Ruston

For anyone who has never been to this race, I don't know what you're waiting for, because I know the ~1000 miles added to my cars odometer between 1:30 Friday and 8:15 Monday were no doubt worth it.

There was a short track and time trial on Saturday, so no pre-ride for me. I think racing that course 8 out of the last 9 years makes up for that though...

The short track was first. For whatever reason, I didn't have too great of a race. I ended up racing with Brian for the last lap, but he got ahead of me in the most technical section, and I couldn't quite catch up before the finish. Brian got 10th and I finished 11th. Remember that.

After sitting around for three hours or so, it was TT time. I rode better than I did in the short track, but somehow that worked out to me once again getting 11th, go figure. Brian finished 12th, which meant we were tied for the overall going into cross country on Sunday. (This is pretty funny if you know anything about the collegiate races this fall.)

Considering I did the two races the day before, I actually felt pretty decent going into the XC. I did my usual "start dead last and go catch people later thing" that seems to be working pretty good right now. I also jumped in behind the 30-39 leaders for about half a lap, which ended up working quite well when we passed like four people in my race. For a while I had 4th in the race (which is also quite funny if you know anything about the collegiate races this fall...), but it turned out they forgot to put someone in the results, and I ended up getting bumped back to 5th (not as funny). Brian DNF'd, so we didn't get to fight it out for 10th overall... Oh well.

The AJ won his overall! (Did I mention this was an AMBC National race?) So expect him to to be world champion or something next year.
That also means that me and both parental, actually, all qualified for the National Championships next summer! We plan on going, so knowing that more than about a month out from the race, I'm going to make an attempt at seriously training for it, and doing good too!