24 Hours of Seven Oaks... Working to Keep it Fun.

The 24 Hours of Seven Oaks ended at noon today, and I gotta' say, I was glad to see the finish of that one -- I was shelled. I am shelled! But in the end, I finished the race in third place with 15 laps. Andrew Carney won it with 18 laps. Jesse Bergman was second with 16 laps. I might have been able to stay on the same lap as Jesse, but his lightning-fast pit stops were faster than I wanted to go. I wanted to take a little longer breaks when I stopped... And you know what? I'm not sorry I did it that way. Second or third place really doesn't matter. What matters was that I had fun... and I did. At times, I had to remind myself that I was having fun, but in the end, it was a ton of fun.

And overall, it was an awesome race. The course was TOUGH. All singletrack. Super steep. Troy, Kyle and all of the guys over there did a killer job putting together a great course, but it was still extra gnarly from the flooding earlier in the season. It took its toll on my body. Tomorrow will not be pretty...

Perfect pair: Contrary to what I would have guessed going in, I ended up splitting my time almost evenly between my Dos Niner and my red El Mariachi. On Saturday, I was really feelin' it on the El Mariachi, where Sunday was the Dos' day in the sun. The Maverick SC32 fork on my Dos is finally breaking in -- I could definitely feel that riding both bikes back-to-back. It keeps getting better, while my clapped-out Reba on the El M just keeps getting worse. Perhaps it's finally new bushing time for that fork?

Results are posted.

Thanks a million to my beautiful wife Laura for her awesome support all weekend, and to Dan and Loyie, my in-laws, and Laura's sister Carrie, her husband Dave and our nieces Miranda and Melia for coming out to the race and cheering and supporting me duirng the race. That was so fun to be able to have you guys all cheering for me at the start of each lap like you were -- thank you so much!! I love you all.

Thanks also to Rob V. at Oakley -- I wouldn't have had night vision without ya', brother, and to Jason B. at Salsa Cycles and Nate and the guys down at Monkey Wrench Cycles -- thank you for your support of my riding and racing (and thanks Nate, specifically for the use of your EZ UP). I'm always amazed at how many Salsa bicycles there are in Iowa. For as many as I ever think we have over here in Nebraska, a trip to any race in Iowa proves there are more Salsas just across the river. But it was very cool to come in at the end of every lap and have guys and gals giving me the "Go Salsa guy!" cheer. Thank you very much!

All this and the weekend isn't even over. Very sweet... I hope it's been a great weekend for you all too.

Cheers,
MG