Race Day! Well, ok, officially that was yesterday, but not for us – for us that’s today. Get up at 4:00 (you do the math this time!), to have plenty of time to get breakfast and then head for the start. We’re out of the trailer a bit after 5:00, but I forget my helmet, so The Bear takes off without me – she has to ride an extra 3.5 miles to the start, beyond the pit area – lucky Bear! I take off, never see her, but I DO see some MASSIVE animal cross the road, almost beyond headlight range (remember, it’s still dark for another hour!). Actually, I think it’s a deer, so it probably wasn’t THAT massive (Texas deer are actually kind of small for deer), but it still makes me uncomfortable. I’ll meet his brother later …

I never catch even a view of The Bear’s rear blink light, so she’s way off to the start. I stop in at the pit area to wait for her to show up, and see what I can do to help out. Not much going on, a lot of racers are asleep, though some are still out. I feel for the 24-hour folks, especially the solo riders. You gotta be nuts to do this!

Most of the DORBA guys seem to be doing 40 to 50 minute laps, and most of the gals seem to be doing 50-65 minute laps. About 6:40, I go to the finish line to see The Bear come through, just any minute now … at 6:50, should be real soon … at 7:00, just any second now … ok – long story short, she shows up at around 6:45. Wow. Long time. She hurts from her injuries, and, since that wasn’t bad enough, she takes a fall and bruises herself in a couple more places. You gotta love the determination, if not the execution! I get the timing chip from her, and head for the head, just no no urges arise in me, other than the urge to get my laps done. The Bear? She was going to do three laps, but she’s done. It’s all up to me!

Here’s The Bear finishing:

Not a half mile from my start, a deer damned near jumps out in front of me! Is he related to the previous Kamikaze deer? I’ll never know, and thankfully he leaps away from me. Later on, there was a dead rat on the trail, then a dead snake … racing is dangerous, and not just for the riders! The course is kind of fun, and I actually enjoy the ride. My first lap, about 65 minutes. Hey, I’m old, so I’m slow. Ok, not a good excuse, since there’s another guy here who’s only a year younger than me, and he kicked some butt (came in first in his class!), but he IS younger than me. That must be it! But hey, long story short, I manage to cinch second place for us in our category. Well, actually The Bear did that for us when she finished her lap, since there were only two teams in our class. I think it sounds better the way I said it before – oh, well! My first lap was my last – we weren’t REALLY racing, and I didn’t think it was fair to the real racers for me to be out there taking space on the track, slowing down folks for whom this thing really meant something. I had fun, I did race, life is good!

It was almost three hours to the finish, and almost four to the awards ceremony, so we decided to bail. We borrowed a car (thank you very much, Kathleen Flannigan!) so we could go to the headquarters building to get our spot for the next few days while we try to get the truck sorted out, then off to the trailer for lunch. We were done! And yes, BOOM! again tonight.

And … one more shot of the canyon: