Another busy weekend

A group of racers ready to go
Renee Martinez and Kathleen Oneal working hard at registration


The first race of the Georgia Championship series passed thru town this past Sunday.It is such a great feeling seeing so many MTB riders come visit our town.Our club O.M.B.A played host and once again pulled off a spectacular event.I for the first time got a taste(well more than a taste)of what it takes to organize one of these events.If you let it it can be a little bit overwhelming.Fortunately we have a core group of volunteers that never cease to amaze me when it comes to pulling of an event such as this.

My race weekend started around 11:00 Saturday.I met Shane Walden out at arrowhead to do early registration.Luckily Terri Berger of gone riding fame was already out there.Since I didnt have a clue as to what I was doing ,having her tutor me was a godsend.We wrapped up registration around 5 ..After making sure nothing else needed taken care of I met up with a couple of out of town racing buds at the olive garden in Macon.I think between the 3 of us we had 3 refills on the salad bowl and must have eaten 40 bread sticks.needless to say we were 3 very hungry guys.

After eating I went ahead and dropped them off at there hotel and headed back to Perry.With a full belly it was all I could do to keep my eyes opened.Guess I got home around 730 or so and emailed several confirmations to the volunteers for Sundays race.

Sunday morning the alarm went off entirely too early.There is nothing I hate worst than having to get up in the morning.Always have since I was a little kid.Guess I will till the day I die.This morning I set two alarms so there would be no accidental over sleeping episodes.Made it out of the house on schedule and even had time to stop by waffle house and get a little breakfast to go.Ended up getting to the park around 730.Man was it cold.

As people started to trickle in I was secretly wondering how many of the volunteers would really show up.I had close to 25 people already say they would help but know from experience that there usually are several no shows.I was pleasantly surprised to see only one person didnt show up.I cant express enough how thankful I was to everyone for taking the time to come out and support this race.I cant help but think what it would be like if there weren't this core group of people.Once the kids race was over I started sending people out on the course.We had over 20 people course marshaling which is frickin awesome.The only snafu of the morning was self inflicted.Not sure how I did it but I locked my keys in my car.Just to show you how small a world it is when the locksmith showed up to get the keys out I realized it was a guy I had talked to one the trail just a few days prior.He too was a mountain biker...kinda cool.


The race went off without a hitch.Everyone seemed to have a total blast.The good comments coming from fellow racers really makes all the sacrifices really worth it.I personally get one of the best feelings hearing all the accolades from the racing community. Its always great seeing familiar faces again after a long winter.Hard to believe in 4 short months we will be getting ready for the season finale.

my photos can be seen here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37795592@N00/

A few pics