End of Season?

I might just call it a season. I raced yesterday in Eugene and felt like I just barely survived. The course was almost all on grass. It was also very hilly, all up and down. It was cold but not raining. The course became muddy very quickly. Probably about one third of the course was off camber. The hilly course was not well suited to an old, out of shape guy like me. I suffered. It was so slick that I ran my tires as low as I felt comfortable with, 35 psi. I found out that I didn't do a very good job gluing the tires on. On one of the off camber sections my tire held well but the glue didn't. I rolled my rear tire off the rim. Not all the way off. I was able to push it back on and ride carefully to the pit. After changing the rear wheel I quickly learned that the Mud 2 tire at 40 psi was almost worthless. That did give me an excuse to walk the uphill sections though. I finished at the back of my age group but it was a small group so that was fourth place. The points will help me in the OBRA BAR rankings. I'm in third place in the Age Graded Masters Men 60-64 ranking. I don't think that I can overtake second place or be overtaken by fourth place. There's a race in Arcata next weekend and two more races in Eugene in December but I don't think I'll do them. I'm tired.

We spent Thanksgiving in Portland and had a good time. I rode my road bike on Friday. It's pretty hilly where I rode. Maybe I should have rested up for the race the next day. I took some pictures while I was out.

This was taken from high up on Terwilliger Blvd. in SW Portland. Condo construction in the foreground, Mt. Hood in the rear.












This is downtown on the river, The Tom McCall Waterfront Park.













The other side of the river, The Eastbank Esplanade.













I ended up in Susan's brother's studio in SE Portland.













View from his roof.















View in the other direction.














I need to start a blogs of shame list. Brooks hasn't posted to his blog in over a month. I have to read Brian's blog to know what's going on in Wisconsin and I don't even know Brian.