Snake '08 - Version 2.0

i made it up to Dalton and the Pinhoti trails for the second Snake Creek time trial on Saturday. i put a lot of thought into this run because i wanted to take 3 minutes off of January's time. i actually paid money to have my bike overhauled and didn't even have a beer for (almost) a week before the race. what was i thinking!? obviously it was overkill...

a quick assesment of my goals and strategy:

Goals:
1- Ride hard. ** i rode hard.
2- Always work on catching and passing someone. ** ~40th rider to start. 3rd to finish. i passed a few folks.
3- Improve on previous time. ** NOPE.

Strategy:
Les Savy Fav came on during the same gravel road climb and i was not happy about that. i tried to step up the pace for the second half and just couldn't close the gap. TV On The Radio beat me to the finish.

after a couple days of rain, the trail was in surprisingly good shape. the race coordinators were on the trail all day Friday clearing trees that had fallen during the storms. the creek crossing were pretty deep and the only real problem spots were some of the slippery turns and the 'peanut butter' climbs that completely zapped my energy. i was sloppy on the rocks during the last five miles and took a pretty hard fall. i actually took a few falls, but only one of them was what i would call hard. i think my hand and ankle will be fine and the bruises should all be gone within a few days...

this month's run was definitely tougher on me. my bike was having some ghost shift issues (why did i pay $ for a tune up?) and actually dropped the chain at a couple really unfortunate spots. the rocks had sliced into my rear tire's sidewall during the last run so i put on a new tire which slipped out on some climbs. these tires may be good for Arizona in a couple weeks, but for next month's Snake3 i may have to put my old tires on and just boot the sidewall gash. anyway, aside from all of the excuses, everything turned out pretty good. after all that, i only lost 3 minutes from last month and that was good enough.

our crew finished early and after the race we met some of the likeminded Yazoo crew and enjoyed their namesake's libations. it looks like we'll be seeing them on their turf at Dirt, Sweat and Gears. without Bruce announcing this month, it was a little too quite so we bought some of our own 'sports beverages' and pulled the Scion around for some tunes. we ate free chili, cobler and cookies while watching the rest of the field and the 34 milers finish up. the NWGASORBA folks run a great race.

another exciting development - after two months, me and the boys are sitting with 7 of the top 8 times.

Overall Results so far

they can move some bikes...



here is what Saturday's frustrated effort looked like:

**i really hope that other photogragher somehow deleted the picture of my crotch making contact with the top-tube as i was falling between some rocks. that was a cruel place for a photo-op unless he was looking for blackmail!



moving on... to continue my 'streak' this weekend, i put $5 into the pot for the Super Bowl last night. apparently the game was squares and it was my first time gambling. to my surprise - i won! i had the 1 out of 100 squares that paid out at the end of the game! nice! but life is much like the Pinhoti (see - it's sort of bike relevant), every pay-off is followed by another bruttle climb. i woke up this morning and was on my way to host my Monday morning meeting when.... this is emabarassing.... the low fuel light comes on. i didn't have time to stop for gas and thought i could make it. i was wrong and ended up walking up the Holcomb Bridge exit during rush hour this morning. i quickly remedied the situation and ran into the meeting smelling like 89 octane and only a couple minutes late. i open my laptop to get started and realize that my power source had also failed this morning and i was pretty much screwed. the work day just got worse from there, but i'll keep it to myself. that's what riding is for.