Well, race day’s almost here. I”m taking photos, but you won’t get to see any till I get home and get a new computer. The best part about living in a small town is that I was able to have Greg call We Know Macs where I got my last Mac and have them order a new identical one and get it all set up for me so it’s ready when I get home.
I’ve spent the last couple of days riding the course and dealing with the theft as best I can from over here. The course is crazy. It’s 5.5 km and takes about 25 min/lap. My age group 35-44 will be doing three laps. The younger women’s age group will do four. Perhaps they thought the old women could not handle being out that long. Nearly 3 km of the course are on fire road or pavement. The remaining 2.5 is single track, but crazy steep single track like only South America can do it. There is seriously one uphill climb that is 29%. The dirt part of the course is either crouching tiger with your chin on your handle bars trying to climb, or your rear is off the saddle touching the back tire and you are just hoping to slide into the right muddy rut that might shoot you out the bottom of the slide. It’s quite different than what I’m used to and really good practice for my technical skills. I finally made it upright down all of the desents today. I still cannot ride all of the climbs, but I can run. IF there’s even a whisper of moisture, the course becomes absolutely unrideable with the slick mud and roots. It’ll be more of a cyclocross style course if that happens. It was cear all day today and the course is drying nicely. The forecast is good, so I’m going to bed in hopes of a dry morning. I start at 8:30 AM and it’ll all be over before 10. Then, I’ll walk over to the beach and take a swim. I plan on an hour warm up and trying to be ready to punch it from the gun. Stay tuned.