Boggs 3 - 8-hour MTB race

First, the results... well, don't have them all but here are the major
highlights:

1st Place - Men's 3 Person - Team I Coulda Been a Contender (Erik, Loren,
Isaias) - crushed 2nd place by 40+ minutes
1st Place - Men's Solo SS - Ty Freakin' Brookhart - I think I heard 9 laps
3rd Place - Men's 3 Person - Team Pretty Fast Mofos (Allan, Kyle, Jeff) -
suspicious how the 2nd place team passed you up so quickly after your large lead
and then managed to beat you by 10-15 seconds
3rd Place - Women's 3 Person - Team We Ride More Than Just Bikes (Dawn, Jessica,
Jeni) - Jeni's 3 consecutive laps at the end sent them to el Podiumo
4th Place - Coed 3 Person - Team Hella Slow (Peter, Paul, and Mary, err, I mean
Kathleen) - so close, woulda been cool to send Peter off with a "metal"


Of note is Team Reliving the Glory (John and Kirt) would've podiumed as a
3-person team but only finished like 9th in the 2 person team race. That was a
very competitive category to say the least.

Not too shabby for a bunch of schmoes. I'm sure the Ridemonkey folks will have
full results posted to their website in the near future. They put on a sweet
race and you could track your times/standings right as riders came in. Pretty
slick system.

The weekend was a total blast! Allan and Peter were first to arrive and did a
pre-ride. Then I showed up and went on a pre-ride with them. Two pre-ride laps
for our departing teammate the day before the race? Clearly was doing some
secret training as he has lost a bunch o' weight and did perty darn good. The
course was very similar to the Billy Cross Racing course we did back in 2005,
with just some tweaks here and there. Fun course, no major extended climbs -
but not easy by any means 9+ miles, 1,100' of climbing per lap.

Other people started trickling in and did pre-rides. Then we got dinner going
and had the tri-tip and bratwurst food orgy. Thanks Erik for bringing all those
brats. Very tasty. And thanks to everyone for bringing some side dishes
including ruffage. That was key. Oh and thanks to Keith for bringing the wood,
uh, fire wood because without it we wouldn't have had the fireside chats which
in TWW circles have been somewhat infamous. No dancing Bellas this time but
still very fun nonetheless. Once again, I will keep the Mike Gin Quote Machine
turned off to help protect the innocent (primarily myself). But I will dub some
nicknames:

Peter "why did you have to challenge me with that faster lap time you bastage"
Sterlacci
Paul "body suit" Oellerich
Kathleen "way to crush your son" Meyer
Isaias "mountain man" Job
Erik "sausage boy" Trauschke
Loren "food hawk" Thomas
Esther "hey nice camp table" Thomas
Susie "too organized for TWW" Barber
Andi "Pop Tart" Mackie
Allan "proving that a SS is still his trusty steed" Sherlock
Kyle "bad knee my a$$" Brookes
Jeff "Cyclocross Mag poster boy" Hane
Jessica "Wedding Crasher/doesn't handle the tool well" de Wit
Jeni "talk to us in 10 years about the penny jar" Brookes
Dawn "where's the beer?!!! Oh by the way hello" Weathersbee
Mike "let's have a pull up contest" Gin
Dave "lucky winner of the locked the keys in the car lottery" McCrimmon
Bob "Santa freakin' Rosa?!" Lofland
John "trendsetter" Hillstrom
Kirt "I knew you were fast" Fitzpatrick
Scott "you beat Allan on a lap?!" Schlachter
Rich "coffee grind" Davis
Keith "dancing pecs" White
Patrick "hacker" Meyer (sorry, forgot the two other guys names on your team but
we'll just call them Cocky Yute and Quiet Yute)
Ty "Ty was at the race?" Brookhart

I'm sure y'all could come up with some zingers too... :)

Probably the only drawback to the weekend was how freakin' cold it was Friday
night. Must have been in the high 30's and wind blowing. Otherwise race
conditions were perfect, the vibe was great (nice live band playing at the start
finish), plenty of port-o-potties, and good company. I hope that we can put
something together like this again this year. Perhaps maybe at Lake Sonoma if
they have an 8-hour there. But not in July or August thank you very much.

Memo to self - do more than two rides in a year to train for the next Boggs
8-hour race (I doubled my ride total for the last year this weekend). I
definitely plan on being there. You should make plans to be there too. What a
great time!

Okay, I'm tired - time to go to bed. Decided to drive home after most people
bailed on camping. The hot shower felt SO GOOD. Dayamn, I was pretty ripe.

Mike