Salty Dog, 6hrs enduro... another 2nd place

Oh well, the first race of the season just before the twins come !! Yeap, with Maria is only 5 weeks from the scheduled C-section and I couldn't go away for too long so I decided to drive to Salmon Arm early Saturday morning (4:30am) and back to Calgary right after the the race on Sunday ouch(*&/ Craig M. couldn't quite get his head around the idea of driving that early and probably me either, but Mani is an early riser and so I am, so it ended up working well for both because we got there early enough to have a nice pre-ride of the course and have time to socialize and catch up with friends over lunch. At the campground all I did was thinking of Nick and Maria as I am used to be chasing him around and playing with him before and after any race.. So, I was a bit sad that they couldn't come with me this time. After an afternoon nap we went out with the Terrascape team for diner (pasta) and had a great time including an Oreo Blizzard at DQ :--)) We traveled light this time (no trailer just the tent), so the pre and post setup were quick !
On race day after getting all the setup ready we lined up at the start line, first lap was fast as I was trying to position myself ahead of Andy, but didn't quite work that way as I didn't see him till lap 2 or 3.. I caught up to him on the fire road and for sure he wasn't happy to hear my voice ha-ha, but dropped me on the descent and didn't see him again till the finish.... My laps 1, 2 and 3 were faster than I should have done it, and sure I paid for it later on, as I was hurting on the rest of them. In some sections I was just trying to stay behind guys that I already knew weren't racing solo and therefore were doing faster laps, I thought it would be a good idea and that way I could hammer faster laps, but cost me too much at the end. Laps 4, 5 and 6 were hard since I wasn't keeping my tomy happy and last lap, well as always it feels great because you know that is the last lap lol.
Salmon Arm is an awesome place to visit, it has a bit of everything, so the trip in totally worthy (next year for sure will be with Maria and the babies..).
On Saturday after talking to Shawn Taylor over lunch we followed him around town to find this street cart that apparently sells the best fries in the Shuswap (and they really are) big thanks to Shawn for that !!

After all the eating in town we set up the camp and rested until dinner time (it seems like all we did was eat eat and eat on this trip !) I did try to sleep and get a good rest before the race, but all I could do was thinking about how much I enjoy having Nick around... omg I was missing him big time!  

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