End of Summer Crit

Kudos to Sharon- who said, "We shall have a race, and it shall benefit the soldiers and their families on Ft Lee. And so in the course of a day, it did come to pass... and this race went off pretty much without a hitch. No one crashed, and every one had a great time in that odd way that bike racing can be called a great time. There was drama, there was suffering, and there was a whole lot of sunburn from the 95 degree September day.

And Karen declared... it was good.

Money was raised, prizes were won and Ruth shouted encouragement until she could shout no more.

People who don't even race bikes came out to help. Cliff was everywhere, and did everything, as always. Jeanne Minnix designed the coveted tshirts, Poppa Ben course marshaled, SanDee course marshaled and helped at registration. Even the Best Buy ladies got in the act helping to hydrate heat stricken racers- including the Divine Miss K.

How does a great race happen? It takes a village. For all the people who went out of their way to step up to the plate, we thank you. To Chip Goble at Natures Path who always supplies us with yummy bars, we thank you. To Carolyn, Chip's Mother- who makes sure we get the bars, we thank you. Best Buy, General Dynamics, SRA International, and Hammer Nutrition, we absolutely love and applaud you. Chik fil a and Dominos gave free coupons. Area merchants gave primes to some fast racers.

Team mates like Bill Battle who step up to the plate and always ask, "what do you need? What can I do?" Julie who pulled triple duty, ran and won a 5k race in Fredericksburg, broke the land speed record and did super work in both the 40+ and cat 1-3 races to ensure that we won the women's team BAR, Steve who came out and raced and worked in the midst of a family crisis, Greg and SanDee who stayed to volunteer despite having storm damage from Gustav, Katie, Trent,Sonya, Tom and James who were always where they needed to be... we wouldn't do this without you. You always pull thru. Every job is important.
Steve Coehlo

Thank you everyone who worked, raced, and helped us raise money to support the troops who selflessly sacrifice so much to keep this the land of the free.

We cant wait to do it again next year!