spilled milk

so i get home from the dino race on saturday and check out the wors board. i think people just troll that board. anyway, i read that the sport course is gonna be awesome (in my mind anyway)... then i had second thoughts about doing dino. i mean i thought we'd be doing laps in the field with barely any singletrack. apparently no, we are doing a bunch of singletrack and get to taste winterpark on the way back! i was excited and hoped i didn't cash myself at dino.
the excitment lasted til we got to the race. turns out we really didn't get to do anymore additonal singletrack. boo in capital letters. oh well, it just turned out to be what i expected all along.
we busted out of the driveway a little after 6 am. casey dazed and confused becoming one with her car seat slightly reclined in the back wondering why we were leaving and the sun was still sleeping... we hit the dunkin donuts for some bagel sandwiches and caffeine. john says no to coffee. when will he learn it's the nectar of the gods... i used to hate it too. anyway, looked like a 4 hour drive ahead of us according to mapquest. no radio on the way up! can you believe it? we shot the shit the whole way up. we came into the city two rivers and saw tony and beth right in front of us. it was as if they appeared out of nowhere.
we hit the piggly wiggly for some bagels and scooby snacks before we got to the race. we wandered for a few, checked out the scene. and then to be honest i don't know what the hell i did. must not have been too exciting. i gave the darcy van til 10:30 before i'd go back and get dressed and register myself instead of registering all together.
there were yellow jackets everwhere. bastards. i'm such a wimp now when i see them. it was 10:30. i headed over to the truck to start getting ready. man i take long. i headed over to registration with my blank check and just so happens the darcy crew are in there. perfect timing. i ruled and didn't even know it.
got registered... blah blah blah.
11:30 rolls along. start time. staging was uneventful. actually there was something, but best kept to myself. waited with nervous stomach as i knew what was ahead. road. and lots of it. gooooo... i wasn't too bad getting to the climb. then after the climb i was like 4th from last. 4th from last. oh man. i knew i sucked, but i didn't think i'd be that bad! i got a bit more motivated as i could see where racers were entering the atv trail. i passed two girls on the road before the dirt. then passed a few girls in the dirt. first singletrack section. bam. stop while everyone walked up the singletrack. oh man again. this is gonna be a long day. lots of track stands and hanging on to trees beginning of the first lap... cursing (in my head of course) people that can't ride singletrack. then cursing myself for sucking ass on the road... finally in the open i passed a bunch. got stuffed by a 50 year old... passed a couple clydes. saw some age groupers ahead of me and just started picking people off. my next lap i was able to ride the singletrack for the most part by myself. 2 more age groupers to find before i finished. passed one i think without even realizing she was in my group. now one more. we've gone back in forth in a few races this season so i didn't think i'd do it. i can't say i wasn't trying though. then i saw her in the open sections. just out of reach. i realized i was starting to gain on her. i saw her keep looking back so maybe she was worried. that's what i told myself anyway. we got to the big whoop thingees in the field, down up, down up, down, steeeppp uppp, drop chain! dammit. hurry, hurry get it on, she's right there walking the hill. go go go. i got my chain on and hopped on at the top of the hill cyclocross style. james and dana were screaming at me... she's right there, get her! i couldn't help but giggle. i wanted to catch her so bad at this point. we came to the last section of singletrack. just a little bit of loamy dirt, trees, roots and a small technical turn with rocks n roots. i told myself if i rode that clean i'd have her. i almost had it (wish i prerode) but had to grab a tree to push off of. i didn't see her and was like, shit. she's fuckin' movin'. then i saw her, standing by the tree. i sat up, she was okay. she said go ahead, good job. there was almost a part of me that felt bad. dumb, eh? anyway, i boogied out of there. it was a long ride back. i was on the atv trail coming out hot, i jumped the lip to get on the road, shifted down and moved on. holy shit was it long... road, road, more road, wind, road... pass couple guys... more road... where is the freakin' turn already. finally saw it... yay! 1st in age, 4th overall. i was pleased.
as much as i was disappointed in not being able to do the singletrack, i felt satisfied having raced the day before. there seemed to be less field than my race two years ago. so that was good. my race was only an hour and like 10 minutes. very short. i'm sure there were good reasons why singletrack was taken out, blah blah blah... but my race was still only an hour and 10 minutes. only one sport finisher finished outside of the two hour mark. that was antonia... however, she ran the whole thing. crazy.
casey was asked if she was going to be a bike racer like her mom and dad... she said, "i already race". she's so fresh. she entered the kids race. it was a fun course for the little ones. a small dirt path in the trees in a short circle. staging was long, but she had a blast.
after her race we sent john off and wished everyone luck.
i felt completely out of touch with the elite race of course. all i could do was wait for them to find me at the playground... turns out everyone had a good day. you can check out mike's report here. dont' mind the title... it's really the kewaunee race report, he didn't even do 24 hrs of 9 mile. check out jeremey's interesting report.