Me no go boom...

This past weekend was both fun and busy. My original plan was to go to the Swanson River City Shootout MTB race on Saturday, then help out at the Lincoln City Marathon and then get a few hours riding time in too, with plenty of time for much needed yard work.

That all came to a crashing restructure Friday evening when I received and email stating that the MTB race was being postponed to Sunday. It was done because of the rain we got during the week and they just wanted to make sure we didn't get any more and that the trails would be in primo condition to ride. So, Saturday morning I decided to mow the yard. Then come the afternoon, I decided to head out to Swanson park and get a few laps in, and to get some much needed time on the mountain bike. It was frakkin sweet. There were a couple of juicy spots but I figured they would be dried up come race time on Sunday. I sure felt like I got a serious climbing workout. I know Platte River will be much more brutal, and that race is the day after the TT in Norfolk. Oh I am so going to be hurting after that weekend.

Sunday morning I headed out to the 20 mile mark at the Lincoln Marathon to monitor the timing system until someone arrived to take over. There was definitely a lot of inspiration amongst these people. It was obvious some of them were doing this just to prove something to themselves and they weren't about to give up. From what I heard there were around 1200 people doing the full marathon. I headed out around 10am to get to Swanson and get at least one warm-up lap in before the race started at noon. Mission accomplished.

This was the race last year that I ripped a seat off of the bike, almost broke my jaw, and ended up a DNF. Not this time, no way. The beginners races have had the ante upped on them by doing 2 laps now. This I liked. However, I wasn't amply prepared for a 2 lap race. I didn't carb up the night before and before the race like I should have, since I was only planning on a 30 minute or so race. To save you from a detailed lap by lap replay, I will summarize it instead. No accidents, 1 chain drop (need to get a dog fang for my bike), no accidents, several tactical mistakes. Ended up 4th out of 13 in my group. I felt really good about that, much better than a year ago. The big mistake I made was thinking the guy in front of me was in my group, so I stayed on his six to try and take him in the final sprint. Damn, he wasn't in my group, guess I need to pass whenever I can and not plan out a final sprint strategy unless I am one hundred percent sure of the individual in front of me.

It was a great time anyway, thanks to everyone who put on, officiated, and supported this race. The whole thing went off smoothly. Now I have 2 weeks to get ready for the state time trial on the 17th and the 6 hour Platte river marathon on the 18th. Oh, I will so be a hurtin' unit after that weekend. Hope everyone had a great weekend whatever it was you did.