Fat don't go up hill very well!

Busy busy this past weekend. It all started off Friday afternoon with a drive to Morgantown. I was headed there to take photos of the Twilight 5 miler down on the rail trail. I give the credit that is due for the folks who can run 5 miles in 27 minutes but damn running events are so boring to take photos of. With cycling you have cool-looking uniforms, shiny bikes, mud, and the riders have personalities, unlike a lot of runners. Well, I made it through the event and headed to the Black's house to crash for the evening. They were out of town so I made myself at home watching tv and eating some of their son's chicken nuggets and animal crackers. To top it all off, I found Star Wars playing on TV to fall asleep to.

The next morning it was a 8am wake-up call to head down to North Bend State Park near Parkersburg, WV. I had to get down there a day early to start setting up for the WVMBA race. Since there was no shade at the registration/finish area we got a big tent to put up. It was kinda sweet, wish it was our's (WVMBA) so we could have it every weekend.
WVMBA - Life under the big top?


After the work was all done I was ready to pre-ride the course. My new found friend Klara "Czech Chic" Hitchcock was going to meet me to ride. We never setup a time and I wish we would have because when 7:00 rolled around, I was sure she wasn't coming, so I instead decided to tackle a big fat burger!

Ohh this isn't going to help!


So about 10 pm Klara called to say she was not going to make it to ride.. lol.. Ya I kinda figured that when the sun went down a few hours ago I told her. Well it was then time for bed. Busy day tomorrow..

I awoke in the morning after a lot of tossing and turning during the night.
1 small tent + 2 dogs + 1 fat guy = no sleep
Registration was a nightmare. I was solo and had to deal with taking money, putting people in the computer, number plates and the rest of the stuff that goes into it. At about 15 minutes to noon I closed down registration and tried to get dressed to race. Then I had to run over and do a rider's meeting. I was able to get Steve Hill to do the timing at the last minute. I really had no one to do it so, Thanks Steve!

After the meeting we all headed down the hill to the start. First off would be the black plates (experts). Go! Less then 30 seconds into the race, Chris Baker decided to get off his bike by landing on his shoulder and head. He ended up breaking the shoulder. Maybe I should have given him a refund?! Next up was the blue plates (sport classes) and that was me. So we were off. Traffic was so backed up at the first climb we all walked up it single fill. The traffic was so slow we even had time to chat a little. Once it started to clear everyone was jumping on their bikes. I went to do the same but was in the wrong gear. I jumped off and shifted and got back on the bike. I made the worst sound ever. By the time I got it all worked out the majority of my class went by me. The first climb put me on overload early. Look at the profile !! I tried my best to make time back up, but the hills just would ot stop. I must admit I even thought it was too hard and wanted to stop, but I didn't. The highlight of the day was T-boning a tree. I came around a turn way way to fast and couldn't hold the turn. I ended up going right into a tree and hit it hard. I told myself oh well thinking that I trashed the wheel. I picked the front up and turned the wheel and was amazed that it was ok. So off i went.

At about mile 6 I caught up with Klara and she had also just come off a hard crash. I could still see mud on her face where it had been sliding on the ground. She said well let's just ride together and I agreed. We started picking a few people off here and there. Thanks to her for helping me keep the pace up. The finall climb to the finish was on a paved road and I could see one of the guys in my class a head of me. I jumped on the pedal and gave it all I could but couldn't close the gap..

I finished in 2:26:55, and the biggest thing was I wasn't last. Not in the race or even in my class.. I was happy. I still think I am faster than that but I have never been able to climb well and there sure was a lot of that. I like to see a big-gear-pounding race!

So after getting off the bike I was told that the timing system was not working. I kinda knew this was going to happen. I probably shouldn't have raced but I wanted to so what are you going to do.. So I got out the pen and paper and start figuring out the results by hand. No biggy I have done it before but it kinda sucks after a race.

Once the results and the awards were done I was beat and so were the dogs.

Lucky sleeping on her bone


So all and all things went pretty well. After the race Benji Klimas walked away with over $2500.00 to help his family. I raced and survived. Gunnar won, Betsy won, Chris got 2nd in SS but was also 3rd overall. I got 7th out of nine guys but I can do better... Till next time..