Crawdad Kermesse

Thursday Ian reached his goal and was recognized for three years of straight A's.  The school gave the handful of kids who achieved this a large candy bar (huh?), but I held to my promise made a couple years back and we got him the latest Kobe VII basketball shoes.  So proud of his accomplishment! 

Friday I spent the morning with the little guy's Kindergarten class at their Field Day.  Exhausting, but fun for all.  He was super stoked I was there and even more happy when Deb showed up for the 2nd half of the event.   

Headed down to Harrison, AR Saturday morning to make my '12 road debut at the Crawdad Kermesse.  On paper it looked like a challenging 3.8mile loop and it didn't disappoint.  Chad and crew put together a great loop and a well run event in coordination with Crawdad Days, a big carnival type event with tons of stuff going on for two days. 

Got down early enough to jump on the course for a couple loops while the 4/5 race was going on.  200 meters from the start/finish was a 1k climb that was steady and not too taxing, but after the top and a quick drop there was a 20% 'roller' (not too long, but zapping to the legs) followed with a false flat, after that it was a fun descent back to the bottom with a handful of high speed turns (fun!).  Little warm early on, but with a 9:30am start it wasn't much of a factor.

Rolled up to the line and found a pretty small field, but not short on quality.  Steve Tilford was in my Masters race; guess he was looking for some extra race miles after his shoulder separation, along with a couple other top masters racers.  Our race had 7 loops for around 26.5 miles or so.

So off we go and the group stayed together up with 1k climb and then Steve and two others rolled off on the 20%'er and I had to make a decision then and there (note I felt pretty good at the time, but not too far from my limit):  dig into the red to bridge across and hope to hang on Tilford's group for as long as possible potentially blowing up or let them go and race within myself and see how it goes racing for 4th... easy choice so I watch them roll off.

Leading the group toward the 5th lap - seperation time!

At the end of lap 1 I was with three others with a decent gap to those behind and 30 seconds behind the leading three.  Up the climb for lap 2 and I surge a bit and immediately open a gap; not wanting to ride five more laps alone I eased up and cruised the next three laps with the small group.  On lap 5 I went to the front and set a pretty hard pace up the 1k climb and quickly had separation.  I pressed on the rest of the lap, saw no chasers in sight, pushed the 6th lap hard, was able to cruise the last, and get 4th (nice payout of $120).  Hindsight I think 'what if I would have tried to go with Tilford's group' as I felt really good, but the reality is I did the right choice at the time.  Turns out the 1st and 2nd place guys in my race ended up 2nd and 3rd in the Pro/1/2 race...

With the temps starting to rise and only 1 (maybe 2) mtb race(s) left that interest me I feel pretty good heading into some upcoming circuit/crit races seeing how I have yet to begin 'intensity' in my training week.  Looking at SS MTB Champs on June 2nd, then Tour of KC and Lawrence in June. 

After the drive home I loaded up the crew and went to Ira's to celebrate his graduation (PT Doctoral) with some BBQ and laughs.  Dale, Nate, and I went together and got him a flask w/bike cage and on the back says "Doctor Brown's Magical Cyclocross Elixir"; look for it this fall.

Saturday Jake took off for a 2 1/2 week mission trip to northern Canada working with the Agibiwa tribes.  God is (always has) working in his life and it's great to witness.  Before he took off we spent a portion of Friday night working the slackline.  Getting better every time, but still so far off of even 'good'.  Both Ian and D like working it also, but mostly we love when Deb gives it a go.

In the evening Ian took Deb to a SGF Cardinals game so D and I popped up a tent in the backyard and had a little outing of our own.  Woke up in the morning to overly loud birds around 6:15 (way too early).  After Sunday school I worked on a little flower box project until it was time to hit the road with Nate, Dale, and Ira for a couple hours.  Fun ride on a great evening.  Wrapped it all up with the Spurs taking down LA Clippers - perfect!