Living Above the Geoid: The ways of things...

It's a wonder that anyone can get any bike racing done with all the work that has to get done. Work, work, work. It seems to be all that I've done for the past few weeks. Work seems to have surely picked up, and I have again started bouncing between COT and Environmental, which makes for a weird work schedule. Some days I'd work until 6 and other days I'd work until 7:45 (AM that is...). Messes up your sleep, messes up your riding (clearly messes up your blog output), and pretty much messes up your entire mojo. I tried to fix some of that mojo with a trip up to Michaux to visit the Weiser's, build some wheels and ride. Donna is training for TSE, so she's been putting in a bunch of hours on the bike. I'm really excited for her and will live my TSE-jones through her. It's an event that, while not on my calender (see right) this year due to monetary/work constraints, it will definitely be in the future.

Fortunately, my calender does include cool events like being a counselor/ride leader at the MACDC.

This kid is going to be a rock star very, very soon. He's like 8 and he rips already. Photo (c) A.E. Landes Photography

It's a lot of fun just to get to go to Michaux and lead rides and hang out with really cool people who are passionate about mountain biking. And also kids. The C3 Dark Side loves kids:

See??? C3 loves the children! Photo (c) A.E. Landes Photography.

Chilled around (a.k.a. worked) for a week or two, then, scratched together a team of my favorite people for the Marysville Open Relay, one of the best events of the year. Kyle, Jeff, Forrest and I teamed up and went out to have some fun for the day.

All loaded up and everywhere to go

I had asked Tom if he wanted to come race with us when Jeff, Kyle, and I were trying to find a fourth, but he abstained and decided that he could come with Der Crafter and provide some support for the weekend. He ended up not being able to come, but gave Jeffy the Crafter anyway, plus all the necessary stuff with it.

The big unpack

We had an awesome race. Ended up putting in 16 laps, good enough for 10th in lap time and 14th including the handicap points. The team really pulled it together to get Jeff out on his fourth lap. Kyle docked a few seconds off his time, I dropped about 15 seconds, and Forrest rolled a sub-15 minute lap (about 30 seconds faster than his other laps) to send Jeff of with 30 seconds left in the race. Jeff was pissed, but it all was better in the end. Coupled with a FatRide on Sunday, I definitely had a good weekend. Now that racing has started up I'm excited to keep at it. Next weekend is Fair Hill. Successful Elite Racing (a.k.a. finishing an Elite race) here I come!