Carpentersville. Races with friends.

(photo: Jen)
My race report is on the Half Acre Cycling site, here. I'm not sure I'll do it again. It's a maybe. Not really my gig. I'm far better at events that are loooooooong.

Anyway, let's talk about Ben's race, since I'm sure that's far more worth caring about. Since this was a local race with no points on the line, I told Ben he can take care of himself, there's nothing really that he needed from me. I mean, I did pack the nutrition bag n' stuff, but he had to pit for himself and take care of his bikes for the day.

I gave him his start line gel and bottle and then rolled over to the Half Acre tent to commence imbibing and yelling. As he came around, I gave him splits and encouragement. By three or four laps in, he was 30 sec off the front.

Next time I saw him, his gap was being demolished. He was riding on flats, and he told me this. I jumped on my bike (ditching my beloved beer) and rolled to the pit. Turned out he was riding the B bike on flats, his A bike's rear wheel had already gotten an irreparable gash in the sidewall, and we had few options. I stood there dumbfounded. Piles of wheels all over the pit, but no humans to go with them. Had this been UCI, one of the other mechanics would have offered up a wheel. But instead, I stood there scratching my head- do any of these wheels look familiar? Would their owners mind if we borrowed?

A rider rolled up to leave his stuff in the pit, and I blurted out, "Can I borrow your wheel for just 10 minutes?" No questions asked, he said yes. He pulled his rear, I threw it on Ben's A, and we did a bike change. Everyone helped, with Soupy bringing Ben into the pit and a teammate of mine handing me the pump and all of us fretting the seconds Ben was losing. He finished the bell lap on that borrowed wheel, but by the time he got on it he was 15 sec behind 1st place. He closed to :04 behind by the finish, but still took second. Maybe it's the wife in me, but I'd like to think he still showed that he's mad fast, and that 30 sec gap said all that needed to be said.

After Ben rolled out on that wheel, I introduced myself to its owner. Turns out it was Damon, whom I'd never met but has been a big supporter of Ben's. It's a credit to him and his whole Beverly Bike Vee-Pack team that he'd hand a wheel over to a stranger. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It was one of those sunny fall days surrounded with good friends old and new. Racing was sort of the low point of the day for me. Saying hello to people we now rarely see was the high point. And, of course, the Half Acre was flowing.

And in other weekend news... Audrey stood in for Amanda and, after not running for like 3+ years (or so she said) ran a solid 5k with me on Saturday. The crowds were huge, though, and there were several points where we were dead stopped on the course. We ran a 34:?? or somesuch, which is fine, whatever. This morning's 3 miler was really my first race-pace effort of the weekend.