FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

For the 4th of July weekend we took a big leap and headed to a camp out mountain bike festival. Michael and I were both still recovering from a small stomach flu. But the biggest challenge was the "what if" factor of camping with a baby. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to all of you that know Gilbert, but he was a gem. Being that he thrives off of social situations, he did well. He even went to sleep at the right time, slept through the night and didn't get up too early.

The racing was pretty good. The first night was a night time trial. This means riding your mountain bike through the woods with a headlamp through more roots, logs, and narrow drop offs into a river. Luckily Michael did well and came back with only a few falls. The next morning there was the seven mile trail run on the same course. Yes, I that was my event. It was good, but I was a little dehydrated from the night before. :) Then there was the long course mountain bike day. Not such a good second day of racing for Michael. Two flat tires caused him to drop in the rankings. With only the hill climb and the short course race left the following day Michael decided to just have fun with it and even raced in costume for the short course. In Portland the costume idea would have been the norm, but here in PA he stuck out a bit and even stuck it to the field by leading out a few fast laps.

So all around the weekend was successful. Everyone had fun, and we even got to "chill out" in the river after each race. Ah, what a nice routine.