First, I want to say Happy Father's Day to the world's greatest Dad, mine.
Secondly, I am just tired. So I got back to Utah on Thursday evening. My plane seemed to take for-ev-er. We had to zig-zag around storms and then compete with a killer head wind, so the flight took a bit longer than it was supposed to. That was the pilots story anyway. I got there though. I spent less than 4 hours at home before we were off again. This time by car (truck) heading to California. Karl and Carson invited us to join them in racing the second 12 Hours of Temecula event that was really at Rim Nordic to avoid the heat. I can appreciate that.
We arrived early Friday morning, slept for a couple of hours and then headed to the course for a pre-ride. After the first lap, I was not so sure about the course. We did it a second time though and it was tons of fun. I was excited.
The race is scheduled from 9 to 9, but all racers must be in by 9--that is the cutoff. 9:00:01 and your lap does not count. Chris started us off doing the parade laps. This ended up being a huge cluster, but he was the first to enter the course according to the announcement I heard. Then they kept reporting some other guy was in front. So I took my time getting ready, but assumed that Chris was close behind. As I was slowly making my way to the start/finish I saw Chris get there first. I was probably only a few seconds behind him, but I felt badly.
They give out cash for the fastest male and female laps. Chris told me it was my responsibility to bring home some cash. He was the captain, so I did what I could. My first lap did not flow as I had hoped. It was not bad, but I just did not have the same groove as the second lap the day before. This Sho-Air team was there too and Heidi is ripping fast, so I pushed super hard on my second lap also. Chris was putting in screaming fast laps. This is when I realized that I was not getting the recovery time that everyone else was. Chris was jippin' me out of rest.
Jason runs these races. He is this pretty cool lil' guy. He goes over the rules before hand. One of his rules is Jason's rules are it. Essentially saying he will make the final judgement call on DQ's and what not. On three of my laps I passed him as he was either walking the course or just watching racers go by. Each time he would encourage me referring to me as "my [his] lady." I left Chris a race note between laps that said, "Jason says I am his lady. Sorry. I still love you." I thought it was pretty clever for mid-race. His response back was something about taking the bikini-clad chic at the top of the climb in my place. Equally clever.
Towards the end it was going to be close as to whether Chris would go out for our 15th lap. We could not catch the overall top team, so he told me to just finish my lap safely. My goal was not to have a lap over 60 minutes. So I took it conservatively, mostly because I was spent. I was so excited to reach the final descent. It should be smooth sailing. I came over this rocky section and then a little gully with a rock in it. That is when I heard it--spsh! I had a flat rear tire. It was big pinch flat and there was not just pumping it up. I would have to throw a tube in it. I was pretty close to the finish line. So I just started running. About half way there I ran into Chris back tracking on the course. He had decided he would try another lap, but when I did not get in with enough time he came looking. He told me I could slow down, but I wanted to be under an hour. I think I made it.
In the end we finished 3rd overall behind two three man teams. Chris and I got the cash for fastest male and femal laps respectively. Karl and Carson took first in the Duo Open category. It was another successful 12 hour race.