The last weekend of July was the Age-Based State Championship Crit. Joseph did ok, Emily got out there and worked hard. She finished last, but because she was the only 10-12 yr. old girl who pinned on a number, she's the State Champion. She's bashful about it, but that's her third race to win while coming in dead last. And those are the only races so far this year that have included a 10-14 girls competition, ok, until the TT this last weekend. She's done fine. It's hard for her to really feel like she's competing when there's no competition though. Next year, her younger sister will be turning 10, meaning that she will have that real competition. Allison is a skinny little thing (her 7 year old brother is only four lbs lighter) and has a power to weight ration out of this world. She could dominate if she has the determination. Emily really amazes me in that she can be very intense. A Sunday School teacher termed it "passionate." I don't think cycling is yet her passion (she doesn't practice much) because she has to do it on her own (nobody else there her age or gender). But if she gets going, zowie, I think she'll go whole hog. The competition thing from her younger sister might do the trick.
The race was on the north side of Denton. Nice organization. I sat down with the officials and went over the results for a good 20 to 30 minutes before we had something that I think all of the parents were OK with. Scoring a Jr. crit is probably one of the hardest things to do in cycling, something I think I've blogged about before. Very hot out there, over 100 for the later races. Joseph got 8th I think. About right for him, he felt OK out there. Special thanks to Christian Williams for following Emily on her first lap. At the last second, Joseph points out that he left his water in the car. I told Em to give him one of her two bottles, so she unclips both feet and pulls out a bottle for him. Meanwhile, another racer (hopefully a teammate) gives him a bottle and the official blows his whistle, starting the race. Emily has to put the bottle back in her cage and clip back in. Christian (the promoter) is there on his bike and rides next to her the whole first lap, giving her a little push to start and then watching over her to make sure she's ready. Props to you for being a thoroughly guy.
This past weekend was the State Time Trials down near Houston. We took seven kids from TBI plus one stowaway from another team. Got there late Friday night to my sister's house. They just had their fourth kid (their kids are 13, 3, 18 mo., and 5 weeks) and they let us crash on their floor. Thanks Leah and Chris. You guys rock. We got the kids late there on Sat AM. I parked at the old registration location instead of the new. I misjudged how long it would take us to get out of the car and get ready, and I also misjudged how many parking spaces would be available at the start/finish two miles away, so the kids all started their TT's late. Sorry guys, my bad. I think we might have had a medal in the 10-14 if we had been there earlier or if I had parked at the s/f. All the 10-14 guys were at least a minute or two behind. One of the Jr. Open guys had a nice TT, the other had a mechanical. All in all, we were hacked. We came back to my sisters, showered, and took off for pizza. Then we went to Ganter Mtn, a gigantic outdoorsy-type store. If you've ever been to Bass Pro or Cabela's, you know the kind of store I'm talking about. The guys decide to play tag there for about 45 minutes, hiding in amongst the camo gear or the fishing tackle. Amazing. We just let them have fun. We got up the next AM even earlier and parked before the registration table was set up. Those guys were ready to start on time. The older (Jr. open) team had a mixup though. Probably my mistake. The officials were determined to have four persons start the race, even though we only had three teammates there. We scrounged around and asked Avery Visser, a triathlete from Austin if she would join the team. All she had to do was roll across the start line, she didn't have to try to finish. She might have toasted some of those guys, from what I hear she's pretty good. I got her registered on the team and she was going to the start line when the Jr. 10-14 guys finished and one of them rolled across the line with the Jr. Open team. I still pitched it to the promoter to include her in the final results and I think they saved a State Championship medal for her.
In the end, both of our teams won their respective divisions and the all came home with State Championship medals. Some of them bought State Champ jerseys there (individual TT winners get them for free, and only winners can get them). I have a mind to make some phone calls to see if I can get both of them some jerseys.
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