. Although the results might not show it, I was happy with that standing considering there is always sandbaggers to deal with, along with roadies who use their brakes the entire downhill to slow everyone down, and then on the smooth climb just take off with their tiny 120 lbs bodies. And heres the part everyone loves...pictures. Courtesy of the burrower.

These white jerseys are not going to be white after this next weekend...

The Mutt picking his nose...

Thats about all I got. The burrower will be there again next week, so maybe she can have some fun with her new camera and find some different angles. Till then..