Dry run

Howdy yall.

On 5/13/06 four of us (Chris, David, Nicole and I) went to Island Lake Recreation Area to do a dry run of things to come. The weather was cold and rainy and no one wanted to go, but we ended up getting there. David and I decided to do the Blue off-road trail, while Nicki and Chris chose the tarmac trail. The blue trail was 9.2 miles of ups, downs, spills and thrills. Within the first minute of the course David and I both fell. David fell first because he rode into a sand trap, and his forward momentum screwed him up. He landed on the ground. I was right behind him, and although I stopped, upon my dismount, my left foot got tangled in his rear spokes, and I ended up falling partially onto his bike, with my own bike sandwiching me in a Boston crab type configuration.

It sucked, but we got up and kept going. Several times we wanted to go back, because the blue trail was very intimidating, but we kept saying, lets go a little further, lets keep moving to see if it gets any better. It didn't get better, but we reached the 4 mile marker and at that point it would have been pointless to turn around. The uphill climbs got harder and the downhills got faster.

Since it was raining, we couldn't use our brakes effectively, because the old style clamp brakes need friction to stop. Wet metal + rubber = slip and slide. Not that it mattered, David lost his rear brake in his first crash and I ended up loosing my front brake in my second crash. David was able to stay on his bike the rest of the way, I ended up falling two more times. The worst one, I drove the handlebars into my chest and knocked the wind out of me, and as I finished falling a tree root broke my fall, which was chin first. If I was a boxer, I wouldn't be able to make the 10 count, I was down for the count.

Despite the fact that this course was very tough and scary, it was by far the funest and most exciting bike experience of my biking career. I can't wait to go back next week.

In other news. I'd like to welcome Ana Rodrigez and Chris Rummel officially. Both members have committed by registering and making themselves part of team BBS. On the same token I'd like to thank a few people for their generous donations. Judy Jackson, Toni Payton, Cristina Dargis, Sue Tasse and Diane Pawlak. Thank you all very, very much for all of this.

I'm still in the process of getting donations from my company. It looks like we won't be getting any cash, but I'm trying to get team shirts for us all. Basically these are going to be lime green with black "Minacs" logo. But I told them that I would modify the shirts by ironing on our last names and team numbers on the back (the number 13 will be mine), as well as sponsors on the sleeves and the front (assuming that we actually get anyone to donate anything).

"One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people." - Dick Gregory