The Camp Eagle Classic 2009

was last weekend in Rocksprings, TX. It was an interesting Labor Day weekend event. The weekend started with Lauren, Westley (a young beginner rider), and I took off at 9 on Saturday morning thinking it would be good to get there early afternoon to pre-ride. Well, after a stop at Buc-ee's and about four more hours of driving, we rolled into Camp Eagle with about an eighth of a tank of gas, interesting.

We pulled up to the First-Time Racers clinic to say hi to the Johnson's just as the rain started. We thought it might end quickly but we were wrong. Alan jinxed us as well by keeping on saying, "Oh I think it's letting up" or, "It's getting lighter over there". So it rained for a while and we didn't end up pre-riding at all.

After a good pasta dinner, a good game of scrabble (somehow I beat Kyle), and an lovely night of sleep on a nice rubber coated mattress it was race time.

Westley started early, at 8:30, and the Cat 1's and 2's starting at 10:30. Westley started strong and ended up winning his race. Congrats!!

My race was interesting, there was a little 13 year-old who is apparently really fast. The kid was with us, or should I say, we were with him for the first, oh, ten minutes of the race and then he was gone. Crazy fast. I was in second with Ryan and we were holding a pretty good pace. The first loop was just nasty as the rain had made everything muddy and the rocks were all super slippery. I almost took a couple people out as I slid while passing them, they weren't too happy.

Ryan started to ride away from me and pretty soon I couldn't see him anymore, I was a little worried but trying to not blow myself up trying to catch him. I eventually caught back up to him on a long, steady, nastily-slippery hill climb. Going across a side-hill Ryan crashed and I passed him back for second. Seeing that, I rode a little more cautious and figured Ryan might catch up to me again. The trail was getting considerably better near the end of the race and my second trip down the old river bed was much better and faster. I ended up getting second behind the kid by about four minutes for second. I felt good and the race was good, now I have to take out that little kid since he got the prize that I really wanted. Here are some pictures snapped by Lauren:

Somewhere during the race

Finish! Rough race, in the bumpy sort of rough!

Podium, notice tiny kid on top.

By the way, the eighth of a tank of gas was barely enough to get us back to the only gas station out in that area of the world approximately 40 miles away. I love my car!