Elm Grove

I showed up early. Being and Endeavour(tm) race, I volunteered on the course before my race. I was marshaling on corner 4, the nastiest of all the corners. I did not see, but heard the worst crash of the day. Cat 4 dude I think. He devastated his bike and his face. On a mailbox. His front wheel buckled in and his frame was broken in several places. His head was largely en-bandaged.

The race was to be 60 minutes plus two laps. I opted to bring only a single bottle. It wasn't so sunny any more. And they shortened it to 50 at the start out of scheduling concerns. Good. The shorter the better. "Riders Ready. Go!"

My goal for this race was to watch the lap cards. I did pretty well, catching it on most laps. And the clouds en-darkened. Maybe 10 minutes in the first drops of rain fell. Within a lap and a half, the heavens were rent asunder and the apocalypse was upon us. The sky got very dark. Rain was coming down HARD. It actually felt like hail, but that could have just been the pine cones flying in the insane gusts. I can handle wind, but these gusts were crazy. I actually *saw* one coming at me across a lawn. It hit me like a punch and almost took me down. There were branches falling and brush in the road. I threw my glasses in a yard because I couldn't see through them. Of course, it's also hard to see when you're getting sprayed in the face with wet sand. Or maybe my eyes just hadn't adjusted to the lightning. But I didn't think that far ahead.

Oh, and in case I didn't mention it yet, it got SLICK. A rider next to me (outside, luckily) went down on the UPHILL corner. That's not good. The pack was definitely cautious around corner 4. The danger corner.

"2 laps to go"

What? We're not even 30 minutes in! They had shortened the race due to the impending end-of-days. Gaps were starting to form all over. I don't know if it was due to caution or pace, but I felt good, so I got myself to the front. Prior to the race, I had decided with some teammates that the race would essentially be decided at the top of the rise on the back. In the last lap, I was in about 8th position coming up to that point. I saw my teammate Jason making a move, and jumped on it. He got the front by turn 3, and I was right on that wheel. Brian Kaker came through and got to the front with some impressive speed considering the condition of corner 4. So it was Brian, Jason, me out of the final turn. We all jumped as soon as we had the pedal clearance to do it, and that's how it stayed until the line. 3rd for me.

I left my fuzzy slippers, my only civilian footwear out in the sun, and subsequently rain. I had no dry footwear, except some fancy socks I happen to accidentally leave in my car. Thank you novelty dress socks.

(Thanks to JohnWilkes for the photos)