Hotter n' Hell

I raced HHH this past weekend. I did the road race on Saturday. We started at 7:00 so we were done before the major heat set in. The p/1/2/3 women's race was 64 miles and we finished in 3 hours. It was a good race. I felt good but I didn't know the finish so I botched the final corner....not knowing we were even turning. But I finished 6th. We dropped most of girls on the overpass I guess. I looked over my shoulder and didn't see anyone behind us going into the finish. The crit went well. I felt great and was in perfect position for the sprint. I won the pack primes so I knew I had a shot. Plus I was on Stacey's (Mercy) wheel and she is a motor. Beth (my teammate) and Ally lapped the field so I was looking for a good finish. With about ten minutes to go my cornering started to get a little sketchy and I thought maybe we just picked up the pace enough to make it harder in the corners. But then I nearly wiped out and took half the pack with me when I realized my front tire was squishy. So, with 4 laps to go I hit the wheel pit. Unfortunately, I had no more free laps and was pretty much screwed. There was no way I was going to re-attach to the pack so I just put my head down and tried to finish and hold off the other girls behind me. I think I ended up 8th. But Beth took 2nd at the line behind Ally. Overall Beth took 3rd and I took 6th. We got some decent money and a few good primes so I am happy with that. Our cat 4 girl, Tammy, took the win in the cat 4 women's crit. She was totally stoked with that. It was a well deserved win for her.

Charles' luck was not quite as well as mine. He ended up doing 120 miles on Sat rather than 100 due to the cat 3 men getting misdirected and off course. Most of the guys got trailered back in to Wichita Falls by a farmer on a flat bed trailer but Charles decided to finish it out. So, 5.5 hours later,after much worry and concern on my part, he crossed the line.

All in all it was a good weekend, even though we paid $250 for two nights in a hotel that normally only costs $19.99 per night. And the wait at the only breakfast joint near the race course was 1 hour on Sunday morning. Plus, we got the opportunity to see a local townsfolk entertain himself by running full-speed into a huge wooden spindle in an attempt to knock it over. Charles learned how to get a motorcycle to stop on the side of the highway in hopes of getting some ice or water from him. And Charles' ears stayed plugged due to the lack of water for over an hour in the road race in 100 degree temps for nearly 3 hours after the race was over. So, good times....good times.

And only to come back to work on a Monday to be told I have to go get my picture taken, in a suit, for the ad that is going in the phone book. If you only knew how many times I have made fun of the attorneys who have their pictures in the phone book...I can only hope I don't have to do a cheesy commercial next!