Afton 24 was 2 & 4 + 8 + 1 + 1 +

THE RACE COURSE: The LCR trail was good no?? I didn't help out as much this year but the team did a swell job preping for months. The Afton maintenance guys tear up the grounds without notice often. Work around & ceative fixes are a challenge. Climbing? Manhandler up, up and even farther up, nice. DLA (Duncan, Leo, Alta) stayed in good form all race. My kids helped build that shortctcut! Afton Gully was back in, sweet huh? SOME RACE RE-CAP: Duncan started race with the hill run up & down for his co-ed duo team. Duncan 14yrs old & Micole 16yrs old!!!! Those kids rocked 6 & 4 laps respectivley. So proud of Duncan basically biking manhandler every lap!! Do you know what jersey pockets are really for.....? Duncan packed a tuna cheese sandwich, cookie & water for his own picnic on crown point (he's got an eye for self gratification!!) Video of run start, Dunc w/white helmet...... I raced Hillside the day before to make sure legs we're opened(first race since leadville). It worked. Hillside hurt. Afton never gave me a cramp or whine. We'll I wined a bit, however generally when asked legs responded. I'm happy with a few 37min, a 38min & many other good fun laps near 40 minutes(9 laps). My first hotlap Friday night was 15 sec faster than my Saturday hotlap. Saturday hotlap was all about smart terrain use. Friday night hotlap was all about physco climbing. My Dad captured one on video. Must be my fastest manhandler climb ever. I love Afton climbs......roar! We placed 3rd in open. Our LCR team & Penn we're back anf fourth for 16 laps then Penn crept away. We couldn't keep climbing pace to hold off the Jack advantage. The Penn & Velo/Wood team we're fun to spin round with. Both Brendan & Jack had fast laps. Brendan's timing shows one 33min lap but fastest lap scoreboard has Jack w/fastest lap. Maybe Brendan's 33min lap wasn't right? Who cares, fast is fast & they had it. Jack had many 34 - 35 min laps....wow. Nice work kids. No one but Jack could pace Sam n' Brendan so the great american salad bowl combo Velo/Wood team easily took 1st as expected. :) Dan Dittmer solo winner just back from leadville....22 solo laps!!!! Sam St.Peirre just off his 10th Leadville finish came home to score 3rd in 8hr category w/10 laps. Nice! Ah yeah, ever heard of Cody? if he stays at it, look out... CAMPING SUPPORT BANG! It was fun to have 4+4+4+2+1+? So many LCR houligans. Yep, what a bunch of who haws. Friends, family, Chuck from Behind Bars (our team sponsor) all came out to make it even more of a party. Chuck from Behind Bars was out there supporting the event and all racers, nice. THE EVENT WAS: The timing system was real time awesome. Easy for remote or on-site peeps to see lap times and rankings. Food!!! missed breakfast and Friday night burgers but taco's post-race was killer!! Can't have too much food. It apears the food per person formula is perfect. The awards we're a bit goofy, no fastest lap award and some confusion. Prizes, not so much. YET the timing sytem, food, games, general fun for core racer & plenty of bodies helping is more important than bling bling. no? Kid Reimer was mising due to family emergency so that mattered too...... BEST LAP EVER: My last lap was my highlight of the weekend. I drew the short straw - last man to rotate. It was ride or be riddled by the sisters all year. I didn't have to explain issue to Duncan. He agreed to take a 4:45pm lap with me. So we cleaned up the horrible mess in the pop-up camper. Ignoring the afternoon "laze" and 22 hours of prior trails pack'n up camp wasn't easy. Duncan was very helpful for a good 30 min then slept in the van while I drank two recovery beers & finished pop'n down camper. Camp was packed!! So anyway Duncan & I slammed a taco, took some tools, rain gear then headed out at 4:45pm for a lap! Watching my boy hamer up manhandler and charge those corners was priceless. We chatted and ripped it up. A father moment I will never forget........