The Darkness

Had a sketchy ride home tonight. Got off work around 7:40 and hit the road. My light went out around 7:55. On Rifle Range Road between the IOP connecter snd Coleman Blvd. Pitch black. If you know this area then you already know how sketchy it is riding here in the daytime. Normally I feel safer at night. With all the lights, the cars should have no excuse for not seeing me. They normally give me a 3-4 foot larger berth than normal. Meaning 3 feet 1 inch to 4 foot 1 inch. But now I couldn't be seen as well and not at all from the front. That light didn't flicker out either, it died in about 2 mins flat after being full brightness when I left. Fortunately I still had a couple of high powered blinky lights on the back so I figured I'd be OK. I'd have to really pay attention and look ahead.
Everything ended up fine witha minimal ammount of evasive manuvering. Some spots were actually very nice when there were no cars and it was quiet and very dark. Very quiet. Fortunately, I've ridden these roads so much I didn't hit any holes and made it home in record time. I was feeling strong and for some reason in a hurry so I got home faster than ever!
Quick race recap for SERC #1 in Gainesville, FL:
Hot- Hilly course with alot of steep climbs. Went down after work on Sat w/ Liza. Got up Sun. after a decent night's sleep to a beautiful day. Made it to the race after breakfast and went to pick up my number. I had registered for the Singlespeed race but saw that no Pro's were allowed to do that race. I told on myself and got my registration changed to the pro race. That was fun on a singlespeed. I feel like I can go about as fast on a singlespeed as I can on my geared bike when I am on the right course, and geared right. Neither one of those were going on at this race! 10 mins. in I knew I was geared wrong. Not much I could do now except to run wide open till I couldn't turn the cranks over anymore. Through lap 3 1/2 I was rolling really well and moving up through the field. The flats were killing me on the first laps, by the end however, I was barely making it over the tops of the climbs, I mean I was creeping over the tops. Downhills and the rolly, technical stuff were still great though. I faded some on the last lap and a half and wound up 16th out of I think 22 that started. I rode as hard as I could and felt good doing it. That was my second XC race in a year and a half. I forgot how quickly you recover from a 2 hr race compared to the longer stuff I've been doing. I feel great now!
I'm glad I raced the Pro race instead after all. Turns out another Pro did the SS race and won by 6 mins. My lap times were the same w/ 5 laps instead of 3. We'd have had a good battle but it would have been very lopsided for the rest of the SS racers and not fair at all.
Later-
DH