We Got Fans

Friday I pack up the Queen Cab to schlep me and J to the 3 days of racing in Roanoke. Where's J? She is in F'burg winning the 8k up there and getting us gas money. So she sets all kinds of lead foot records getting to my house so that we could get on the road, and we zipped down to Big Lick.

Now this was a race done right. Tired of going round and round at a speedway? This was a genuine, downtown, 5 corner, technical in your face kind of race. I loved it. Didn't like the sprinkles that kept falling, but they stayed away for our race, so it was all good.

Right from the gun the little Team 19 and BMW girls hammered it out. I overcooked the second corner and had to sit up or go into a wall. That gave J a chance to bridge up to me and then the two of us did our infamous 2 chick time trial trying to reel the break back. We got good feedback, first they were 21 seconds, then 19, then 18... At one point we got them to 8 seconds, but the wear and tear of the day was getting to be too much. We are a game bunch though, and any time we could badger someone into working with us, we did. If you are thinking about just sitting on with me and J, forget about it. The abuse you'll take is not worth it, trust me.

What we did get was a bunch of nice primes, oh, and a couple of really nice checks which will go a long way to paying for the tiny Hampton Inn room we got for 4 people, and 5 bikes. That, and the fan club.

Fan Club?

Right after the race, as we are trying not to die, this guy runs up and starts patting me on the back, and telling me that "I'm HIS girl." Seems he and his buddies had been watching me and J ride the course all day at every chance we could get, and they just thought we were WONDERFUL. Out there working it, working it, never giving up. Yep, that's what he thought, and he just had to come over and meet HIS GIRL. I think copious amounts of alcohol might have played a wee bit into his exuberance, but what the hay. Us 40 somethings can use all the fans we can get.

Thanks especially to the guys who we adore, like Big Sugar Daddy Ben who took us all out to dinner at the Blue Star, one of the sponsors. (I'll even forgive Maria for looking like something that stepped out of Vogue, making us look like ugly step sisters...) Oh, and Noni's husband who saved us with bottles of water, James and Jake for all the tips, and the biggest hug to Bob for writing us the checks.

Stay tuned for more reasons why all things vertical are BAD.