First Race

2007: Here I am (in the red jersey) with my little chase group...it was HOT!

I'm doing my first race of '08 down in Natchez tomorrow at the LAMBRA District Road Championships, being held in the Natchez State Park....a tough 5.2 mile loop with short but steep hills, lots of shady spots, long stretches on a tall spillway by the lake, and good road surfaces. It kicks my butt every year and I have no doubts it'll do the same this time. I'd be happy if I manage to stay with the pack the first three laps out of the eight we have to do. There is a series of three hills that take it out of everyone each lap and I'm not really looking forward to it. But I gotta get my feet wet and I'm viewing it as a training race.

Jonnene's doing the race, too, in the Master Women's 35+ grouping. Attendance in that particular race is usually pretty sparce. She could be the only lady lining up or be one of only 3-5 other racers. With the cost of travel nowadays you can't really tell who'll show up. Last weekend was a great race in Alexandria but the attendance overall was not what it should have been. We had spent most of our money in Hot Springs the weekend before that so we were kinda tapped out for the following weekend.

While we're in Natchez I'll be picking up a time trial bike that Jonnene is helping me to purchase, a kind of birthday present. A guy in Brandon, Mississippi is selling his 2004 Guru Cron Alu TT bike (see photo above) and from what I can tell from the photos and description it is a good deal. I've had a local bike shop look over the info and he thinks it's a very good deal. Not all the components are high-end but they'll do the job. I've already converted my K2 bike back to its road racing version for this weekend and I'll test-ride the Guru Saturday. After we pick it up, I'll be making some changes...switching out the aerobar setup with my old one (I like it better), make some minor changes in positioning, and putting on the FAST wheels. I can sell the other bars and use the new wheels for training wheels. But now I'll have a true TT bike. BTW, Jonnene's looking for a new bike herself for triathlons and is drooling over the Orbeas on the market.

In the meantime, I'm slowly getting the front yard smoothed out and a small but growing dirt/clay pile is building behind the shed near the back yard. The verge is looking very good...just needs grass to start growing...and an area near a group of trees is looking good, too. The main ditch needs to be dealt with and that's a LOT of dirt I have to move. I need to keep much of the dirt as fill when the ditch starts to settle with the rains and time coming on. I'm also going to start back on the small jobs that need to be done around the house. With all the guests we've had, those jobs had to be put on the back burner.

We're starting to plan for our trip to Oz in November. It will not be cheap due to the rising fuel costs but we're going. Probably by ourselves, too...it might cost too much for anyone else to come along with us. All of Sunday will be dedicated to looking at flight combinations, places to go, available time...the whole shebang.