Battenkill-ME!

5am is early. Its rowing early, triathlon race early. Being the rodey that I have become I am used to slow mornings, eating breakfast for an hour, coffee, having teammates come over, more coffee, more eating. So you can imagine how I was relatively displeased I was with not only getting up at 5am but choking down a bowl of Grape-nuts and running out the door with a cup of coffee to pick up a teammate at 5:15am. ok I’m over it. The drive out was smooth we stopped for that inevitable call to nature that came at a normal morning time! We got there with a 1hr to go, signed in dressed up, 10 minute warm up and we were off. Mike Jones was there , Domestic pro, and by domestic I mean way better than any one else in the race. There were 3 climbs of note and some dirt roads in the first 10 miles. we hit them, well… Mike hit them, pretty hard and the pack was one third smaller. I was feeling horrible. Really horrible. Some attacks by others and the Kenda-Raleigh team kept things lively. As we cam into the middle part of the course marked by heavy rolling terrain and lots of dirt roads I followed one of Mikes attacks. After he let me catch him I tried o pull through and keep the pace going as I had 2 teammates with me but the pack was there and right into a climb we went. And right to the back of the pack EK went. I was hanging on but realized that I was going to have to follow wheels to the finish and save any effort to help our two protected rides when the time came. On a fast section of dirt road a guy in front of me blew his rear tire. “damb that sucks” I thou.. BAM! And that sucks even more. I ran straight into a good sized rock and blew my front tire. I got a change but it was all over. Even if I was feeling really good and got a supper fast change it would have been hard to get back on. I tried, but it was in vain. I settled in with some other guys that had got flats on that section. There were a lot who flatted there. After a few miles 4 of us grouped up and settled in. the race up ahead broke up not long after that section. Joe Moody was there for the team making the final move and coming in 5th. Meanwhile I was feeling like it was nice day. I had bad legs anyway so… this stuff happens and there is not use getting upset about it now. I was upset, more with my bad legs that the flat, but so it goes. Until, on the last climb 10 miles from the finish my chain broke. Ok now I’m mad. Luckily a nice man on a Mt bike came by with a chain tool and I was able to make good enough to get home. Thanks, I for got your name, sorry. I was surprised at the amount of cheering I received on my arrival. These people were really into this race! It was great to see. For cycling, not me, but it did cheer me up. J a long drive home with a bit of excitement when Joes bike came off my rack and was swinging from its rear wheel while I was driving 80MPH down the highway. That was pretty exhilarating, bike and car are fine. No scrapes or damage really at all. My guardian angle figured I had had enough for one day. Thank you again.