It's Kind of a Tri Thing, Pt II

(Me, pumped, waiting for Casey)

On the Road Again

So after I took the time out to take a quick pic and NOT turn on my Strava, I noticed a couple guys pass me, and thought I better get back after it. Back up the trail I went, after the guys that had just passed as I was playing the part of a tourist on vacation, taking pics of the scenery. The switch backs were over, and there were a fell hills to climb before getting to the camping area that is about half way up the mountain. The first hill may be the shortest of the three between me and the camping area, but it is also the steepest. Up I went, and off the bike I went, needing to take 15 steps or so at the steepest part before I could get back on the bike and continue riding. (The part of the trail is fairly compact, so I will be back, and I will be able to ride through that part SOME DAY!) I didn't even mind that I had to walk the bike here for a few steps, most people did. The problem I had was that I had a couple young kids run their bikes by me while I walked mine up. We had more climbing to do and needed to pace ourselves, didn't they KNOW that!? I am sure they did, but they were half my age (Man, that feels REALLY bad to actually be able to write that now) and they could go for days.

Luckily, I was able to tackle the next couple hills on the bike, and may have even gained a spot or two back in the process. I made it through the camping/picnic area, crossed over the paved road, and got to the best (or more like worst) part of the trail. As I rode past a power line tower, the road turned to the right and back up again. This time, the trail had extra powder from the recent leveling of the road to clean out the overgrowth. Once again I felt like it was one of those dirt bike shows on TV where all these riders try and go up this super steep hill, in effort to see just how far up they can get before they have to bail. As I approached the hill I could see guys walking their bikes up, and I kept working my bike up to where they were already walking. "Yeah, gonna get further than they did. Keep going, keep going, keeeee, ah crap, I'm spent." And back to walking until the road gets to a point that you can get back on the saddle again.

A couple more hills and I was to the top. The downhill portion was fun, but I am still working on just letting the bike do its thing under me, and keeping it full throttle. That said, I was happy to report I only had one person pass me on the way down. Again, this was a kid. Their bodies heal faster, and they don't worry about going to work on Monday, so I was okay with that. Besides, I gained some ground back on him when we got to the paved road on the way back to the transition point.

Off He Goes

Daniel was waiting and ready to go as I rolled back into the parking lot. He took off running, and I had two thoughts. 1) How far back is Kenny? 2) What is that smell because it is making me want to puke!?

1) Kenny would end up being back a bit, but that is a story deserving of its own post. And as such, should be my next post.

2) The smell ended up be the Tommy Burgers truck getting our lunch ready. I knew I would be hungry in time, but the mixture of them prepping the greasy, delicious burgers, added in with the chili they make to go on them, was almost enough to make me puke. I quickly dropped the bike and put some distance between me and the truck.

In He Comes

After waiting, looking for Kenny for a few minutes I had to get back over to the end of the run. As we did the triathlon as a team, we were supposed to finish as a team. They asked each of the teams to run the last 100 yards or so together. Casey had left, and so I walked and waited. This I would do, walking a bit further out every couple of minutes, telling myself I had rested a little more and thus would be able to run the rest with Daniel when he came through. I will admit, I didn't go far.

Finally, Daniel was in sight, and we were off to the finish line. Daniel had had a good run, and I am sure only gained ground on those in front of him. (At least that's what I'll tell him.)  

Surprises, it's Prizes

Seeing as we were just finishing our burgers (now feeling much better, they hit the spot), they were ready to announce the winners so we stuck around. Not surprisingly, the overall winners were a few lean and mean teenagers that killed every leg of the race. However, to our surprise, we did end up getting 3rd in the adult team category. I will admit, we were a bit surprised as none of us had really trained for the event. And though there were probably only 15 or so teams we would have been competing against we never thought about beating anyone. With that said, I felt the fool to find out we had missed 2nd by 18 seconds. All of the sudden that stopping to take a picture was coming back to bite me. Doh!!

We anyways, we didn't take home any major winnings (this was Scouting fundraiser after all), but I was stoked to be rocking my medallion!