Watermelon

I’m excited. We are indeed racing bicycles starting June 8.

Since we have most of the supplies we need, We have lowered the entry fee to a mere $5. Holy cheap, hey. You get to race and you get snacks too. I’d suffer through a race just because it makes watermelon taste so much better. Especially if it’s waiting for me at the finish line. I’ll even swat the flies away from it. I mean for $5 you get a pro watermelon cutter, and a personal fly shoo-er-away-er. Not to mention chips and salsa. Also fly free. Sweet deal.

Same format, Mild, Medium, Hot classes. Mild lap is about two miles and omits a sketchy descent that did not make the Mild rating. Highland Park Mountain Bike Race Series believes in children with teeth and without a lot of contusions. 2 and 3 laps for the Medium and Hot classes, respectively. Those laps are about 3 miles or so. There will be some sort of prize situation I believe. HPMTBRS does not support adults losing teeth either, but we will let them make their own decisions.

I wanted to make this an Eastern Fat Tire Association sanctioned event. That would have involved a whole lot of paperwork and what not. The idea behind that was to provide insurance for the event and EFTA is a splendid organization to boot. However we have all these great local sponsors who have donated enough money to pay for the insurance. Now we don’t have to deal with licenses and the associated expense and paperwork. Simple is good.

I do have an event on a burner somewhere near the back of the stove that will be an EFTA event due to its size. So the dinner they bought me at the race director’s meeting shouldn’t be a total loss for them.

Also, Anita Phillips at the Greenfield Recorder is running an article and would like a quote from someone who raced last year. If you would like to speak with her please call her at (413)772-0261, EXT. 280. You will be blessed with good race karma and less rolling resistance. Mountain bike racing smiles upon those who pitch in. It just does.

Oh and I’m excited for you to meet my son, Ezra Thomas Healey, the little man Megan was growing last year. He’s awesome and I’m happy he will be around all the great people you find at a weekly bike race.

Alright, that pretty much brings you up to speed. At least I think it does. Ask my wife, I tend to omit important facts in communicating my plans. Usually in regard to mountain bike rides too. Can’t help it.

Everything is good

Hi there! We’re racing this year. Thought you’d like to know. I have details that I would love to let you know of. I’m typing this on my phone right now however, and it is infuriating. Stupid app doesn’t support typing in landscape mode.
You know the important part and that’s… well, it’s important.
Adieu.

The 2011 Races

Oh Hi there.  It’s good to type to you again.  I have news for you.  We will be having another series of races next year at Highland Park in beautiful Greenfield Massachusetts.  Same format, same course (except for one little detour that will actually make things more fun), same zeal for post race snacks, same stupid slogan (the “exhilarating tonic” rigmarole), all of it.  We shall have only four races this year.  See the Race Flier. This year the races will be sanctioned by EFTA.  Eastern Fat Tire Association is an organization that races bikes and eats barbecue and has a lot of fun.  I’m in.  So racers will have to be an EFTA member or purchase a one day license for $4.  Cheap.

In other exciting news, we are currently in the beginning stages of organizing a much larger weekend race to be held nearby.  With chili.  And baked potatoes.  Beer too.  The food is the only solid detail I have laid out so far.  Priorities, it’s all about priorities.  Trust me.

Ok then, I’ll have more soon.  Love you miss you!

Patrick

Upon Review…

I liked it.  What we all did was race mountain bikes because it was fun.  Plain and simple.  The intent at the series’ incunabulum was to offer a race that was fun, accessible, local, and a comfortable introduction to those with limited or no racing experience.  I also wanted free food.  Domino’s, Mesa Verde and The People’s Pint came through on that front and that pleases me greatly.  Mountain biking and food.  Amen to that.  It only gets better when you introduce beer and fire.  That’s called camping and it’s tremendous.  If you were to combine camping and Kingdom Trails… Wistfully staring into space now…  Huh?  Oh yes.  Where was I?

As for next year, I hope my situation will be such that we can race again.  There are several great ideas floating around in various minds.  I will post the results of the ferment of enthusiastic discussion I am sure to have soon.  My hope is that we end up with something just like what we had this year, only with more people and that the venues rotate.  And food.  There must be food.

I posted some more photos.  Hopefully no cobwebs will form on this blog.  I am truly excited about the future of local racing so I will be posting regardless.  Granted it may seem aimless and not worth reading, but surely there will be an interesting nugget here and there that you will sift from these superfluous sands.

Results

Will be up sometime soon. We had to put away a whole mess of stuff. Burgers and corn and watermelon slow me down, you know?

One Last Thing…

Looks as though the weather has finally capitulated to my will and allowed us to have several races in a row and will allow us to race our last race.  Thanks, weather.  The weather and I have had a few disagreements this summer but we have buried the hatchet and all is well.  It’s amazing how important the weather becomes when you go and schedule weekly mountain bike races.

Seeing as this race will be the last of the season…, we will be doing the exact same thing we usually do.  We just won’t say “see you next week” or anything like that.  Actually, we will be going a little bigger on the snack front.  We are upgrading to burgers.  Crazy.  Oh, and perhaps corn on dah cobs as well.  So long as Chris’ cajun cooker inferno works as planned, we’ll be all set.  I love a cookout.

I hope to see you there.  It’s back to the Fall grind for us all soon so this a chance to say farewell to the summer and to thank y’all for racing.  It’s also a chance for me to eat a burger.  I love eating burgers.  Truly.

Photos

I posted some photos. People seem to be having fun.  That makes me happy.  Even if those start line photos were staged, it’s not like we forced Megan B. to smile like that!

Look Sharp

I would like you to know that The Recorder will be running some sort of article soon and will be capturing photos this evening. So wash your bike, practice your facial expressions, make sure all your sponsor’s logos are visible, park your team bus in the main parking lot, be prepared to answer probing questions by sensationalist reporters and all that. I let you know these things because I care.

Lost and Found

We found a hydration pack and it is at Bicycle World.  It’s blue.  It’s lost.  It misses you.

Storm Schmorm

Let’s have a race shall we? I’ll bring a timekeeping device and some watermelon, you bring a bike and line up around 6:00. Someone will say go. That’s when you pedal all willy nilly about the woods for a while, finish and feel good about life.
Deal?