Pfffffffffffffffffffft.

Hello everyone out there. Hope all is well. Well, the first week of marriage has officially come and gone, and it feels....exactly the same. I think because of how small the ceremony was, how little wedding 'planning' was needed, and because we had to be back at work just a few days later makes it seem like it hasn't completely set in yet. I'm sure it will one day. ;)

With our Target gift cards, Heather and I purchased a propane grill, so we tested it out on Sat evening. Here I am preparing some delicious burgers. They weren't quite Hub-quality yet, but they will be soon!

Sun was a very busy day for us. We were on the road at 5:30am to go to Lake Mills (about 20min away) so that Heather could do a sprint triathlon. It was her first triathlon of the season, and she said that she felt good. They haven't posted results online yet, but her time was pretty good, so I think that she did quite well. She put up around a 1:27 for a 1/4mile swim, 15mile bike, and 5km run. Nice job Heather! Here she is exiting the swim section.
Once we got home from Heather's tri, we promptly re-packed the car to head off to a WORS mtb race in Wausau (the infamous Nine Mile course, same course as the 24hr National Champs later on this year). Here is a picture of Vontoux enjoying the ride.

This is the start of the Comp race. Look at all those freakin racers! There were about a 160 Comp racers, in addition to the 90 Elite men and 20 Elite women on the course at the same time.
Here is a pic of me (in the big ring, which got quite the workout in this race).
This course was by far the weirdest course that I have ever done. I am glad that I went to this race though (despite the outcome), as at least now I know what to expect for 24/9 in a little over a month (24/9 team roster is now set as well!! Woo-hoo!!). There are no climbs on this course. None. Sure, there are the little rolling hills and stuff like that, but nothing big at all. There is probably as much elevation change in a Nine Mile lap than in a Turtle River lap. Seriously. This course is a mixture of two things: 1. Fast as heck, big ring doubletrack. 2. Technical, rocky, rooty singletrack.

The start was insanely fast. I started too far back and was trying to make some ground, but it was hard when we were averaging about 23mph for the first 3 miles of the course. Then we hit the first patch of singletrack, and it was a standstill. I'm sure the leaders were already minutes in front as we were just barely moving through that stuff because of all the traffic. So that sucked. But my legs were feeling good, and I was picking people off in the doubletrack sections between the singletrack. It was toward the end of the 2nd lap (we had to do 3 of the 8mile laps) when I heard the noise that all racers dread. Flat rear tire. Race over. I can't remember the last time I got a flat, let alone one in a race. I don't carry an extra tube, because with this many racers, I would lose about 30-40 places in a matter of minutes (and they only give out points to the top 60). The rocks took their toll, and not just on me (I somehow got a pinch flat despite my tendency to run uber-high PSI). There were racers all over the course that suffered the same fate. I remembered the number of one of the riders that passed me soon after I started my hike-a-bike back to the finish area, and it looks like I was in about 30-40th place or so. Not bad for being trapped behind so many riders right after the start.

I learned a few things: 1. For future WORS races, I plan to end my warm-up sooner to get a much better start position. That seems to be the key at these races with so many racers. 2. We are bringing a BUTTLOAD of spare tubes to 24/9. 3. Heather used to be the coolest girlfriend ever. Now she's the coolest wife ever. :)