Race Day Blues

In my last post, I was brimming with excitement and anticipation. So far on race day, I've gone through a roller coaster of emotions. I awoke to rain. When I stepped out of the RV, it must not have been falling long, because the ground was still somewhat sandy. My first reaction was, 'this sucks, but we'll manage.' With the race start just half hour away, the drizzle shifted into a mild downpour. Our sand turned to soup. Despite the total crap weather, I got a charge out of the race start. This is it, we're off to the races!!..literally.




With the race underway, I snapped out of my funk and manned the expo tent for awhile. People were really stoked to see the course in a 3D demo on Google Earth and even more excited to learn that they could create their own course flyby. Our tent was small and lacked the shelter that all the other tents had, but this did not stop many from crowding around a laptop in the rain. A race organizer from Park City hung at the tent for almost an hour describing his race in June with hopes of gaining Google Earth as a sponsor. His race sounds pretty cool, I hope to go next year.

After about an hour, Dylan started preparing for his ride. I hung out with him in the race tent and tried to get him to confess any pre-race jitters. He was cool as a cucumber and before long, John rolled in with the baton.



And then he was off.

For the last few hours, I've been pretty shiftless. I have no idea what to do with myself. I'd like to be hangin out with other teams around campfires talkin about the race and bikes, but the weather is relentless. The rain clears from time to time, but the clouds never part. Any hope of sunshine is quickly dashed by another downpour. Despair. My first lap is coming up and as the rain falls harder, the ground turns more mushy than ever and the sun gets lower.

With all the money spent and weeks of planning all the tiny details(like trapsing all over the Bay Area scoping out rental RV's), I feel somewhat ripped off by mother nature. Rain in the desert!!