Alafia Classic - 6 Hour

    Another 6 hour race behind me and I am very happy with my results. My dad, brother and I decided that we would race the Alafia Classic as a family team. We entered the Hard Course Advanced Team under the name "Two Boys and a Neanderthal". First time that we have ever raced together as a team and it was tons of fun!

   We decided that I would go out the first two laps hard and set our pace for the race. The first lap I stayed on the wheel of the leader, Jim MacPherson. Going into the second lap I was on the the wheel of Jim's teammate, Bill Renninger. Stayed on Bill's wheel and feeling good up until the point I got a little too close, tapped his wheel and endo'd over my handlebars. And so the gap was started. Coming through scoring I quickly exchanged baton's with my dad and he took off like a rocket. Unfortunately, that gap that Bill made when I endo'd just got bigger when he handed off to Aussie Jim! But we were sitting nicely in 2nd place. My dad hammered it on his lap with a handoff to my brother, Morgan. Morgan got a great start but during his lap was forced to stop to pull a large amount of moss out of his chainring. This allowed the 3rd and 4th place teams to scoot by him and gain a lead. 

     We continued to hammer it at a pretty fast pace trying to at least make it back into the top three teams. Unfortunately, the 3rd place team had about a 2 minute lead on us. My dad put it all out there on his final lap and I knew that I would have to race as fast as I ever have if I was to close the gap between us and the 3rd place team. I was determined and had tunnel vision trying to better our position. Try as I might, we were about 20 seconds behind the 3rd place team at the end of my final lap. I knew I pedaled my heart out and I had a feeling that I may have beat some of my personal goals. When the scores were finally posted I was excited to have raced the fastest lap out of all of the racers for the entire race! Pulled out a 35 minute 12 second lap (laps were just shy of 8.5 miles) on my 4th and final lap! And I managed to get 6 KOM's!!! 

     This was probably one of my best race days because I was able to spend it racing on a team with my dad and my brother. Working as a team with friends is one thing, but doing it with your family means a whole lot more! My dad and Morgan kicked butt today! We may not have gotten on the podium but it was a great day! Hoping we can do this again in the future. My goal (other than getting on the podium) was to have the fastest lap time...I accomplished this and then some. I am pretty darn stoked! 

     Thanks to my family for racing with me and always supporting me in every way possible! Mom, thanks for reminding me that sometimes you need to not get on the podium to become a better racer and competitor. It puts things into perspective and is a humbling experience. Thank you to Bents Cycling and Fitness for their continued support! As always, Muscle Milk, you Give Me Strength to push myself to my limit and then continue past that!! Looking forward to future races. Coming up:  SERC #4 in Windor, GA!!