Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Stage Two: Short Track

Day two began with me hitting the hotel business office to get my design work done for the week. Got it done and then had a small window of time to relax before heading to the store and then the venue for the short track race. Bear's race was at 11:30, Nick's at 1PM, and mine at 2PM. We got out there at 10:30 so Bear could warm up. Nick and I headed for the shade as it was already pushing 90 degrees and there was not much shade around.

We found shelter in the high school buildings around the race course which helped. The course was the xc running course for the high school and it was fun. Some short steep pitches, tight turns, and plenty of open sections.

Bear was first to go and he slipped a pedal at the start. He dropped back a little but slowly worked his way back up to the top three. One the last lap he had a close call on one of the switchback downhill turns almost losing it. He kept it rubber side down and came across the line in 2nd place for the day. 

Bear rides 2nd wheel

A well ridden 2nd place

Nick was up next and as always he took the holeshot. He worked with Jordan and the two built a good lead on the other juniors. It was getting quite hot out and Bear handed up a bottle to Nick. The race came down to a sprint finish between Nick and Jordan with Nick taking the win.

Paul, Nick, and Jordan drill it at the front

Nick and Jordan working it

Jordan and Nick get their hardware
It was finally time for my race. It was hot and I got to the line late and received last row last place starting. As we started it was a mad dash to attempt to get closer to the front. I got caught behind some traffic and slowly worked my way forward. I was looking for others to work with to bridge up but no one seemed interested. Alone it was. The next group had some time on me and I was not able to close the gap. With two laps to go I started getting chills and goosebumps and had to back off a bit. Bear saved me with a bottle hand up. A crash occured in the group ahead of me and I was able to make up a little time but finish off the pace in 5th place.

Alone trying to keep the pedals turning over

Bear was prepared by bringing a huge cooler which we packed with ice and drinks in the morning. I headed straight to it and downed a few liters of fluids and had to sit in the shade for a while to recover. It was a good sign when I started sweated again! That meant two things: It was time to go to REI and also find some food!

Salt cravings....these were um...not that good

Double-in up at In n' Out

Well tuned burger machine

After hitting up In N' Out we headed back to swim at the hotel to cool off. Then we headed downtown to check out some pizza. The wait for a table was 40 minutes but the take out time was 30. Take out it was. We waited outside Chicago Fire for our food. Some radio station was blasting music in the parking lot and we sat around and people watched. Some crazy unicyclists showed up and made for exciting people watching. Finally our deep dish pizza was done and it was heavy. My arms began to fatigue just carrying it back to the car. It was good (Not Fat Tony's in Whistler good but really close) and the sausage on there was not tiny bits....they were like patties you get at a pancake breakfast.

So good

There were huge sausage patties (not bits) on this baby
After eating pizza and downing multiple bags of various salty snacks we turned in for the night.
Food coma and funny tv shows before turning in

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