norba national

so.

this past weekend was the showdown at sugar norba national mountain bike race. yeah. it was cool as it could be. like a cucumber. maybe cooler. the racing started friday. i had a DH race saturday morning, followed by a nap, and a XC race at 3:30 that afternoon. my dh event was fun. i woke at 6:45am to get on the lift and do a practice run. i determined i had the wrong tire on my front wheel, and went to the kenda tent and bought a nevegal 26 x 2.5" tire. i proceeded to use a borrowed multi tool, flimsy tire levers, and my shoe to change my front tire. then repeated all the necessary steps as soon as i realized i installed it the wrong direction. ugh!!! but my DH race went ok. i was hoping to be on the podium. i missed it by two spots. i got 7th, 6 second off the next guy and like 11 seconds off the 5th place finisher. i came off my bike in an awkward way and couldn't easily get started again, and then had a wrong gearing through a creek crossing. if i would have done better in those two spots, i think i could have done it. but it was my first real DH race and i had a blast. i think i may partake in a series at snowshoe mtn in west virginia and possibly a racers edge.com race in pennsylvania. dh racing seems fun.

my xc race was a shortlived experience. my somewhat newly installed cranks came off 10 minutes into the xc event. i installed the crankset a few weeks ago, torqued them to the exact specs, but the bolt managed to back out. i guess i will be checking them more often in the future. i did try to push, i wanted to at least finish, but i developed some nasty blisters on the backs of my ankles, from running in my cycling shoes, and turned around and coasted back to the bottom. oh well.

i did realize i got changed to NC resident for my usa cycling license. i'm ranked top 15 in sport for my age group in NC. thats sort of cool. anyways.

lastly, i must say, i am very glad to have redeveloped friendly ties with my ex-girlfriend. we were on the outs for bits of time, here and there over the past few months, but we're talking now and i'm very glad for it. hopefully we'll visit when i come to georgia for the macon SERC race. i can't wait to see my columbus racing buddies in macon. you guys should all be there since its on your GSC calendar as well. anyways. i will write more later. for now, settle with a picture of me coming over the tabletop at the finish of the DH race course. this photo was expertly taken by glenn kalnins. thanks for reading this, if anyone does. and if not, well, thanks for nothing. hahaha.