The Short Bus: A great night in Gainesville

Went up to Gainesville for the last of the TNT Mountain Bike time trials. We picked up Anne and made good time up there. The mountain bike community in Gainesville is awesome. They told me to bring Olivia up and people would watch her. I barely know most of the people, but they were great to her.

Olivia was given all kinds of jobs. Her first was decorating number plates for those that wanted. She helped put down the start and finish lines. She called out numbers of riders as they approached the finish. She drew names for the series finale raffle....and she stood in for Aimee Murphy, who couldn't make the final, on the victory podium. Aimee finished 2nd in the series and Olivia did her proud.

Me? I finally felt like a mountain biker tonight! I took almost a minute and fifteen seconds off my previous time. I changed my position a bit and put a different fork on my bike this week. I also rode better. Two weeks ago, my fastest time was 14:24. Today, I put in a 13:16, followed by a 13:12! I recorded the third and fourth fastest times overall of the night.

I came within 4 feet of hitting a deer on my first run! He just appeared out of nowhere. On the second lap I hip checked a tree and I'm gonna have a really nice bruise on my hip bone. I hit it so hard that it lifted the back end of my bike off the ground. I was better off than another guy tonight that broke his collarbone!

Anne finished 3rd in the series. She has been battling a sickness for 6 months now that they just can't diagnose. She and her husband have a great attitude though, and she continues to compete even though she gets sick to her stomach often.