Mellencamp-town races

When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I'm gettin' older
So much older
I love all those young boy days
With a girl like you
With a girl like you
Lord knows there are things we can do, baby
Just me and you
Come on and make it dirt...
Picked up a book the other day, "1000 Excuses So You Don't Have To Do Shit", it's a crappy read but it lets you come up with reason to avoid doing stuff you know you should be doing but aren't, It's a NY Times best seller. I should be racing these races instead of making excuses not to, to be honest though the last few years my prep work and training just hasn't been nearly what it was or should be when I was racing more... I think that's excuse # 205 in the book if you're keeping track. Any way... Psycowpath had their first race of the season today, didn't race it but did volunteer to help out...




...and cook an ass load of bacon, 9 lbs to be exact. The apartment still smells like bacon, I may have destroyed a kitchen and I pretty much felt like I absorbed one of these jars full of bacon grease through my skin. but man was it worth it, it is bacon after all.


Got up early and took my loot to Swanson to get ready for the race.


7:15 in the morning and all is calm and quiet for the moment, not sure what the total racer count was on the day but there seemed to be a really good turn out.


Water, bacon, good tunes and cowbell, lots more cowbell, what else could you possibly need for a bacon hand up station halfway through a lap?


Good help is always needed and this guy was here to lend a hand.... er, paw in any way he could.


The Feagan's were even kind enough to provide some pit stick just in case someone didn't feel fresh halfway through their lap?!? Naw, it was just in the bag with the cups but now that the idea is out there just wait, in a year or two pit stick handups will be the norm. Just you wait.

Trail seemed to be in really good shape despite the rain we had on Thursday, wish I would have had more time today so I could have ridden a few laps after the race.


New this year was a running race prior to the MTB race, seemed like a really good concept and everyone I talked to was having a good time and a few of them ran and then rode, I call those people insane but you might have your own word for them.

I was only able to stay until noon so didn't get a chance to see the category 1 or 2 racers but the marathoners and the beginners are always fun to watch and it seemed like almost everyone had a great time.

I say almost because there is one dude out there that should really take a close look at himself in the mirror and make a few changes in his life. About the only negative on the day was the one Jr. racer who showed up at the bacon station almost in tears and ready to quit. She was dead last by a long ways but that wasn't what had her upset, one of the marathon racers decided that they needed to curse at this young girl of about 10-12 because she was "riding too slow and was in the way"... really dude, you should be ashamed of yourself. Guys like that aren't the future of our sport, or at least I hope they aren't, that little girl and her friends are the future of the sport and to yell at her because she was naturally not going as fast as the much more experienced riders seemed more than a little uncalled for. Luckily after a few pieces of bacon, some water and a pep talk from those of us up there, to include her mother, the girl decided to get back on the bike and finish the lap... despite knowing that the "really scary hill" (decent section) was coming up. I truly hope that the encouragement that she was able to get at the halfway point was enough to keep her going in future races and she can block out the bad seed who decided it was more important to Strava the section than to encourage a fellow racer. Fortunately those kinds of people seem to be the exception rather than the norm at these races... deep breaths, rant over... hope everyone who participated had as good a time out there today as I did volunteering.