The 101 and the case of the missing keys.

The youth gave me a ride up, with the initial plan being to race the 101, drive home after and do the road race in Ohio the next day.

The short summary of the 101 was best said "I did not have any fun on any single trail today." I remember really liking this race, and I think that I listed it as one of my favorite races on the GPOA website a few years ago. Weird.

The first hour was chill. The fast guys didnt ride away yet, we had a group of 20 or so just cruising along.

In the second hour the heat got turned up and the race winners rode away. I rode along in my "second group" status that I have in life. Maybe sitting in the top 8 - 12 or so.

A wasp stung me on the chin at the top of some climb, cause yeah I wasnt hurting enough.

In the third hour I felt good. The longest dirt climb treated me ok. The descent that is really hard and scary wasnt TOO bad, even though it was wet.

Fifth hour was not so good. I felt nauseous. I lost 3 spots at aid station 3 while I stood there drinking cokes. I got caught behind a slightly slower dude on the single track climb and got a bit complacent. That is my only real regret of the day just settling in on his pace, and not going up to the guys that I could see 10 seconds up on us. I climbed this thing with a freaking 32x16 before, why did I need a granny gear?

Then the singletrack just tore me up. I just kept repeating "dont look where you dont want to go" but I couldnt help but looking at the rock jagger walls on my right on the one section. It was like being in a giant shark's mouth. Scary.

The sixth hour had me riding with a bikeman.com guy. He dropped me in the last singletrack and I never saw anybody else.

8 hours.
15th place.
ugh.

After the race I laid in the ice cold creek, then followed it up with food and drinks and chatter. We decided to stay the night again and forgo the race the next day. Sam was getting ready for bed and asked where the car keys were. I told him right where he had left them. Wrong.

I then spent about an hour searching for the keys in the dark. Sam did too. Worst case scenario was that they were in the creek and gone forever. Not sweet. We decided to wait until morning to look for them.

It was about 10:30 pm, I was in my tent falling asleep, and I heard the cheers as another rider came in. That is over a 15 hour finishing time. That is nuts.

1:30 am the rain starts falling. The ship starts taking on heavy amounts of water. I had lent my good tent to a friend for her recent bike trip along with all of my stakes. I had only 6 stakes in this tent that requires like 15. Wet. Pouring rain, sleeping bag in puddles, etc. When my thermarest started being below the waterline, I bit the bullet and walked over to the pavilion to sleep on a picnic table. A dry picnic table.

SOMEBODY LEFT THEIR MASSAGE TABLE UNDER THE PAVILION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome. I laid right down on it and started to fall asleep. A few minutes later somebody was walking around the pavilion. I got nervous that I was going to get kicked out, so I pretended to be asleep. The person walked up to me, looked at me, adjusted my sleeping bag so my feet were covered, and walked away. Aw.

Morning comes. I wake up the youth. We search for the keys. I retrace my steps to the creek and back and forth. We totally empty out the car, our bags, the whole camping area. Nothing.

Sam finds the keys in the tray where they should have been. Obviously it was a prank, but who would do it? (this is where you email me and tell me)

Instead of racing Sunday, we drove home and I laid around watching 24 all day. I shaved my face, and I think that I must have pushed the stinger in further, cause my chin swelled up like Minutrn's. For reals.