24 hours, whew!

It was a fast weekend and a hard fought battle. We stayed in La Grange on Friday night so we were closer to the race on Saturday. The race started at noon on Saturday so we had to be out there around 10 for the pre-race meeting and to get set-up for the race. I also had to meet the rest of the team since it was a last minute team that got put together. The three guys on the team are all from San Antonio: Steve, Simon, and Micah.

Steve was the team captain

Simon is a professional trainer, triathlete, and nutritionist

Micah was the first time racer who had never ridden Rocky Hill Ranch

Simon was the first rider out for us and he did well. Steve was out number 2, I rode number 3, and Micah was number 4. We ran a lap schedule of 1,2,1,2,3,4,3,4. I think this gives more rest than running 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4.

Like last year, I thought I pushed it too hard on my first lap and wasn't feeling too great but I put down a 58 minute lap, fastest lap for the whole team. Second lap was good (1:01:32). My second lap was at dusk so I got to see a sweet view of a really good, orange sunset as I was cresting the last sorta big climb on the course, sweet. Night laps of 1:03 and 1:06 were pretty good night laps I thought. Since there were no overall standings we didn't really know how we were doing beyond knowing that we were in the top three. I figured we were in third due to some slow night laps. Thinking it was my last lap of the race I pushed it as hard as I could and threw down a 1:00 lap. Simon went out and was going to take the last lap but when he came in he told me to go. Great . . .

Thinking we were close to the team in front of us I hammered it as hard as I could to try to catch him but I couldn't, even with a 1:03 lap.

Turns out we weren't very close to the first place team but we did end up in second, not bad for a last minute team, especially with a first-time racer.

I felt pretty sick the rest of the day and really tired. At least this year there wasn't anyone yelling "Go Racer!" all night.

Here's some pics:

Going out on the second lap . . .

20 hours later,

Coming in at the finish, sorry, no mid-race photos

Not feeling so well, little cramping going on

Looking good with the team

MMMMMM! Pickle Juice!!

The team, our team name was 'The Justice League'. From left, Steve, Micah, Simon, Me.

The massage last night felt really good and definitely helped with the recovery.

Thanks to Lauren for sort of being support and getting off the cot so I could try to sleep a little.

Thanks also to Teresa and Cecilia for making the trip out so the doggies could play and y'all could hang out a little.