More Wakefield

Those first Pictures are by Gary Ryan, a local photographer that shoots many of the races.

So another week brought another race at Wakefield Park. The weather made things look doubtful for the race this week but good weather won the day. The boys did not have YM's activities due to Goshen so I took them with me to race this week. I also brought Scott Harris to race and his cousin Jeffery who is visiting with the Harris'. Mike got a friend from the Gym to come out also so we had a good crowd of racers with us. 

Lia came to watch this week since we were all racing and fortunately when she got there and realized she did not know how to find us she got lucky and saw Mike who told her where to go to watch. 

The race was good this week though I had several problems on my first lap. I still ended up with a decent time and finished 19 out of 33. Middle of the pack is pretty normal for me and my time was improved so I was happy with the result despite my issues at the start. Kyle mistakenly raced with his front gear set to the easy pedal gear which cost him a lot of time so his time is not too bad considering that. Brandon raced with his clipless pedals, new for him, and he had never seen the race course before so all things considered he did fine. I know they could both do much better with a little more preparedness and thought. Scott did great and finished third in his class. He got a medal and a juicebox as a prize. The prizes do seem a bit more lame this year but I did not pay attention to the kid prizes last year. 

Below are some pictures from the day at Wakefield. Sorry many of the photos are out of focus. I had the camera on the wrong setting for fast moving objects and we were all BLAZING! :-) 

Brandon and Scott at the starting line & Scott's crazy jersey

Scott, finishing

Scott all tuckered out

Brandon, finishing

Mike, mid-race

Mike's friend from the gym, mid-race

Kyle, mid-race

Me, finishing

Scott on the podium

Riding at Wakefield

Well, it has been quite a while since we have blogged. We have been quite busy since I arrived home from Iraq. We have been catching up on tons of stuff and and trying to do stuff with my brother who is leaving soon for a few years. In all this madness I have gotten back to racing at Wakefield Park on Wednesday nights. Last year Mike Bletzacker mentioned that he wanted to do these races and I thought that it sounded really fun. So Mike, Greg and I signed up for the races last year. Mike was in my category then (35+ Masters) but this year he has moved up and only has to do two laps. I was a lot of fun. we have had two races this year and the weather has been perfect. Mike starts two minutes after me but on the first race day he still managed to catch and pass me before he finished his second lap. Well, I was not expecting too much even on my new Ellsworth Epiphany. I have not ridden a bike more than a handful of times since the end of the races last year (not much riding available in Iraq). I still had a pretty good race thank in good part to my new bike. It is really smooth on the rail and uses carbon fiber in key places to help deliver more energy to pedaling. I did much better in the second race this past week though and even had one lap of about 4 miles in under 18 minutes.  My overall time according to my timer was 57 minutes. That is much faster than I did last year. Here are some pics from the first day of races. The three photos in the middle are by photographer Gary Ryan who covers many of the races. I am planning on getting one nice print from one of the races.

Mike and I pre-race.

A potentially scary jump that I slow down to ride.

Me getting a little out of control and looking a little SCARED!

Mike doing it right.

Mike and I with Craig (a friend from biking) waiting for the race results.