Finally a dry race!

Made it through a hot one yesterday at St.Joe state park. Used mainly by atvs and motorcycles St.Joe provided one of the better race courses I've been on in a while. The work that went into this race is hard to comprehend. From what I hear, just last week this trail was not in great shape and flat out hard to follow in places. It was awesome for us. Thanks Mark.

We pre-rode about two miles and then came back. With minimal effort my heart rate was in the 170's, I knew if I went out hard at all I wouldn't finish. So when we lined up at the start line I stayed in the back. I figured I could just roll with the field and not feel pressured to chase Dwayne and it worked. It wasn't long and I had worked my way up and was riding alone, making reasonable time. Drinking as much as I could and conserving on the climbs, I was able to claim 3rd only having to ride four 8 mile laps. Dwayne and Zach both did five for 1st and 2nd. I could have done another but didn't want to.

I will definitely go back and ride St.Joe sometime when it's not 96 degrees.

Aviation Challenge

OK, so this will be my 2nd non-bike oriented post. I know bikes but occasionally I do other things. This past weekend I took Adam, my eight year old to a camp in Huntsville, AL. His interest sparked when his school was having a contest; write an essay on a dream you have and you might be awarded a "Dream Grant"-money to go after this dream. So Adam did.

His dream was to go to a camp Mandy, my wife had told him about. She went to the "Space" camp when she was a kid. He seemed more interested in the "Aviation" side of things so he aimed and scored a direct hit. He was chosen to receive a grant which partially covered the cost of the camp. They offer a pilot/co-pilot camp which we thought at the age of eight would be the way to go so we signed up.

After looking at the maps and choosing a route we headed out Thursday morning. Since we had all day we decided to take a detour on the way down and drive the "Trace" through The Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and Tennessee. It's a nice road that winds through protected land with no stop signs, lights or houses to be seen. Definitely worth it. It added about an hour, but I had never driven the entire section. Before we knew it, we were in Alabama looking at a horizon dotted with NASA rockets.
The next morning we checked in and took out bags to our "quarters", a small room with seven beds designed for kids under 14, five of which were bunk beds. The other two families had already claimed their beds so we took what was left, both bunks. After a quick orientation we met our instructor "Oz", her first name was Dorothy. We jumped on a bus and headed to "Aviation Challenge", an area used to train future fighter pilots all the skills they will need to survive the flying and the crashing that could go with the flying. We spent hours in real training flight simulators. We practiced crash landing and swimming out of the "dunk tank", a mock of a plane that they lower into the water and you have to swim down and out a window to escape, sometimes with a disability or injury. Practiced a water rescue from a mock helicopter in a basket.
We learned what to eat and what not to eat, what kind of fires to build depending on where you crash land, enemy or friendly territory. We built a shelter out of our parachute(in the rain I might add). We built a stellar fire using only what we could find and the matches in our survival kit and Oz commented that our fire was the best she had ever seen as an instructor-go scouts! Adam rode in a real training centrifuge, not like a ride at Disney. The real thing with its only purpose being G's. I chose not to so as to not ruin the rest of my night. This also allowed some of the kids to ride it twice, yea, that's why I didn't ride it! My favorite part was later that night, "Blitzkrieg"!

We were issued our BDU's, cammo shirts and instructed to put on our old long pants we were told to bring. We headed out near dusk into the woods. Each of us was given three chips and the mission was to deposit the chips in one of the three tins with small flashing lights on them placed in different areas in the woods. The closest tin was worth one point and if you wanted to you could put all three chips in this tin and be done with three points. The second tin was worth five points but required more risk to get to. The third tin was worth ten points and not only was further back in the woods, but was guarded by an instructor. Pitch black now, we crossed into the woods and had to assume an "army crawl", lift your head or move when one of the patrolling officers came by and you would loose a chip. Loose all three and you were out. Adam and I went separate ways but both had our sights set on 30 points, no less. The guard at the ten point tin had a high power flash light looking for movement and was ten feet up in a tree stand. I watched how she flashed the light and figured out that there was a stand of trees that blocked her view and headed for their shadow. I was able to make good time only having to watch for the foot patrols and quickly was past the first and second tins with the third in my view. Soon the guard figured out I was lurking and started aggressively looking for me. I made it right up to the tree she was on and stood up on the back side of the tree in the shadow from her light. She knew I was there but couldn't see me, I don't think it ever occurred to her that I would be standing right under her. I waited until just the right time and dropped my chips in the tin which was an empty coffee can. It made a loud plink and I yelled "Blitzkrieg!". Once safe I looked in the light cast by the guard and saw Adam only feet away. He had circled all the way around the guard and was approaching from the other direction. Soon he dropped in his chips, success! All in all we only crawled about 75 yards but I was drenched with sweat and filthy. Tons of fun! The kids roasted marshmallows afterwards and we headed back to get cleaned up and go to bed.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to graduate. After receiving our certificates and a pin for completing Blitzkrieg they awarded one kid the "Right Stuff" medal. This kid being the most likely to become a fighter pilot someday ended up being Adam! Out of the three space camps and our aviation camp, he was the only kid that was picked for an individual award. I think the reason for this was his knowledge of the aircraft. Oz was going over the parts of a plane and the physics behind flying and he essentially had all the answers to her questions. He even added a few details I honestly don't think she knew and was consequently blown away by him. They asked me if I had studied with him before the camp and I told them that in order to do that I would have to know what he's talking about.........he's eight!

Runny Rhetts

Once again, perfect conditions the day before the race and downpours the morning of. It rained a little on us while seeing the trail for the first time on our practice lap and then just a sprinkle during the race. It was a sloppy and slippery start but after two laps the conditions improved. Unfortunately, the damage to the drivetrain had already been done. The first two laps also required much more strength to keep the bike upright and moving forward. Once the trail dried up I lacked the power I wish I had on tap and my chain sounded a little sickly. Now I know why they used grass mixed in with mud to build houses back in the day, that stuff sticks and was stuck in my derailleurs.

All in all the trail surface wasn't that bad. Rhetts Run is a short but demanding course. Lots of trail crammed into a small area. Not to put a cloud over this event, but due to the small loops that this system has which means the trail must come and go only divided by a piece of ribbon, there was some short cutting going on. Most people come out to challenge themselves but some will do whatever it takes to advance. Usually the winners clearly and decisively win and it's further back that the funny stuff can happen. I have no fingers to point, but watched lots of people and heard of other people witnessing the same lameness. All I have to say is that I will outride these folks on a course like Council Bluff where it proves more difficult to cheat. My buddies Chad Brixey and Dwayne both double flatted and chose to walk every inch of the course instead of DNFing. They also noticed some odd time changes going on. After a while it pissed me off and I yelled at a couple of riders.

Past that, this was one of the most fun races I've done in a while. Big field, lots of carnage, rocks, roots and PBR after. I started about mid pack. Slowly picking my way through riders, I had my one unplanned dismount midway through my first lap. No one close enough to see it, I feel I must recap. I rounded a slightly down hill left turn into a small dip/creek and was coerced to one side of the trail by a wet root. I tried to correct and over did it. Before I knew it I was on the downhill side of the trail trying my best to stop while plowing over some poor saplings. I came to rest after bumping into the trunk of a small tree only to find out that there was nothing to put my downhill foot on and toppled over like I was still clipped in to my pedals. I was laughing as I got up and only got passed by one rider. First chance, I was back by him. I figured out half way through my 2nd lap that I had hit the stop button on my Garmin when I crashed so I lost about 3/4 of a lap.

In a while I came by Dwayne fixing a flat. Wouldn't be long before he would blow back by me. Turns out that would not be the case as he had a second flat and had to walk. In a lap or so I caught Nate Means who I chose to ride behind for a while and pick up some sick lines, thanks dude! 3rd place was right ahead of us and soon he and I traded places. We swapped spots a few more times. The last time he came by me I thought that was it, he was flying. It lasted about 30 seconds and I think he blew. I went by him never to see him again. I went into my 6th lap still in 3rd and was caught and passed by a guy on a single speed racing marathon class who was absolutely flying. Pretty impressive to see someone come on that strong that far along in the race. I had no answer. I continued to rail what I could rail and poke my way up the climbs to finish 4th.

While it was cool to get cheered on by Chad and Dwayne each time I passed them, it was a bummer that they nor myself had any idea that you could change out parts on your bike back at the "pit" area. We all thought racers were self sufficient, meaning you use what you carry. Pretty sure those guys would have picked up a spare tube and continued to race had they known the rules. Now we know! Jason Stiger tore it up for the win, nice job! Paul Krewet made a guest appearance and announced official retirement, maybe. Jay Strothman rode a strong race, dude flies on a mtb, flies on a road bike. Greg Ott got another top 10 finish. And Todd Hecht made his debut into marathon racing, don't give up.