Race #4 TP to TA

TP to TA: a lost cause. Not a good day for me. Due to some combination of minimal sleep, 2 1/2 hour pre-race drive, and high altitude (generally over 9500 ft), I did not feel good and didn't have my usual energy. I got dropped on the first surge and rode most of the 66 miles by myself. I was the last finisher, but I did finish. Here's me soloing to the finish looking and feeling bad.

One of the perks of going to the race was a free cone of Taos Cow ice cream. Yummy!

My Los Alamosian friend Kyle also did the race (he looks a lot better than me in this pic at the gorge), his dad Kirk did the citizens' race on his very sharp 1973 Raleigh International, and Jill and Chrissy (Kyle's wife) helped pass out water bottles to racers (they look a lot better than us -- but that is often the case). More boasting about Kirk -- his lowest gear is 42/24 -- those experienced guys are tough! After the race, we stopped at the Rio Grande gorge and later had luninner at Embudo Station with Garry and Karlene. Then one more round of ice cream at dairy queen. After that, I was feeling pretty decent.

We spent the night at Kirk's house in WR -- he made waffles for us for breakfast, served on warm plates. Mmmmm. We went to our former church in the morning. We went to one of the 4 restaurants that are open on Sundays in LA with some friends, those that haven't fled the town yet. Our townhouse is in the good care of Alan and is still available for a really good price. All reasonable offers considered. 20 minute drive to a ski resort, walking distance to nearly all LA restaurants, nice hardwood floor. Might be tough to get a job, but the lab should hire in a couple years. Until then, live the rock'n'roll lifestyle.

One final note. Kirk showed us a video made by his nephew (something like that) for school that might be on youtube sometime. He rode a unicyle down two short sets of stairs. Kids, don't try that until you're 12.