Billie's 2010 Race Training Blog

For those of you not on Facebook, here's a link to another posting of the video

Link to Ironman Race pics is here

Video is on facebook and if I get around to posting it on something else... I'll let you'all know.

Wow, the race is over!  It's hard to believe.  I've been working towards this goal for 10 months.  Now after doing one, it's also hard to believe that 3 years ago I thought I would never do one of these races and that people who did do them were crazy!  I'll post another blog entry with a link to pictures once I get them all setup.

Let's start how my weekend went.  Krista and I went down on Friday.  I was nervous and trying to relax because I knew there would be big crowds during check-in and that causes me stress.  I just tried to rememeber "sassy pineapples" (inside joke) to help relax.  On the interstate on the way down, a semi-truck tried to kill us by deciding that he wanted to pass another semi while we were next to him.  We avoided that but it made it hard to relax.

Krista decorated the car which was a little embarassing but I really grew to like it and she did a great job!  My parents decorated their cars too.  It was great to keep seeing the cars because it helped me have more confidence knowing that I was going to do it.

Saturday morning, they had a practice swim in the river so I went down there at 9.  Swam a little, rode a little, and did a short 1 mile run.  Everything was feeling good.  We went back to the hotel and then had some lunch.  I then had to make sure my bike was ready and put together my Transition 1 and transition 2 bags because all of that had to be in the transition area by 5pm on Saturday.  It was pretty stressful, more stressful mentally than the race, getting the bags ready.  I've never had to do that before and I was concerned that I would forget something.  I then took everything down to transition.

Fast forward to Saturday early evening... Krista and I met my parents and Kyle and Petina and family at Olive Garden at 5 for an early dinner.  I wanted to get to bed by 9.  Dinner was great like normal and I knew that my stomach could handle the food no problem.  We head back to the hotel and Krista and I hang out a little in my parents room.  I left around 8:30, did a little visualization and then went to sleep.  My parents and Krista planned their watching points for the race the next morning.

Race Day:

I got up at 4am.  Did some visualization, ate breakfast, and took care of morning bathroom duties.  We left for transition at 5:10am.  They dropped me off and then went to park and we were going to meet at the swim start area .75 miles away. I put my food on my bike for that part of the race and gave the volunteers my special needs bags.  I took my time trying to stay relaxed and focused on my race goals.  I then walked down to the swim start.  I found my parents near body marking.  I got my race number body marked on me and then started walking to get to the back of the line.  This race starts differently than most triathlons so instead of a mass wave start, they let 2 people in every second.  Your time starts when you cross the timing mat just before jumping in.  I finally find the end of the line which is about another .5 mile down the road.  It's still just before 6am.  A short while later, Kyle and family showed up to support me.  Kyle was quite the trooper because he was still on crutches from his foot surgery.  At 7 when the first non-pros entered the water the line move steadly forward.  It still didn't feel quite real yet that I was going to be swimming/biking/running 140.6 miles today.

As I got really close to the docks where we ran down the docks to the water, that's when it felt real!  The music was pumping, I could see lots of athletes in the water already and more jumping in every second.  It's pretty exciting to see 3000 people start a triathlon.  I ran down the dock took the left dock, got to the end, saw a gap between 2 people and dove in.  The race had started!!!

The SWIM:

The swim course took us up river between Towhead Island and the shore and then another 400 meters to a turn around buoy before heading back the last 1.4 miles to the swim exit.  I thought that with the time-trial swim start that it wouldn't be all that crowded, but I was wrong.  I had to keep "sighting" (looking forward above the water, like how Tarzan swims) to try to find openings between other swimmers.  I'm a pretty strong swimmer and was moving through the pack quickly.  Just before the turn buoy there was a shallow area sand bar and lots of people were walking kicking up sand into the water and I could feel it going into my trisuit.  I was worried that it might cause chafing later, but didn't really have any options.

After the turn buoy I spaced myself out into a little more of the middle of the river versus being right next to shore.  I was trying to get some distance between me and most of the other swimmers so that I could get into a groove.  We had to go under two big bridges and I knew that after the second one that I needed to start moving towards shore.  I could see the swim exit and it was staring to get crowded again.  I just kept my groove and reached the stairs out of the water.  Swim time was 1 hour 5 mins.  I was feeling good!

The bike:

I grabbed my stuff, went into the changing tent, put on socks, cycling shoes, helmet, and sunglasses.  They had people outside putting sunblock on you.  I grabbed my bike, jogged to the exit and mounted no problem.  Several of my fans were waiting right there and it was great to hear them encouraging me.  I then came off the sidewalk and there were a lot more of my fans there.  My goal was to settle into a rhythm and be conservative on the bike.  About 7 miles into the ride, a rider crashed about 10 bikes in front of me.  I didn't see what happened, but he got up and seemed ok.

There are 3 big downhills on this course.  The first one was about 20 miles into the ride.  It was a very crowded section.  I'm a strong descender and I kept getting caught up in packs of riders 3 abreast in our single lane and 2 -3 rows deep.  There wasn't anywhere to pass them.  It made me think of the Tour de France.  Felt more like a stage bicycle race than a triathlon.  The second downhill was right after an aid stage and I was taking a salt pill and eating since there was more space between athletes.  I did get a little uncomfortable because my bike developed a wobble above 45mph.

I continued on the course and we pass through a town called La Grange twice.  On the first time through I see Larry looking hard for me because everyone was traveling close to 20mph on this section.  He sees me and gives a shout and then across the road, I see Abby, Anna, Alex, Laura, Ali, Linda, Pam, Kelsey, Lindsay and Matt.  They were all screaming for me.  It was neat because they would get so loud that all the groups around them would start cheering.  Right after the town, I think I made the Live internet TV coverage because the lead pro woman passed me and the way the camera guy was shooting would put me in the background as she passed me.

The entire first loop, I felt really good.  Calm, confident, energetic.  Starting the second lap, I still felt good, but noticed that I had slowed some, but I was right at goal pace.  I continued to eat and drink just like my nutrition planned called for.  The second lap when I went through the town, I see the girls doing a stunt.  I can't remember if it was just a half, full, or the bow and arrow, but it made me smile :) .  On the second lap, it seemed like the hills were getting bigger, but I kept my heart rate in check even when riding into the strong headwind.

At mile 80, I saw Krista, mom and dad, Kels, Lindsay and Matt.  I stopped and gave them all  high five and thanked them for coming.  On the way back into Louisville (about 20 miles to there), I was starting to get really tired of still being on a bike.  Around mile 100, my right foot starting hurting really bad on every pedal stroke.  I thought I might have bone bruised the ball of my foot.

When I got to the last 200 yards of road before turning onto the sidewalk and back into transition, I saw all my fans and once again there were stunting and yelling and just making me feel like a superstar.  I sat up and did a little no hands riding because of an inside joke with some of them.  I got to the dismount line and got off the bike.  I couldn't walk at all because my foot hurt so bad.  I started hobbling.  I started thinking that this is going to be a VERY long marathon if I have to hobble like this the entire time.  Luckily by the time I got to the changing tents again, I felt better and then I put on my running shoes and I couldn't feel the pain at all anymore.  I stopped by the sunblock people again and the lady was crazy.  I asked for it on my shoulders and arms, next thing I know she's rubbing the back of my head!

The run:

My goal on the run was to run to each aid station, walk the station (about 1 min) then run again.  The first few miles were great.  I saw everyone again at the exit of transition.  Gave a big line of high fives!  Then around town a little, and onto the US31 bridge to Indiana.  Touched Indiana and came back over the bridge and saw all my fans again.  It was SOOO great to have them there encouraging me.  It really lifted my spirits. I was now already passing mile 3.

Miles 4-11 were a very rough patch for me.  Physically, I was doing well.  My legs didn't hurt too bad and my heart rate was under control.  It was my mind.  It just kept telling me to quit.  Sit down and stop.  It seemed like no matter what I thought of, nothing could motivate me.  Because of this, my walk breaks started getting longer.  Eventually, I was walking about .25 miles and running .75, aid station then repeat.  I was slowing each mile and eventually, I turned 2 miles at 14 mins a piece!  About mile 12, I saw my dad, Krista, Lindsey P, and Larry.  I was walking when I saw them.  I guess they had noticed that I was slowing and started to worry, so they came out from town to check on me.  My dad walked with me a little bit encouraging me, letting me know that just up ahead was the 13.1 mile mark, the half-way point.

Seeing them and getting to the half-way point made me start to feel better mentally.  I finally felt like I was going somewhere.  At mile 14 when I got back into town, Shannon and Rebecca were waiting for me and jogged on the sidewalk with me while I made the turn to the second loop of the run.  Then I saw all the girls from the gym and several ran with me a few steps and encouraged me and just let me know that I could do it.  At this time, I'm starting to feel much stronger mentally.  I'm back to my original plan and each mile is getting faster!  I hit mile 20 and now I'm heading back towards the finish line.  I decide that I want to go faster still, so I start to up my pace when I'm running, but continue to walk the aid stations.  People are everywhere walking, stretching, getting taken away in ambulances from the heat and humidity, but I felt strong!

I decide that at mile 25, I'll only walk long enough to eat my gu, drink a little water real quick and then back to running and running all the way to the finish.  I decided that I wasn't going to worry about heart rate or anything anymore.  I just wanted to run.  I kept speeding up, I swore that I could hear the finish a mile away.  I started getting goose bumps just thinking about finishing.  I remember turning the corner two blocks from the finish line and there it was!  All these people cheering and yelling and wanting high fives.  Bright spot lights on the finish banner, people's name getting called out that they were an Ironman, music pumping!  As I got closer to the finish I see my fans and I run over to them and give our more high fives!  Everyone is screaming and yelling!  I'm sooooo pumped.  I ran up the ramp and crossed the line in 12 hours and 51 mins!  I couldn't believe that I had just finished 140.6 miles.

I tried to stop, but your body doesn't really know what that is after being in motion so long.  I kept stumbling, swaying, and losing my balance and the volunteer helped me get a medal, shirt, and hat, take the finisher photo and finally head over to meet my family and friends!

We stood around for a long time talking and taking pictures.  It was overwhelming having so much love and support there and I knew that there were many of you following online and through friends throughout the day.  I can't say thank you enough to everyone!  I have never, ever felt so much love and support from a community!  Thank you all!!!

I apologize for the uber-long post.  I even removed a lot of other details, so if you happen to want to find out more, please give me a call and let's talk.

Grace and Peace!

So, tonight I went into work (coaching) at Elite Cheer and Dance and was quite surprised.  I'm looking at coaches and kids wearing a t-shirt and it looks like it has my name on it!  I'm was completely shocked.  Someone else described me as perplexed but with a huge smile on my face!

Let me back up... Back last April, the families at Elite donated $500 to Team Joseph.  I was surprised when the presented the check to me at Showcase.  Since then I've talked with many other people spreading the word about what Team Joseph, Andy's Project, and Activewater do.  I continued to raise funds and awareness.  Several weeks ago, Elite started selling these:

They wanted to help me reach my fundraising goals of $1000 for both Activewater and Team Joseph.  I didn't know if we were going to reach the full amounts but was really excited about how much had been raised and just how involved people were.

Fast forward to tonite and I came in to see this:

I couldn't believe my eyes!  Then at 7pm when all four of our teams are present, they got us all together for a prayer circle and a dear friend prayed over me, the race, and the charities.  Then, to top it all off, they presented another check of $675.50 from the t-shirt and bracelet sales!  This put me over the fundraising goals!

I can't say THANK YOU enough.  I am truly blessed to be a part of all the families that attend Elite!  You and your families mean so much to me and I'll make you proud come race day in 4 days!  I'm sorry if I didn't get to thank each of you individually, but I hope my smile helped convey my sincere gratitude.  In fact, my cheeks are sore from all the smiling!  Your support of me is so touching.  Just the fact of all of you gathering behind me in this crazy endeavor, it makes me speechless.  Thank you all again!

On a side note, if you would like to follow me live on race day, you can go to www.ironman.com , select something I think about "tracking", select the Louisville race, and then put in my bib number of 1298 and it will show you my times at each timing mat that I cross.  Thank you all so much!

Grace and Peace

Well, there is 16 days left till race start!  A couple days ago, I was just telling people how all of a sudden this seems so REAL.  I've been training for this race since October 2009 and now it's here.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

So, I've been swimming now for almost a week since the shoulder dislocation and I'm up to 2850 yards.  I think my shoulder is going to be ok, but I'm definitely slower than I was before.  Today while swimming, I was thinking about how just a couple years ago a friend of mine (Brian) decided to do an Ironman and I thought he was just nuts.  I mean even for him, someone I always looked up to as an endurance athlete.  Now, here I am just over 2 weeks away from trying it myself.  Sometimes I doubt my own sanity.

Training volume is going down now into what's called "the Taper Phase" so that I can hopefully peak on race weekend.  With that, the intensity goes up some so workouts are still challenging especially with the mid-90 degree days and high humidity.  I'm using these as race day prep incase it's like this on race day, even though I'm hoping for mid-80s and low humidity.

I wanted to thank everyone for the encouraging words they have written, texted, or said to me while I've been struggling through this injury!  It's really helped me cope with the fear and frustrations of being injured so close to race time.

With 16 days left, we are still a litte shy of the donation goals so if you feel led, please use the links to the right to donate.

Until next time, Grace and peace!

I'm 34 days until the big race and things are looking up!  In the giving department, we are at 95% of the Team Joseph goal !!!!!  Way to go everyone, just $50 until we are there. On the Activewater side we are at 74% !  I'm so proud and blessed to be supported by such wonderful people.  I encourage everyone to read about the different charities and if they feel lead to be involved, please click one of the links to the right.

On the training front, my shoulder is getting better each day.  This week's long ride, I went down to Louisville and rode the race bike course.  It was 97 degrees with a heat index of over 110!  The first 50 miles went really well, then the heat started to get to me.  I started to overheat, I stopped sweating.  I was drinking as much as my plan called for and it was all my stomach could handle, but it just couldn't keep up.  I felt so overheated that my eyeballs were burning!

So after 83 miles, I stopped back at the truck and I wasn't sure if I could go on.  I took a 20 min break in the shade and just kept poring water all over myself to help cool down.  I finally decided that I would finish the rest of it.  With a small detour when I took a wrong turn and going back to the truck for water a couple of times, I ended up riding 117 miles.  I was excited to ride the whole course and then some, but with that heat was unsure if I'd be able to "run" any of the marathon if it had been race day.  So hopefully, it won't be quite that bad in 34 days.

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged and supported me through these times.  Your words have helped me keep going through some of the harder times.  Well, I've got to go get a ride in before heading to CIY with our students.  Grace and peace.

So, I haven't posted in a while because of some turblent changes.  On Friday, July 2, I rode from my house to Effingham, IL, a total of 126 miles.  It was a great ride along US 40 and an enjoyable experience.  My wife then picked me up and we went to Kentucky Lake to hang out with some friends for the weekend.

Everything was going great.  Did a 10 mile run on Saturday morning and even had a running buddy for some of it.  Sunday morning did a 1 mile open water swim with a friend.  That late morning we found a rope swing and I was dropping 20 feet into the water.  I even did a back flip off of it once.

Then comes afternoon.  It's my turn to go solo behind the boat and I decided that I wanted to wakeboard. I've done this for years even though it's been a little while since my last time.  The second time up, I'm doing a warm-up jump across the wake and land off-balance.  I tried to save it but realized that I was going down face first.  I ducked my head and took it in the upper back shoulders and the water impact DISLOCATED my shoulder!!!  I mean, I'm in the water and it's still out of place.  I tried to move it and I get shooting pain down my arm.  Long story short, I get a 30 min boat ride to our car, then 30 min car ride to the ER.  They finally "reduce" it, which means putting it back in place.

This whole last week I've been struggling with depression wondering if I'm going to be able to do my Ironman which is now in 47 days.  I ended up seeing the doctor who did my shoulder surgery in 2005 last Friday.  He thinks I should be able to do it, if it heals.  This means that there can be no swimming till August and we recheck it.  I can ride and run as long as there is no discomfort.

I ran 3 miles on Saturday and I felt pretty good during it, but then the rest of the evening, I had some really intense muscle soreness across my chest.  Today, I rode 26 miles and it felt pretty good while riding, but I think I was favoring it cuz my left shoulder blade was really tired afterwards.  Then when I got done, I had a couple hits of shooting pain down my arm and then it went away.

So, right now, I'm having tons of self-doubt and that's really unusual for me.  I'm stuggling with motivation to go and workout because I'm scared that it's going to hurt and I won't be able to continue and I'll fail in this journey.  I'm going to try and continue my workouts this week and hopefully by next week it will be ready for a full workout load of riding and running.  So here's hoping for it to get better quick and for the torn ligament to heal properly so I can start swimming on August 4.

On last Saturday, was the third DINO MTB race in the series. It was located in beautiful French Lick. We actually started and finished the race on the driving range of a PGA golf course there. It was a very hot and humid day with temps in the 90s for race start. I had never ridden this course before and I decided that extra sleep would prolly help me more than getting up real early and getting a pre-ride in.

The race start was really wide and curvin to the left before we had to slalom thru some pine trees, cross the road, then enter the trails. I started to the far left in "pole" position. I hit it hard but another rider was faster and then on the curve left, another rider got just enough in front of me to cut me off causing me to brake and lose 2 spots. I didn't want to go into the trails in 5th so when the tree slalom came up I pushed even harder and passed back into 2nd but I had to take tree limbs to the face to do it.

As we entered the trails I stayed within visual range of the leader not losing more than 20 yards and 3rd and 4th were right behind me.  That was until about mile 2.5.  There we caught up with a person from the younger age group and the leader got around him quick.  We weren't so lucky because the trail narrowed further.  We all kept asking to pass and that we were the lead riders from our age group and that the leader was getting further away, but this guy didn't stop to let us pass.  After about the 4th place where he could have let us go, I got fed up.  The next barely big enough opening, I told him that I'm coming around on his right.  I kept saying move left, move left! I squeezed next to him and we bumped a couple of times and then he got nervous and rode off the trail and stopped.

Now we couldn't see the leader anymore so I started really pushing.  This is when several things started to go wrong.  First there was the fact that we were still climbing and it was really hot and humid that I was having trouble catching my breath.  The other issue was that it had rained hard the night before and the trails were off-camber, slick, and had lots of little rocks in them.  So the bike was moving all over the place.  Well, this led to a pretty hard crash on some of those rocks that ended up breaking my brake lever on the right side.  The other two guys passed me.  By the time I got up and got the bike squared away, I couldn't see them anymore.

I was a little disappointed but knew that we were only 4.5 miles into the 9.5 mile race.  I continued to push on the climbs and around mile 6 I saw the 3rd place guy starting a climb on a fire road.  This gave me some extra umph and I dug deeper and pushed hard all the way up the hill, taking him at the top.  I knew from previous experience that this guy was a better downhiller than me, so on every climb I kept pushing it.  Around mile 7 the trail started going downhill and it was pretty much that way the rest of the way out.  I could hear the guy behind me slowly catching me.  I really let the bike go and had a couple of really scary moments but kept the bike upright.

As I could hear his braking getting closer, I noticed that I saw blue sky ahead.  That meant that we were almost out of the woods.  Then it was back across the road, and about 400 yards on the driving range to the finish.  I started mentally preparing myself for the sprint to make sure that I held onto my place.  I came out of the woods and just started hammering it all the way to the finish.  I ended with a time of 57 mins and 48 secs.

I ended up placing 3rd in my age group out of 19 and 7th overall out of 59.  This was the first race where my lack of riding offroad had really hurt my race.  Hopefully, that won't be the case next time!

So Fridays are long ride days.  This last Friday, I was to ride 6 hours and I was hoping to get over 100 miles in a single ride.  This would be my first century ride.  The ride went pretty well until I was on my way back home.  I was between Stilesville and Hazelwood going down a small hill when all of a sudden it sounded like a gun went off behind my butt!  I was bummed, but I carry an extra tube and a way to fill the tire so I thought no big deal.

I get stopped and dismount.  I'm looking at the tire and it's got a 2 inch gash in it.  I can't just fix the tube cuz it would poke out the gash and pop again.  I didn't have anything to repair the tire with, so I ended up calling home hoping someone would be home.  (I've since added things to my spare items so that I will be able to get home if this happens again!)  Luckily, my mom was home and I directed her to where I keep my "trainer" tire, my only spare.  Now this tire is really old and I use it in the winter when I'm riding inside on my trainer so it's really squared off and thin.

So while I'm waiting for her to deliver the goods ... I wasn't going to not finish this ride, I was at 94 miles and only had 10 miles left to get home ... several people drove by with me sitting on the side of the road and not 1 person slowed or stopped to see if I was ok or if I needed anything.  I was a little disappointed in the "country hospitality".

My mom finally arrives and I swap the tire and tube, air it up and get on my way an hour after I first blew it out.  I'm about 5 miles from home and I notice all the black storm clouds moving my way faster than I thought, so I stopped and put my cell phone in a little baggie and started riding again in case I got caught in a little rain.  I didn't want to get caught though cuz that back tire was pretty sketchy to start with and I didn't want to push it any further than necessary.

Well, luck didn't hold.  As the lightening and thunder got closer, the winds started picking up gusting close to 60 mph and then all of a sudden it was a torrential downpour.  I couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of me, the rain was coming down sideways, and the crosswinds were trying to push me all over the road.  I was worried that a car wouldn't see me, but I had no place to stop.  So, I just kept riding towards home.  My shoes got so wet that they were holding water like little pools and every down stroke of the pedal made another squish sound.

I finally made it home completing 105 miles in 6 hours and 2 minutes of moving time.  I also learned that if I could keep it upright in that kinda storm, then rain on race day shouldn't be a problem.  It was interesting because normally, I'm hot and sweaty and dirty when I get home from workouts, but this time I was fairly clean and just really really wet!  Well, it's off to bed to continue to rest and recover for my continued workouts till my Ironman in 75 days.

This past weekend was the second mountain bike race of the season with DINO. This race was held in the beautiful Brown County State Park.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside with the temps in the upper 60's in the morning topping out in the mid-70s and sunny all day long.  It did rain hard the night before so there was some standing water in places.

My focus this year has been on my Ironman (Aug 29) so I hadn't ridden in the dirt since the first DINO race.  I decided that maybe I should get down there early and pre-ride the course.  So, I rolled in around 10 and saw the usual suspects there (Laura and Mark, Jason, Amy, and Ali).  I also got to meet Jason's nephew Jacob who was doing his first MTB race ever!

During my pre-ride of the 9 mile loop, I took it fairly easy on all the climbs and tried to work on my downhill skills.  I had a little trouble in a rocky section, so I did it again and that paid off in the race cuz I just sailed smoothly through it.  I also had one "dismount" aka crash during the pre-ride on a root that I didn't see in a turn and once again during the race that helped because I was aware of it and missed it.

The start of this race goes quickly onto a road that then climbs for 3/4 of a mile before dropping into the trails.  That may not seem to far, but this is pretty steep for a climb in Indiana.  The horn went off and I hammered hard to the front of the pack.  I was in first for about 20 seconds and then we hit the hill and I got passed.  I floated between 4 and 7th place going up the hill.  Right at the top I charged hard and got into the trails right in front of the 5th place guy to grab 4th.

This course is pretty fast with all the descents and I was really letting it fly.  I could see the three people in front of me up through the trees.  About 2 miles into the course, the 3rd place guy fell and I went sweeping by him into 3rd.  We had several creek crossings that each had several inches of water in them.  They were a hoot!

By this time I'm almost halfway done and I'm catching a lot of the slower riders from the younger age group.  I passed several on climbs once again feeling that this was a strength for me and different from earlier years.  I was on a long descent and I could hear another rider catching me.  Sure enough it was the guy that had crashed.  I asked if he wanted to pass and he was ok for the time.  I think he was waiting till closer to the finish to pass me and to let me pull him through the rest of the climbs.  He was definitely a better downhiller than me, but I kept gapping him on the climbs, just not enough to break away.  I was thinking of what kind of strategy I needed because the last 1.5 miles was all downhill.

As we got about 3 miles from the finish, the Intro rider division didn't do the whole course so we were starting to catch up to them.  It was getting very congested on the trails.  I was very aggressive in my passing, letting people know I was coming from further away than normal and squeezing by in the smallest gaps that they could create.  I was coming up on a group of three riders with the middle rider being a young kid maybe 11 or 12.  I was moving much faster than them and yelled out that me and the other guy were closing quick.  The back rider moved over to the right and so did the front rider, but when the kid tried to move right he fell right into the path!  I was flying and I didn't think I could stop so I just started yelling for the kid to NOT MOVE!  As I got close to him, I went on the uphill side into the brush, dodged 2 small trees and I was by.  The guy behind me hit the brakes and that was the last I saw of him.

I continued to bomb down the last 1.5 miles catching people really quickly, but they all slide to the side to let me pass without really either of us having to slow.  I hit the last part hard all the way into the finish with mud all over me and the bike

I ended up placing 3rd in my age group out of 30!  The second time now for me to podium.  I was about 50 secs behind the 1st place guy in my age group and 15 seconds in front of the 4th place guy.  I also ended up placing 5th overall out of 81 which is my highest overall placing this year!

The next race is at French Lick, a course I've never ridden before, on June 19.  Another big milestone will be this Friday, June 11 when on my long ride I will hit 100 miles in a single ride.  Check back next week and I'll let you know how it went.