What a beautiful Sunday it was!! Sugar bottom day too! We woke up normal time (no need to get up early, yeah!) had some breakfast and was out the door around 8:30ish. Oh, not before the kids rode around the yard while Keith fixed the flat on his bike. Not the way to start the day for him! SB is only 30 minutes away, closest race yet! Arrived and we were able to drive down to the starting area. I thought we'd have to park in the parking lot and walk the whole way down, yeah not today they had the gate open and a big field was turned into a lot. Beginners went off at 10am and Juniors were right after that. Either they mixed juniors in, or there wasn't any because no one else went off until the experts at noon. I'll have to wait and see results. But anyway...Keith and I checked out where I should go to take pics. Decided the boys and I would walk down the gravel road and hide in the woods. There was a few spots we could jump to and fro to catch some shots. Worked well except for all the darn spider webs! Gross!! That was enough for the kids and they stayed on the marked trails. Can't blame them!
We had a blast cheering on the guys from HBA. There was Geoff in the Expert class, then Karl, Keith, Chris and Jon in the Sport class! Good thing the guys have different colored helmets so I could tell them apart! Karl is the one posing for the camera in the picture above. Chris is the last picture almost making it up the double black diamond hill. He fell right after the picture. Chris also did the 24 hour team race. Keith is also shown riding up the double black diamond, but he decided it'd be easier and fast to cyclocross up it.
There was also some other fun guys to cheer on like "bell guy" he had a kids bell on his bike and was dinging it all the time. He was fun and one spot when the kids were off someone where else, he asked where they went, lol. I told him, they'd be at the next bend, so when he came by and saw them he was ringing his bell! Then there was Robin too, who we like to cheer on. I missed Kyle, didn't realize he was on the collegiate team today. And Tom from the 24 hour race team, but he ended up quiting after 1 or 2 laps. And just some other guys who chatted to us as they rode by. Some guys are very chatty, or just nice and say hi and wave or even smile, other's are in their own world, or not as friendly. I try to say hi and cheer everyone on out there.
Geoff ended up not finishing, he did 2 laps and quit. As he rode by a couple times he said he was having a bad day...poor guy! Karl was looking very strong! He finished 4th in the sport overall and 1st in Masters 35+. Keith and Chris were riding together the whole race until a few miles from the end when I noticed Keith came through and Chris was not with him. I gave Chris my water bottle in the woods so I thought he might have been bonking a bit. Ends up he had a flat :( But...Keith had a spare tube and pump and where he flatted was a spot Chris could run through the woods to get him on a switchback, so that was good timing there. I'm not sure what place Chris ended up with, but he lost a few minutes.
We ran into another known person on the trails. Remember when we were in the paper back in April and the guy came to our house to take the pics. Well, he was on the trails! I saw him and couldn't tell if it was him or not, even with him standing right on the other side of the trail. But after the race I found him and asked if he was Jon and sure enough it was. He apologized for not recognizing us...didn't expect him to, since he's all over with photos! But he remembered our story and being here and such, so that was cool to see him again out there with all his HUGE lenses...lens envy here!
Anyway...Keith ended up placing 8th in sport, I believe. You can check his blog to make sure. There was a starting field of 53! Kids had a blast, no poison ivy...yet although Kaden did wear his soccer socks to cover his legs. Salem, no probs. Bugs were none existent, which was nice! Oh, Kaden found a big ole toad in the fields! I picked him up...which he peed on me, and then let Kaden hold him. We them put him at the edge of the field away from the cars and there was another toad there!
Oh, I ran into a lady in the woods who is going to be heading up a kids race at SB next year! The guy who used to do it didn't show up last year and didn't want to do it this year so they were looking for a new person. I said we would love to have it happen! She's looking to do a couple age groups, one for smaller kids and then one for older kids, kinda like juniors but not a full race course. So we'll see how that plays out!
After we got home, we let the kids play outside again for a while until dinner which was yummy chicken and rice! Then showers and off to bed!!! They were out in no time!! Now Keith and I made some apple crisp we're going to go eat, yummy!! Okay, let me clarify...Keith made the stuff while I ran to get some brown sugar from the store since we were out. Still a joint effort!
Night for now!!!
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