Back 40 and the Best Seat in the House

As you must know if you have been paying attention, the Tinker Creek-hosted event known as the Back 40 race was held today at Lake Minnewasta/TransCanada Trail.  Since my ankle is still a bit wonky, I volunteered to marshal instead of race this time. 

After the intrepid 5-lappers took off at 10 am, we held the kids race on the first bit of the same trail.  Here are a few highlights.

Ramona gets photo credit for this cool shot of J and all following pics, too!
Looking fast.

Too Faster!  Nice Summer Games jersey.

Tristan on Zippy, looking zippy.  Triple digit braking.

Mascot?  Cheerleader?  Model?  Yes x 3.



This is a high-end block of wood. 

Tristan got the lumber too.  In the back you see the man of the hour, Kevin Braun.  Good show, friend.  Well done!  We appreciate your work pulling this together.  I just don't know how much longer he can stand not racing this sweet course. 

After all the rain and weather, everyone was willing to clean their bikes when the sun reappeared!  I think J was inspired by her friend M at the summer games, who spent an hour detailing her bike after the race.  Jaydi even lubed her chain without a word of complaint. 

But as for the best seat in the house, I am referring to my luck at being assigned to marshal at the end of the Trans-Canada Trail section, right at the creek in the big valley.

I got to my post just before the 5 lap race leaders were coming through for lap 2.  It was starting to rain lightly.  Almost instantly, the long fast descent turned into a bobsled run, and started unceremoniously dumping people into the grass in all directions.  Rob B was one of the first to go down, losing his glasses (the first of several to complain about lost glasses: riders would take the gummed up shades off, hang them on the zipper of their jerseys and forget them).  For the next hour, about half the riders made it to the creek upright, and the rest toppled this way and that, up there, down here, in the middle, and even before the main hill. 

As the 16k riders started to arrive around 12:50, the rain was convincingly steady, and the bobsled run became a circus with fifty mud-covered lycra-clad clowns vying for the best fall, bum-slide, low or high speed topple, whether walking, jogging, or riding.  Most of the time I contained my chortles, but most everyone saw the humour in the situation.  "Mud fest", "a little slick", "Greasy", "I forgot my skates", "Skiing", "**%$&##@", "How does my chin look?  Teeth still straight?", "Good thing I grabbed a handful of grass, or I was [over the dropoff],"  are just a few of the poignant comments I remember. 

Usually I was alerted to the arrival of the next clown by the squealing of brakes followed by a loud grunt.  Marc L had a good one, walking his bike one moment, then disappearing behind the weeds, then I saw his wheels, then nothing.  When he got up, there was a muddy swatch from his right cheek, around the shoulder, over the water pack, and fully up and down the left side of the body.  Like I said, everyone seemed to see the humour in the situation.  Unfortunately I didn't have a camera.  I could have had enough for a good long blooper reel. 

As the 16 and 32k racers finished, the sky cleared and the sun started to work on the surfaces.  Within an hour, riders were back on the gas, as in lap one.  The laughs were over, but we all will remember the shared experience. 

I and the Lord had been having a pretty good season of rain-breaks for race time.  Almost every race this year was on a wet day, and he answered my requests for a break in the weather.  Not this time.  But it was worth it!

Thanks again Kevin, James, John, Tim and other Tinker afficionados for a memorable day.