Great weekend in Georgia!

Friday we got to Ft Yargo park in Winder in the early afternoon after the 6 hour drive from Jax. Char rode the course a little and then ran as race prep while I chilled at the Blue Mobile lakeside. From there we found our hotel, got some free dinner at Longhorn (friends & family night?) and then got up early Saturday morning for the 8 am start of the XTERRA. Char and sbc raced in the XTERRA while Rad and I ran support. Rad and I had a blast chasing sbc around the woods heckling him yelling, "C'mon Big Boy!" sbc seemed motivated by our looney antics or he was just trying to get the hell away from us! Anyhow, Char kicked some major butt by winning her age group and finishing 4th overall. sbc scored a win as well in his age group and finished 5th overall. What studs! They also raced in the cross country race the next day. Here's a few shots of Char from each portion of the XTERRA...


After the crew got back to the hotel for some afternoon nappage, we headed to downtown Athens for the Twilight Criterium to see the women's and men's pro race Saturday night. I'd never been to Athens or any part of UGA so it was exciting to see the atmosphere of this semi-famous race in the heart of the college town. Man, it was so packed and so sxciting! Rad, sbc and myself were pumped! All the vendors, all the bike manufacturers, the tents, the teams, the fans, the WWF announcer, the beer, the college coeds... We had a great time and plan to go back again to get a better taste of the festivities- and the BEER. Here's a clip of the pro men's race as the peloton was about to catch the breakaway...

We got to sleep in a bit Sunday morning because our race didn't start until 11:30. The weather was awesome Saturday but it rained all night Saturday night so we woke up to soggy conditions. I felt pretty good going into the race minus a little soreness in my legs that I haven't been able to shake for the last few weeks. I was eager to see where my fitness was and what I would need to work on. There were 22 of us on the line in the 30-39 Expert field, including a worn-out sbc from Saturday's XTERRA. I usually go out hard at the start of the race and normally get the holeshot, but today I decided to file in where I hoped to finish- somewhere in the top 10. I actually went into the woods some where around where I would finish, 17th. I felt ok at the start, slowed like normal to recover and then never got back up to race pace- like normal. My lap times were very consistent, although consistently slow and I never cramped or felt totally bonked. I actually had a little pepper at the end of the race to chase a few guys down so I'm sure I held back in fear of running out of gas before the race ended. But once again, I didn't keep a race pace for the entire race. The good thing is that my coach was there and I have total confidence in him getting me on track. I am still relatively new to the sport, considering I have only been cycling/racing mtn bikes for 4 years and this is my 2nd year in expert. I don't think I have totally tapped into my potential yet...or at least I keep telling myself that.... Either way, I may be temporarily getting my butt kicked but I'm having a blast!

Here's a shot of me battling it out for 17th... SOLID.

It was an awesome weekend overall and I had a blast! Char won her sport race, sbc got 4th in my class and the International Superstar Rad won his sport race. Great time, great peeps! It was also cool chatting with all of our cool friends from the Florida MTB scene as well as some folks from the SERC scene that I hadn't seen in a while.

One last thing- here's the secret of The BigBlue Race Effort...