Last Race of the year

[bbbom]

At sign up, I was told that since there were only 4 women signed up so they were putting us in the Ameteur Ironman with 13, at that time riders. Things were messed up at sign up and the women were signing up in Ameteur Ironman instead of Women's Open and it just got more confused from there. So my riding buddy Becky (who happens to be 52 years old and still a great rider, not real fast but she's consistent) and I decided to team up and do the Geritol Class (combined age over 80 yo). I wasn't feeling too Ironwomanly anyways and the track was very dusty with lots of silty corners hiding huge boulders. I thought it would be a little easier on my poor old bike and I figured it would be fun to team up with Becky for once.

Becky started cause she has electric start on her bike, I have to kick mine and this is a dead engine start so firing up the bike quickly is helpful. When I did my first lap I was feeling good until I pulled into the pits to tag Becky and noticed I'd picked up a front flat on the 5hunny from one of the boulders.

Luckily I'd brought the 125 along just in case because my darling son informed me THEN that he didn't bring any spare tubes (pit supplies are HIS responsibility and financing the race habit is mine)! This even after the last time where he got a flat and I let him take my bike while I rounded up a tube and got the tire fixed.

While Becky was out on her 2nd lap, I got the 125 off the truck and prepared myself to hit the jumps with my little bike (it's not really little, just not a big monster bike like my 500). I headed out on my next lap screaming the 125 - it's way fun btw. Pretty soon my son passed me just after hitting the track. I thought I'd try to hang with him cause he thinks he's sooooooooooo fast (probably because he is but what the heck). I hung with him just until the double when he headed off the track back to the pits as I was thinking, hmmmm guess he was afraid of getting passed by mom.

Well I finish that lap and hit the pits to find out that he had a rear flat. So he had run back to the pits and taken his partner's KTM. Luckily for the kid, his partner had brought along his CRF250R that he was trying to sell because again we had NO TUBES! So while the kid was out on his partner's KTM our pit crew yanked the wheel off the spare bike to put on the kid's bike. I also went ahead and tried airing up my 5hunny flat just in case I needed it and to my surprise, it held air!

So we pumped all the tires up to 16 - 17 psi.

Kid hits the pits, tags his partner who takes off on the KTM, Becky tags me and I take off on the 125 again, not knowing that while I'm out there, the kid's partner gets a front flat on the KTM and has to limp back to the pits.

The kid's bike is now back in shape so the partner takes off on his bike as I come into the pits on the 125. The kid asks if my 5hunny is still holding air - checked it and yep, it's good. So then he asks if he can take the 125 and I can take the 5hunny because again we have NO TUBES to fix the KTM with. "Yeah, sure." I'm such a mom!

So I finish my laps on the 500, the kid finishes his laps on his bike and his partner finishes his laps on my 125!

Becky and I did 12 laps and came in 87th overall out of about 135 teams and 7th in the Geritol Class (out of well 7 teams, but they were fast old guys).

The kid and his partner came in 13th overall and 1st in Lightweight Class with 15 laps. They were 1 lap ahead of 2nd place in their class and that was with 2 trips back to the pits for flat tires.

The dust was TERRIBLE, the silt was very effective at hiding the huge boulders in the corners that looked like nice berms but when hit with the front of the bike, those nice berms went POOF!

I took the rock gardens pretty easy after the first flat tire and I'm really curious to see the lap times so I can see if I really was faster on the 125 than on the 500. It sure felt like it and it sure felt much easier to ride (yeah, big surprise but I do love my 5hunny!)

I might just have to Ironwoman it next spring on the 125 cause that was fun the 2 laps I got to ride it.

[Amanda76]

I always wished I was brave enough to risk life and limb on a dirtbike or anything like that...LOL

You'll have to try again in the spring, since you enjoyed it so much!

[bbbom]

It's a blast and it's what motivates me to keep lifting. I find I bounce back after a crash much better and with less injury when I'm lifting steady.

I also find that I ride much better when I'm strong. So now it's time to go through the bikes and fix all the little problems that seem to happen with racing AND to get back into a serious lifting program to build up over the off season.

It was pretty funny Saturday, I put a smaller rear sprocket on my big bike so it would go faster at full throttle for the harescramble. So I took it out on a test run and had a hard time turning around to come home! I was having so much fun, I actually let out a small giggle that turned into a loud nearly hysterical laugh. Good thing there was no one around, they would have thought I'd lost it!