The race day started off good. I went to pick up Lanser and head over to Iola. I made it a point to bring my camera and shoot some photos before I got to go and have fun with the pain.
When Don said, “GOOOOOO” it was off. I managed to get a third row start in the wave. Off of the start I got pinned behind somebody that couldn’t get going and Jeff got a head of me and I was forced to stop for a second. Once I got passed that obstacle it was time for the awesome gravel road climb that they have there. I managed to get some people on the climb to the top. Once we get to the top the sand trap got a lot of people including me because of people ahead of me. Once we got passed that the race started to settle down and then it was time to pace myself. I managed to get through traffic really well the first lap, then all of a sudden I was coming up on the clydes that got pass me when I was forced to stop those few times. I managed to put 4 behind me on the first lap and then I thought that I was in fourth and just kept hammering it. On the next lap I managed to get 1 more and put myself in what I thought was third. Then after an uneventful second lap it was hammer time. I picked up the pace a lot on the third lap to see if I could get some more clydes. About half way through I managed to see Welnak on some of the switchbacks and then I tried to pick up the pace and try to run him down. To no avail though, I get done and then I go and look on the results board and I got a second. I can say that that is the best result I have ever had at that venue. My time was 1:23 for the course witch is about 8 minutes faster than last year.
That is about it for the race, on the school hand I am glad to be graduated from school finally. It has been a long time in coming and now is the time to try and find a job.
Later
congrats mark! 8+minute improvement is HUGE. Keep it up, and you’ll be able to catch Ty with some hard work.
Great job! I think that Ty would have something to say about that… It’ll be fun to watch you guys fight it out.