Weekend Wrapup

Loong weekend is finally over. Drove up to Asheville Fri. night and stayed w/ Robert and Kellie. Saw a flipped over RV towing a flipped over Jeep about 100 feet off the road on I-26 outside Columbia. At least the moron managed to get that thing off the road before he took out a bunch of other vehicles. Anyways- made decent time to Fletcher where the weather was nice and cold. Got up Sat morning to drive over to Johnson City, TN for MSG Cross #2. Nice ride up- beautiful leaves and a crisp clear day- that is one of my favorite drives around. Almost blew up the gas station when Robert hopped out of the van before taking it out of reverse, but everything turned out all right. A little too much Krispy Kreme excitement I guess.
Race- Great course, rolling and fast with 2 sets of barriers and a sand pit too. Robert did his first cross race and while we were expecting some carnage, there was none - he rode well and I was next up so I got my warmup on and got ready to race.
Actually had a field of nearly 20 racers in the Pro 1/2, with a good bit of heat showing up. Will Black, Dan Timmerman from Kodak/ Sierra Nevada, Andy Applegate, and a few others indicated this was gonna be a hard one. Yup- the race started fast, then went faster. I settled in around 10th for a few laps, waiting for the fast start to take it's toll. Sure enough- 2-3 laps in and people were blowing up and making mistakes. By the halfway point I had moved up to 6th and was feeling pretty good. I stayed here for the rest of the race. I wasn't gonna get caught and wasn't making time on 5th so I felt pretty good. Then another problem presented itself. Dan Timmerman was about 1/2 lap up on everyone else and closing on me fast. I was gonna get 6th no matter what but I really didn't want to get lapped so I had to turn it on pretty hard. The last lap Dan was about 20 sec off me the whole way and closing fast near the finish. I gave it all I had left and held him off by about 10 feet or so. That done, everyone behind had been lapped so they were done. I could relax and all I had to do was finish the lap and I was good to go.
I was hurting so bad after that race, I can't remember being in pain like that for a long time. My legs have not been strong enough in the last couple of years to make myself hurt that bad- so I guess that's good! Another good thing is that Applegate usually laps me at those races, this time I was less than 2 mins. off him.
Clean up, pack up, eat, and grab my check and we blasted back south to Asheville.
Had a great dinner at Marco's pizza, got some DQ and called it a night.
Got up this morning and drove to Brevard. Another beautiful fall morning 40 degrees or so out. Robert and I headed out on a ride for a few hours while Liza tied up some loose ends and cleaned the house. We loaded the trailer when we got back, ate lunch and got everything else out of the house, picked up Alex and blew town for Charleston. So long Brevard- It's been real and it's been great, but it hasn't been ( well- you know the rest). 4 hrs. later and alot of stupid drivers later and we are home and ready to put this weekend in the books. Later- DH