We had a long weekend. Friday night, my wife and I had a house full of boys. We ended up going out to Lawrence, Kansas Saturday morning, to the Spring Fling, where my sons Thomas and Christain, and our "adopted" son, Josh finally got to race in the GP Vekotek Spring Fling again.
We were the first ones to make it to the race sight yesterday, and it gave us a chance to get everyone properly registered, numbers pinned on their jerseys and for once, the boys warmed up the way they were supposed to. I think we are getting back into the swing of things, as far as our routine is concerned.
Josh raced the Cat 5 race, and he finished the race. He struggled and fell way off the back, but he kept at it. Last year, he would have quit. His problem is that, he has turned 21, and is trying to make that transition from being a kid to being an adult. He’s got a job, and has been living with us ever since he started his first year of college in 2005. He wants to race, but he has not figured out that there are certain sacrifices he is going to have to make to do so. He has not really trained at all, so I am amazed and proud that he is getting out there and doing what he can. For me, he is the perfect example of the type of kid that needs the Major Taylor Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
The boys raced the Junior Cat race, and it was a good one. A six lap race, and Thomas & Christian went off the front, Thomas for four of them. He had probably a 15 second gap on the chase group of three Velotek riders with 3 laps to go. He figured out that he was out there in the wind by himself and let the chasers bring him back, and tried to sit in. But it was a sprint lap, so he took off again, winning the lap. He sat in again for the bell lap, but got pinned in on the last turn and had to sprint past the lead pack, finishing second place behind a kid we had never seen before, someone I think Thomas underestimated. Christian came in behind the lead pack. He’s not in shape, cause he was sick a couple of weeks ago, but I see his improvement every week. He finished with a very strong sprint.
As soon as the race was over, we had to pack up and head back to KC. One of our MTFGKC boardmembers, Eddie Penrice, who is the Manager of Event Coordination for the Kansas City Parks & Recreation Dept., arranged for us to have a booth at the Home and Garden Show downtown at Bartle Hall.
We got down there and had a huge carpeted area, where we set up three trainers and bikes, and the boys rode for 3 hours, after racing that morning, and gave a training exhibition while we showed a video tape of that days race, and I handed out flyers and answered questions. It was great exposure and I meet a lot of great folks, who showed great interest in what MTFGKC does. I took 100 business cards to hand out and came home with 3.
Sunday morning at 9am, we got up and went on a 35 mile training ride with our team, Slimenudgrossen. We got home around 12:30pm. Around 3pm we headed back down to Bartle Hall and the boys all put in another 3 hours on the trainers. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got home.
Photos from our big week!