Wausau

What a weekend. There were ups, downs, dry spells, drenched spells, naps, 1am wide awake spells, freaky ass birds, comedy, drama. . . . . this weekend had it all.

Friday had us pulling in and setting up with perfect timing. The rain started as soon as we were finished. We sat in the camper, ate guacamole and listened to the sprinkles hit the camper.

Saturday we spent the whole day at the camper. Usually we venture out in Wausau, this year we played it low key. Did some bike maintenance, took a nap, waited for the rain to stop and for our peeps to arrive.

Once the sunshine popped itself out, we headed out on a preride. While I enjoyed the time on the bike, I was a little disappointed at how wide open the course was. I knew that meant it was going to be a hammer fest, and I'm not typically good at those. . . . .the high end cardio races are not my strong point. Secretly I hoped for rain to add a little technical element, but never-the-less I knew it would be fun with the mass start. This time around I was sure I'd find someone to ride/race with.

Saturday night after a yummy dinner, we pulled up for an early birthday celebration for the Captain.

He scored a sweet golf game which had to be tested right away of course.

They managed to gather quite a following during their game. . . .lots of advice on what club to use, etc.

Even the boy with the broken finger joined in.

As you can see, the clubs were almost the right size for Squirt.

After all that fun we climbed into bed, only to spend 1/4 the night awake listening to the freak birds sing their "dinner song". 6:30am came around WAY too early on Sunday.

It was strange having us all start at relatively the same time. It was hard to get things under control back at base camp so we weren't rushing in the rain afterwards. We set off to warm up with the word from many that drove up that day that the rain was on it's way. I was excited.

We lined up and somehow I ended up at the very back. That was a bad plan as that meant I had a LOT of boys to pass to get where I needed to be. . . . .but oh well, too late now. Don said GOOOO, and it took about a minute before the back of the chute even moved.

Continuing on with that theory we rode wheel to wheel for most of the first lap with massive back ups and congestion any time we got to anything technical. At MORE than one point we were completely stopped chatting among ourselves. . . . .some were even noted as singing campfire songs.

The first lap was mostly trying to pass enough people to find the place I needed to be. . . . .then the rain started.

The second lap was much better in terms of congestion and I actually got to RIDE the whole thing. . . . . .and then the sprinkles turned to a downpour.

The third lap was down right scary as I couldn't see a thing. I wear glasses, and have the Rudy's with the prescription insert. The rain, mud and fog managed to find itself in between the lenses and the prescription insert of those and for the first time in my life, I rode without the aid of any glasses. Without glasses I could GENERALLY see where I was going, but couldn't see ANY specifics. Couldn't see rocks, ruts, holes, ANYTHING. I could barely differentiate between the grass and the mud. I just held on for dear life and prayed I didn't hit anything that would make me go down. Several people lapping through talked with me by name. . . .I couldn't even see the colors of their jerseys, much less who they were. . . . .but I knew I was almost done.

I think I must have lost just about 10 minutes on that last lap. I remember the first lap being just under 50 minutes, the second a bit less than that, which leaves about 60ish for the last lap. I guess 10 minutes isn't SO bad to lose in a 29 mile race. . .when you can't see for the last 10 miles.

Overall I crossed the finish line having actually enjoyed myself. I managed to find a group of guys to ride with for most of the race, I dominated the climbs, kept it upright the whole time and managed to finish 7th out of 29 women, and somewhere around 122nd out of 202 sport boys.